I first heard about Batemans Bay from my friends here, but never did I actually ask them what it is famous for and how it is. The biggest trade-off about planning a Batemans trip was that it is around 4hrs 30mins from Sydney and it cannot be a regular weekend trip. Finally, we got sometime off in December and since we had no other places to go due to COVID constraints, we decided to explore Batemans Bay and check how that is. We decided to make it a staycation in case there is nothing much exciting there. That’s how we started planning our 5 day trip to Batemans.

Well, I am always ambitious when it comes to travel and I realized I cannot to go to a place without any expectations, particularly after I was starved of vacations this year due to COVID. After one long year, this is a 5 day vacation for us. I did a bit of research and listed all the places in and around Batemans.

Day 1 – Jervis Bay

We started early in the morning around 8am on Saturday to Batemans with a couple of detour plans near Jervis Bay. Jervis Bay had always been my favorite place to visit with its tempting white sand and turquoise color water. Though we had been to this place couple of times already (actually three), I realized we missed a couple of beautiful places there and planned to visit it on the way to Batemans. Our first stop was the light house called Point Perpendicular. It is a lighthouse located on spectacular cliffs of Jervis Bay, clearly visible during our whale watching tours out of Jervis Bay. I recently got to know that there is a way to drive to this lighthouse on the cliff and therefore we planned our stop there. It was a slight de-tour from the main highway with not so great road, but the drive felt very exciting.

Point Perpendicular

It was a beautiful lighthouse which reminded me of Santorini, Greece because of its color combination.

Murrays beach

After visiting the lighthouse, we drove to Murrays beach in Jervis Bay. This beach is located inside Booderee National park and less crowded compared to other beaches. This national park usually has an entrance which was waived off for this year supporting travel during Covid times.

A short beautiful walk in the woods took us to the beach.

It is an absolutely scenic beach surrounded by national park with pristine clear waters and pearly white sand.

While the lighthouse marks the starting of Jervis bay, Murrays beach marks the end of the bay. This trip felt like a beautiful tribute to Jervis bay.

Batemans Bay

We have never driven past Jervis Bay from Sydney and the drive looked different. We found very few villages on the way, it felt almost like a drive in a big national park till Batemans. We were welcomed to Batemans bay by a bridge and it somehow reminded me of Sydney Harbour region.

I knew that Batemans region has a lot of beaches, but I didn’t expect the town to be built around the bay, similar to Sydney. The drive to our Airbnb was along the bay with a beautiful walkway/cycleway beside the water and it felt perfect. We placed our luggage in the house and quickly rushed to city center in search of an Indian restaurant for dinner. Most of the restaurants are located along the waterfront, also called Marina.

A perfect ending to a perfect day in the perfect weather ! 🙂

Day 2 – Batemans bay Beaches

Today we decided it was a beach day and we decided to swim in the water in the hot sun.

Malua Bay Beach

Our first beach was Malua bay, one of the best beaches in Batemans and the coastal drive to the beach is equally thrilling. It was a great beach for swimming, felt like a perfect family beach.

Mossy Point Lookout

We got this lookout recommendation near Malua Bay from a brochure in our Airbnb house. This is where Tomaga River joins the sea and it was a beautiful treat for eyes. It was too sunny and warm by the time we reached this place and we decided to take couple of hours break at our house and explore other beaches in the evening.

North Durras Beach

This beach is located inside Murramarang national park and if you need a private beach all for yourself, this felt like a perfect place to be 🙂

At the North Durras beach parking located on a hill, I could see an island in the ocean, which we wanted to explore and take a closer look at it. We went in search of the island and found that it can be seen during Wasp head walk and the island is called Wasp island.

Wasp Head Walking Trail

It was 400m return walk in the bush. As we got closer to the island, we found two huge Kangaroos on our way and we wondered if we should proceed further or if those can attack us (if at all they do). They both looked equally frightened by us and definitely we outnumbered them, so it felt safe to go ahead.

At the end of the walking trail, we found the island we were looking for finally 🙂

We drove back to Batemans bay and walked along the waterfront before going back home.

