Gully and Elise's Travel Blog: The Open and Empty Road

We’ve made it part of the way up the coast of the state of New South Wales and all I can say is…where are all the people??? The forests are beautiful, the beaches are sublime, the towns are quaint, and the weather has finally turned hot and sunny. And yet, sometimes we feel like we are the only ones on vacation. We knew that this part of the state is much less developed than the touristy, in-your-face northern half, but we did not expect the kind of seclusion we have experienced so far. People are really missing out! Summer holidays for the kids have ended, and school officially started again this week. This must suck – just when the hottest month of the year gets started, you have to head back to class. It also means that there will probably be even less people around.

We have mostly been bush camping (as they call it here) in the national parks. Think cold showers and heading to bed at 10 pm. But it definitely is cool to hear the waves crashing on the beach just a few hundred meters from your tent. And we’ve spent a few romantic nights sitting on the beach, drinking wine from the bottle and watching the stars while the mozzies (mosquitos to those not in-the-know) bite our bums. And the kangaroos like the beach at night too, and sometimes they frolic around on the sand, to our great amusement. But they also never seem to sleep, and it is disconcerting to be walking around in the dark and then suddenly flash your flashlight on a kangaroo, who is calmly munching on grass and staring at you in the pitch black.