Heading south from Sydney on the Princes Highway towards Wollongong is a great day away from Sydney. The further south you go the more rural the locations become but the views along the way are phenomenal. You might need to deviate off the Princes Highway from time to time to enjoy the scenery but you’re still heading in the same direction albeit a little slower.
Lawrence Hargrave Drive
The first deviation is at Helensburgh where you will drive towards the coast to Stanwell Tops with the Bald Hill lookout being populated with many tourists on the weekends, as well as car and bike clubs from time to time. From here you get an awesome elevated view of the coastline towards Wollongong and the Sea Cliff Bridge further along the coast.
About 10 minutes drive down the hill from the Bald Hill lookout and you’ll drive over the Sea Cliff Bridge. This bridge was constructed in 2004-2005 due to the existing road eroding away from the side of the cliff face with frequent rock falls causing great danger to passing cars. The bridge curves around the cliff face over the ocean below. It looks very cool to see it from a distance. The drive over it is nothing exciting. There are places to stop along the way so you can see the bridge up close or even walk across it.
There are plenty of stops between here and Wollongong before you rejoin the Princes Highway to head south. You’ll drive along the coastline for the majority of the way to Wollongong with great views of the Pacific Ocean, beaches, parks and more.
Albion Park Rail Airport
I stopped briefly at Albion Park Rail to take some photos of the Qantas 747 located at the HARS Aviation Museum. You can see the photos here.
Kiama
Just under 40km south of Wollongong is the coastal town of Kiama. Again this is a tourist area with many restaurants, cafes, beaches and things to do and see.
The highlight for many visiting Kiama is the Kiama Blowhole, a rock formation on the coast where water enters through a cavity in the rocks and explodes through a hole making for an awesome water feature.
Here’s some video clips of the blowhole in action.
I actually enjoyed taking some still shots of the water escaping from the blowhole. The water held in space looks awesome and often features some rainbow action too.
There’s also a cool lighthouse near the blowhole.
Of course there’s more to Kiama than the blowhole and I definitely recommend spending some time in the town if you’re heading through.
Berry and Nowra
Further along is the small town of Berry. This is the tourist mecca of the area and while filled with awesome tourist shops featuring local produce, arts etc as well as many awesome cafes and restaurants the town can get mighty busy especially on the weekends which doesn’t necessarily make it a pleasant experience. Still worth a look but alas I drove through and didn’t stop off. School holidays made the main street look crazy, not for me thanks.
Nowra is about 15 minutes south of Berry and is the largest town in the area. There’s shopping centers, restaurants, pubs, and all the services you’d expect in a large town. I did stop here for lunch at a pub and it wasn’t bad. Bangers and Mash is always a winner.
Jervis Bay
I had planned to stop by and visit some friends but that didn’t pan out so I headed to Jervis Bay for a look as I have never been there before.
The town of Huskisson seems to be the main place to stop by with many restaurants, hotels and pubs. Being school holidays the town was crazy overrun with tourists so I didn’t spend much time here except to take some photos of Jervis Bay itself. It’s a pretty town and i’m sure it’d be more fun with less people around.
And that’s about it. After this I headed back to Sydney. The weather started out beautiful in the morning with no clouds and sunny but the rain set in for a little while during my stop over in Nowra which soured the experience.
There are many many many more places to stop along the way to eat, see the water and much much more but not having a lot of time I have only visited these places on this trip.
You can see some of the other places from previous posts such as the Nan Tien Temple and Mount Kiera Lookout and Kangaroo Valley and visiting Wollongong and Kiama by train.
I’m sure i’ll be back soon to explore more areas around the south coast as it’s somewhere I’ve only just started to scratch the surface of and would love to see more of what the area has to offer.
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