Day 3 – Rock Hunt in and around Narooma

Like I mentioned in the beginning, I went a bit ambitious when we planned Batemans bay trip and I found some interesting rock formations 100kms away from Batemans near Narooma, which looked beautiful and worth driving for. So, we planned a day in search of these ancient rock formations in the ocean.

Narooma

Narooma is a beautiful town in the south coast with beautiful blue beaches and backwaters.

Australia Rock

When Australia rock is viewed at just the right angle, the hole in the rock at Wagonga Head, had an uncanny resemblance to a map of Australia (without Tasmania). Australia Rock is part of the Narooma Accretionary Complex and Chevron Folds, the results of the pressure from the Pacific Plate’s collision with the land. I didn’t have much expectations from this rock looking at the photos in google, but this turned out to be really beautiful when we saw it directly.

Camel Rock

Our next stop is at Camel Rock on the way to Bermagui and it was relatively easy to find, with a car parking right next to the beach where this rock is present. Camel rock beach looked very scenic with different kind of rocks in between and it again felt like a private beach with no people around.

Horse Head rock

Well, now coming to the most difficult part of the day. This rock looked amazing in pictures and I really want to visit this rock, but the way to reach this rock was not straight forward and its tricky. Though it looked so close to camel rock, we couldn’t find it anywhere near camel rock.

Then we found a walking track leading to Horse head rock right from the camel rock beach parking which we followed along. It was a hilly track and after a while, we realized we are not going anywhere near the rock, but we might end up watching it from the hill, as the route could lead to lookout point. As we walked along, our first view point was the back side of camel rock which looked nothing similar to its front, but its equally beautiful from behind.

After around 20mins of walk, we finally reached Horse Head Rock. It looked beautiful standing in the pacific waters. I believe it can also be called as an elephant rock. We searched to find some way to reach closer to the rock, but looks like there is no easy way out there, the only option was to walk along the beach near the camel rock with a hope that its a low tide on the way to Horse Head Rock.

Horse Head Rock is believed to be around 500 million years old and is among the oldest rocks in NSW and its a famous place for photographers. Though I felt a bit disappointed that I couldn’t go down, I was glad that we could find it from lookout point.

Most of the places that we went today looked raw, untouched, with hardly any people around, which made us feel like explorers 🙂

Day 4 – Just Chill around

We decided to relax today a bit and started lesiurely to a lookout just outside Batemans bay.

Holmes Lookout

This lookout gave us a top view of Batemans bay as in how the Clyde river gradually reaches the bay flowing along the national park and then joins the ocean.

On the route to this lookout, we found many burnt trees, due to last year bushfire season. I remember that this place got badly impacted last December due to bushfires around exactly the same time. New trees started miraculously growing from the ashes reminding us that its a nature’s cycle.

Clyde River, Nelligen

We followed the Clyde river for around 10mins to reach a small town called Nelligen. It has a beautiful bridge and river front where we spent sometime and then reached home for lunch.

Snapper Island

We spent rest of the afternoon at home and drove to Corrigans beach in the evening to spot a cute little island, Snapper Island from the beach. That island is a habitat for Little Penguins. It has a no landing policy so people can’t go onto the island anyway.

The beaches within the bay are not as beautiful as the ones which are open to ocean. I would vote for Malua bay beach anyday over Corrigan or Surf beach.

By the time we reached home, we found two Kangaroos, mother and a kid waiting for us in our parking spot 🙂 Looks like they wanted to say hi to us 😛

Day 5 – Batemans ->Nan Tien Temple -> Sydney

We started from Batemans in the morning around 10am to Sydney. We stopped at Nani Tien Buddhist temple, Wollongong on the way back. Though we heard a lot of good things about this place, we never got a chance to visit it and this return journey felt like a perfect chance to stop by. The temple looked huge and is located in a large area which was well maintained with gardens. On the way to main temple, we found a lot of cute monk statues doing various things. They looked very cute and I couldn’t resist clicking their photos.

The main shrine of the temple has five huge and peaceful Buddha statues with different mudras, which cannot be photographed.

The huge lotus pond in front of the main shrine was a beautiful attraction to the temple.

Overall, it was a great trip exploring the hidden beauty of Batemans Bay. There was a unique positive vibe to that place which we thoroughly enjoyed and we felt almost like locals at the end of five days 🙂