Several years ago we became online friends with fellow nomads David and Di, and in the fall of 2018, we were all in the UK at the same time and arranged to meet in person. We became fast friends and promised to meet again whenever we could. In May 2020 we were visiting their home country of Australia and rented an Airbnb in their hometown of Batemans Bay for a week. We had such a fun time together that this time we took them up on their offer to stay with them. It was a brief 4-day visit, but we had a wonderful time catching up on life over the past few years. Covid affected all of us by severely curtailing travel plans, this inspired David and Di to adopt a dog, Emma the Maremma. While their future travels may be shorter duration, they are still nomads at heart, and they have a gorgeous dog to come home to.
The town of Batemans Bay is located 280 km (170 mi) south of Sydney and with its relaxed seaside lifestyle this area is a popular retiree haven. It’s also the closest seaside town to Canberra, making Batemans Bay a popular holiday destination for residents of Australia’s capital city. Our friends have lived here for many years and maintained their home even while traveling full time for 3 years. It turned out to be a great decision, having a home to come back to when covid hit. Right before our visit in 2020 catastrophic bush fires raged through the area, cutting Batemans Bay off from all external road links. During the fires David was up on the roof hosing the house down to save it from burning, thankfully he was successful, but what a frightening time!!
Because we have been to Batemans Bay before we were not fussed with doing a lot of sightseeing. Our interest was in catching up with our friends and spending time together. This meant we stayed close to home cooking great meals on the barbi, drinking wine, meeting some of David and Di’s friends, visiting a local market and taking a few drives locally. David took us out one morning to some nearby beaches and for a short bush walk. Our first walk was Pebbly Beach, well known for it’s sandy beach and many kangaroos that frequent the area, most of them were gone by the time we got there though.
Pebbly Beach (there are no pebbles here!!) David said I should complain to the local council 😂
Our second stop was North Head beach which led to a bush walk to a clifftop viewing platform. From the viewing platform we walked through the bush back to carpark and along the way came upon a Goanna (Monitor Lizard). Not harmful to us but we did not disturb him crossing the path.
- North Head Beach
Every day David and Di are up before the sun heading to their local beach just down the hill to walk Emma. Feeling very lazy, we did not join them for their sunrise walks 😂 but we did go down to Long Beach one afternoon to take Emma for another walk. I can see why they love coming here every morning!
- Long Beach
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with David and Di and once again promised to keep in touch and meet up whenever we can. I have no doubt we will be back in Australia before too long because we love it here, especially all the beaches. But for now, we say farewell to Australia and head north, next stop Singapore…..
