Had various suggestions from Grey Nomads, and free camps are few and far between in this area.
Settled on an area called "The Entrance" - which is about 100 miles from Sydney. The Entrance is a spit of land joined to the mainland on the other side by a bridge.
It took us 5 hours to drive down here - the roads are a lot slower than in WA due to the weight of traffic. As with everywhere else on the coast here it has a nice beach, and plenty of surfers to entertain us.
Not a lot to report on the drive, other than spots of rain (getting heavier later), market gardens selling bananas, paw paws, avocados, spinach, spuds and fruit at the side of the road and plenty of vineyards which we chose not to stop at!
We arrived at the town of The Entrance in time to watch their daily Pelican Feeding (an attempt to make their town stand out from all the other towns with beaches and surf on the East Coast! The feeding was not that exciting, made worse by the drizzle and cold - just like a UK summer bank holiday! That said seeing them swallow fairly large fish whole was quite interesting.
In fact directly before the official pelican feed, a local fisherman gave us more entertainment as he fed the pelicans his fish guts!. The Tourist Office claims that the towns pelican feeding is "One of the most popular attractions on the central coast". We think they need to get out more! However we liked the poem on the leaflet
"A wonderful bird is the pelican
It's bill will hold more than his belican
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I'm damned if I see how the helican"
We had a mooch around the town - again not that exciting - and for the first time a high street with "dollar shops" and second hand / charity shops - which we have not seen too many of in the more affluent and recession proof parts of Australia we have travelled in.
On the plus side the campsite we are staying in - Toowoon Bay is absolutely fantastic, right on the beach - spotless showers - and few other people to use them other than us. Has a fantastic outdoor (heated) pool - but it still feels a bit too chilly to be tempted. A few degrees warmer and it would be fantastic!
Eclectic tea of "leftovers". The plan tomorrow is to get up, pack up our stuff and try to get to Sydney for about 1pm, so we can drop the campervan off near the airport then get to the YHA in mid afternoon.
Stayed at Toowoon Bay Holiday Park, Koongara Street Toowoon Bay NSW 2261
Breakfast outside our camping spot in South West Rocks
Campsite beach
Fisherman feeding pelicans at The Entrance
Pelicans congregating for their official feed at The Entrance
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