5 & 6 January 2018

After a slow-paced first day on the Princes Highway, it was time to make some distance. We drove from Nowra to Bairnsdale. Despite spending most of the day in the car, we found a few nice stops along the way. In search of Australia Rock our first stop was in Narooma, about 2 ½ hours south of Nowra. Australia Rock is a rock formation that has a hole in it that looks like mainland Australia. We expected to make a quick stop, snap a few pictures, and be on our way. Pleasantly surprised by what we found, we stayed longer than planned and wished we had more time.

Australia Rock by itself is cool. Bar Rock Lookout and the short walking trail was nice. Bar Beach looked like a great family friendly swim spot. However, the seals at Wagonga Head was the favorite part of our day. They were sunning themselves on the rocks and swimming in the nearby channel.

Narooma

Thirty minutes down the road near Wallaga Lake we found Camel Rock on the aptly named Camel Rock Beach. Further north is Horse Head Rock. The beach itself was nice and lifeguarded. The rock formations were fun to explore and an added bonus if you are looking to spend a day on the sand.

Camel Rock Beach

A short time down the road is the town of Eden, another picturesque town on the ocean’s coast. The parklands near Lookout Point provided nice views of the surrounding bays. Eden is known as a great place to go whale watching and is the home of the Killer Whale Museum.

Eden

Another 30 minutes and we made our way through Ben Boyd National Park where we took a short hike to see The Pinnacles. Unfortunately you can only see the erosion feature from scenic lookouts on the trail.

The Pinnacles

With another 3 hours to go and most of the afternoon spent, we had to skip a few stops we had planned and concentrate on getting to Bairnsdale. We did stop for pictures at the New South Wales / Victoria state line signs – this was our first time in Victoria. We would have liked to visit Salmon Rocks at Cape Conran and the Lakes Entrance.

The next day was an unexciting trek into Melbourne. We checked into our accommodations were we will spend the next 4 weeks.