A couple of days after Christmas, we bundled up the family
and headed for the South Coast of New South Wales, where on spec., we sought
out a camping site, having not gone the traditional path of booking 12 months
in advance. We had heard of a National
Park, about 20 km south of Uladulla, where there was a camping ground that was
sure to have sites available. Mainly
because the conditions were fairly primitive.
No water, no facilities at all except a composting toilet.
 |
| Southern Headland at Meroo National Park |
Meroo Head camping site is a challenge to find in the first
place. Off the Princess Highway just
south of Burrill Lake, the dirt track leading to the park is not marked on the main
road. The sign to the campsite can only
be found when driving about 100 m off the road, along a track that is easily
missed as you hurtle towards Bawley Point Road, on your way to Batemans
Bay. It seems that it is deliberately
set up not to be found. This, along with
the fact that the sign to the campsite had an official looking notice
indicating that the site was full, when it turned out it was not, only adds to
the sense of conspiracy that the Parks and Wildlife Service were not keen to make the campsite easy to find so as not to be visited by the hoards that would be drawn to the site if the track leading to it was only a little easier to spot from the road.
Notwithstanding the “Campsite Full” notice, we were able to
find sites for four tents, accommodating 16 souls, some of them very small,
but, requiring space none the less. And
the effort was well worth it, because Meroo National Park is a wonderful place
to spend time communing with nature.
Most surprising of all, there were no camp fees, making this probably
one of the last absolutely free campsites in Australia. The difficulty to access the site, and its
natural beauty, lends itself to the clichéd, but totally appropriate description
of “hidden gem”.
 |
| Termeil Lake with black swans |
The camping area is bounded to the north by Termeil Lake and
to the South by Meroo Lake and to the East by the Beach that runs from headland
to headland, North and South. The Beach
is about 1.5 to 1.7 km long, of beautiful white sand, and the surf conditions
are relatively benign, so conditions for swimming are reeasonably safe,
especially in the calmer waters down near the southern headland where the
waves in the protected waters are low and there does not seem to be any strong rips.
 |
| View of Meroo Lake to the south of the campsite |
The days on the beach were cool and sunny, though we did
experience some cloudy days, the weather was certainly much more pleasant than
some other camping holidays that I have experienced in the past, say at North
Stradbroke Island, and even Crowdy Head, where the days can be sweltering. The flip side is, the sea water was somewhat
cooler than you might experience further north.
It was very invigorating to say the least.
Strolling on the beach was a great pleasure. There were some beautiful wild flowers in the sand dunes,
and in the lake areas, some being constantly visited by a spotted white moth in
a sparse, but constant southward procession through the park. The park is a haven for wildlife, on dusk
each evening, we were visited by a pretty face wallaby that was totally
comfortable that we had set up camp in its range and was not at all fazed so
that it felt it had to change its habits just because we were there. Each night
our kitchen area was the site of an all possum Wrestlemania, the winner gaining
the prize of our bread which they pilfered from our camp locker. The trees were full of birds feeding on
flowers and insects, cicadas doing whatever they do that requires them to make
a constant, earsplitting racket and from time to time, a lazy goanna.
The true beauty of the site was its isolation. There was very little cell phone access and
no electricity, so it was a great place for the kids on the trip to disengage
from their electronic devices and engage with other people, even their parents.
Meroo National Park is a great place to visit. Either to fish, swim, walk along the beach, fossick
in the sand dunes, or hike through the beautiful and quite unique lake-forest
landscape.
