South Coast!

Yes, when speaking about the South Coast!, you always put an exclamation mark after it. It's drop dead gorgeous down there. Quite similar to the central coast of CA. One of those places you'd love to live, but there just isn't much in the way of employment. Rolling green pasture land meets the brilliant blue ocean. There wasn't much in the way of surf, but we had a few great bushwalks, awesome wildlife viewings and some amazing beaches. We had heard that the South Coast! was the place to see some 'Roos, so our expectations were high. Can't wait until another weekend swell hits so we can blast down the coast again.

the overlook at Stanwell Tops, always a good start to a drive south

an artsy shot by Bri of the SeaCliff Bridge

Kiama blowhole, kinda sorta doing it's thang

just off the back of the blowhole, there was a humpback whale frolicking.

all the shells you can pick on the beach at Cudmirrah

short climb up a dune to watch the colors change over Cudmirrah beach

intense reflections over the lagoon

orange turned into purple with a bit of fog creeping in from over the water

shooting star? comet? ok, just a plane

purpley reflections over Swan lake

the gate at the Swan Lake Tourist Park was run into the night before by a few drunk locals, was funny the next day, and entertaining that night.

hmmmm, maybe some 'Roos around here?

BIG poppa and momma 'Roo just around the corner from our place.

popped down to check out Green Island. pretty well known lefthand reef setup on the other side of this island. was flat the whole weekend, but we still had a look. gorgeous day out there, beach was empty...this turned into the way of the weekend.

can you see those teeny lefts peeling?

rock climbing at Golf Course reef in Mollymook

we shot down to Pebbly Beach which we heard had wildlife galore, right on the sand

'Roos! Joeys! beach!

just laying around on the beach

everyone likes behind the ear scratchies...

may be tough to see (click on the photo for a larger version), but, yes, that's the Joey's foot sticking out of the pouch over his head, flexible!

sizing each other up

yup, i'm bigger!

can't get enough of the 'Roos!

Hyam's beach, just inside of Jervis Bay, a marine park, absolutely beautiful, the reef looked so inviting to snorkle, but we didn't have masks!

7 Mile Beach National Park. little peelers coming to an empty shoreline. great place to walk down the beach, pick a dune, and relax before the coming week.

kookaburras!

super zoom

so we're hanging out on 7 mile, and Briana thought she was still dreaming when a pack of 5 little King Charles ran up on us. the lady was apologizing profusely, but on her way back Bri asked her how much. turns out they are show dogs, we didn't get one(phew).

lonely beaches make for long romantic walks

Whale watching just off the coast from our place

Our neighbor Dan, who manages Pro Dive in Manly, hooked us up with discounted whale watching tickets on one of their dive boats a few Saturdays ago. That week leading up to Saturday, the swell was up, so we were afraid of getting sea sick. However, the swell died off quickly and we were treated to a lovely day on the water. Actually, this winter has had great weather, lots of sun, only chilly in the morning...nothing to complain about!

hanging on the boat in between whale sightings, we had a big crew on the boat

it was a gorgeous day, no swell which kept the boat stable, no wind which kept us all warm, and lots of sun

exhaling

pretty nice catamaran headed back in between the heads

Last couple days in Aus for the boys

it's a gorgeous city, made even more so by this crew

traded boards with Brad to get a different feeling, his Channel Islands fish has a bit too much length and thickness, and tracked a bit, but screamed down the line

Brad caught a few on my KG 5'10", his big butt is looking to pull into a closeout barrel here

Brad, back on his board, dropping in

there were a few set waves that crept into the 4' range, unfortunately they came in a bit straight and the tide was too low to let any of these closeouts have a shoulder

goin' up for a top turn on this closeout section

bottom turn setting up for the closeout barrel. i remember grabbing my outside rail while pulling in on this lil' one

going to put it up top again on the section brad made crumble over

took the boys out to the lighthouse above Palm Beach

it's been a gorgeous winter

after driving around the northern beaches for a bit, we finally found waves at Avalon, check out this screamer!

The Blue Mountains

the ghost tree

we finally got Jeff to go out to the end of the overhang viewpoint to take a photo.

sometimes Sydney looks a lot like CR

we hiked out to a waterfall inside this little gorge

we got a little wet

lots of overlooks to hike out to, here's lil' bro Brad on top of a rock with a big drop behind

first overlook, pretty windy out there