Welcome back to this humble space, dear reader. I know it has been some time since I last updated and your patience, beyond being much appreciated on my part, will hopefully be rewarded with some decent pictures and informative tidbits of the vast and enchanting continent that is Oceania. In order to go forward, though, we must go back, as they say, so set your dials to the beginning of May…
Technically part of the Australian Capital Territory (even though it lies 137 km [85 mi] from Canberra, central city of and sole reason for the ACT), Jervis Bay is the smallest of the Australian territories, as well as the calmest natural harbor I’ve yet to visit in Australia; this is not to mention its world record-holding “whitest beaches” consisting of nearly pure silica sand that squeaks between your feet.
I was taken on a weekend trip to Jervis Bay by my beautiful and gracious hosts Kait and Tom who were ever so eager to expose me to life outside of Sydney, which is plentiful and much, much different than the busy city life I was getting all too used to. There might be much to see in a major metropolitan area, but I would not get to experience dolphins boat-side in Sydney's Circular Quay
nor would I see wallabies in Botanic Gardens.
Even at 67 km2 (26 sq mi), a wide variety of flora and fauna are native to the area with approximately 206 species of birds, 27 species of mammals, 15 species of amphibians, 23 species of reptiles and 180 species of fish, most of them concentrated in the Booderee (aboriginal: bay of plenty) National Park. The park itself encompasses approximately 90% of the territory of Jervis Bay and covers the overlap between Australia's northern and southern climatic zones, and has plenty of space to fish in solitude
or write your name in the sand if you so please.
We spent a day exploring this small pocket of ACT land in the middle of New South Whales, but one could easily spend a week combing every beach, walking every track, talking to each of the 390 permanent residents of Jervis Bay. I would experience often in the coming weeks the astonishment that one American’s “paradise” is another Aussie’s “average day,” but Jervis Bay introduced me to the idea, and for that I’ll never forget it.
Coming up on A Seppo in Oz: “Spirit in Australia,” where I meet up with a JMU friend for two weeks of Aussie road-tripping along the Great Ocean Road.
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