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Stage 11 - Jervis Bay to Sussex Inlet

Finally it was time to leave Huskisson and head south. The 23 km route ahead comprised three distinct sections; a coastal walk along the south-eastern rim of Jervis Bay, crossing the Bherwerre peninsula to St George's Basin and a walk along the shores of the basin to Sussex Inlet.

The sky was overcast as we left and, for the first time, we walked without hats as we set off down the bicycle path from Huskisson to Vincentia. The path crossed mangrove-lined Moona Moona Creek and along the “Route of Many Envies”, a 2 km stretch of impressively large architect-designed beach houses whose owners were sitting out on their sea view decks sipping their morning coffees. We were not sure why they should be envious – the life of a nomad is available to anyone.

Blenheim Beach

Chinaman's Beach

Sea kayakers refer to this stretch of the bay is “String of Pearls”; reference to the string of white sand beaches – Huskisson, Collingwood, Orion, Blenheim, Greenfield, Chinaman's and Hyam's Beaches – separated by small rocky headlands or stretches of coastal forest.

Emerging at Hyam's Beach, we stopped at the local store for a cappuccino and reminisced about “the good old days” when a group of friends used to hire a house here for a weekend's sailing on Jervis Bay or walking along the bush tracks to the hidden coves and bays of Booderee National Park. Morning cappuccinos at the store were part of the ritual of these stays many years ago – a long time before a fibro beach shack on the waterfront sold for over a million dollars.

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Hyam's Beach boasts the whitest sand in the word
- for you to judge

We continued along the beach southward for another kilometre before crossing the dunes and turning inland on the advice of our GPS unit. We turned and took one last look at Jervis Bay. It was a different bay to the calm azure waters that had greeted us several days earlier – the large swell, southerly winds and overcast sky had created an agitated and more menacing sea that had thrown masses of seaweed and kelp onto the white sand beaches. Farewell, Jervis Bay – we love you in all your moods.

Egg case of Port Jackson shark which
breed in the bay

Once again we followed a disappearing – reappearing track under GPS guidance, climbing steadily up through an area of forest that had been burnt by the bushfires that had destroyed a large part of the Park four months earlier. Against the stark background of blackened eucalypt trunks and burnt out heathland, the cycle of nature had started to turn again; green epicormic shoots were appearing on the burnt eucalypt trunks, grass trees were reshooting, banksia cones had exploded in a shower of seed and seedlings of many plant species were appearing in masses in the ash-covered soil. The battle for survival amongst these would soon be on in earnest.

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We entered Booderee National Park and quickly turned south again along the 9 km long dirt road to Christian's Minde, a small privately owned block within the National Park that had been settled in the 1880s by a Danish immigrant. The road passed through areas of the Park that had not been affected by fire and we walked under a canopy of white-flowering eucalypts before dropping rapidly down to the shores of St George's Basin.

The road followed the eastern shoreline of this large tranquil body of water and the forest changed character once again, with taller species of eucalypt, cabbage palms and groves of soft tree fern, some over 8 m tall.

Finally, we left St George's Basin, as the road cut across country to reach Christian's Minde facing Sussex Inlet, a narrow 5 km long channel that connects the Basin to the sea. We walked to the end of the small wooden jetty and waved to the boat hire person 50 m across the channel in Sussex Inlet township. He crossed over to pick us up in his boat and drop us on the other side, where a short walk took us to our night's accommodation at a motel overlooking the main channel.

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Christian's Minde homestead

We sat outside and ate dinner on the veranda as we watched a passing parade of feathery friends of varying species and boats returning from a day's fishing, while the sky slowly darkened over the still waters of the channel.

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