Swimming Pretty in the Glass-Half-Full 2012: Day 98 - There to the Southern Highlands and Back Again

OK so the trek we embarked on today wasn't quite as epic as the one depicted in The Hobbit, but it was epic enough to justify paraphrasing Tolkein's title just a smidge.

It all began with me getting

In the grand tradition of well, last year really, we headed off down to the Southern Highlands but this time avoided the tourist traps of Mittagong and Bowral, and headed straight back to nature, stopping in at Fitzroy Falls (we also followed the trail around to Twin Falls) in Morton National Park, along with most of humanity it seems. Even so the numbers on the trail decreased as we went on successive legs of it. Most people opt to to do the main 800m walk around to gaze at the main falls themselves but baulk at going further which we naturally did since why go somewhere and barely experience it?

Fitzroy Falls, and all the surrounding bush and cliffs are just beautiful (my guy fell in love with a fabulously named tree, Pittosporum Undulatum which became our mascot plant for the trip). Truly beautiful. And having my gorgeous guy by my side throughout was perfect. Even surrounded by the Easter hordes, I felt like we were on our special journey and it reminded me of that gloriously special week we spent down the South Coast before I started my new job last October.

Oh and we bought an Easter Bilby to include in our photos just like we did with the smurf on the October trip last year. Such fun!

Then we hit the road to find somewhere to have lunch (it was about 1pm by this stage) and found Moss Vale, which I had thought would be a funky interesting shop-filled town, almost deserted and exceptionally ordinary-looking. So we set off for Robertson nearby to partake of their self-proclaimed "Famous Pies" which frankly are living off their glory days in a tired looking diner with mould-encrusted signage. My pie, a Steak 'n' Kidney number was actually quite yummy but Steve's Beef 'n' Onion was COLD; when he complained they merely heated it up in the microwave and didn't bother to apologise or replace it. Still at least we went there so score one for completist touristing I guess.

Then we headed back down the highway and turned off to the small town of Burrawang which holds a once-a-year markets with over 100 stalls every Easter Saturday. We had the misfortune to park on the far side of town (we didn't realise that at the time, thinking the bollarded area of bitumen was just a short walk around the corner; it wasn't) and had quite a walk to the markets themselves which were actually very good. Lots of local produce, cute crafty things - I got these rabbits creeping out of a carrot made of cloth which is just adorable, and I also picked up a cute one-of-a-kind jacket for Bodhi's birthday this year - but we arrived just as some of them were packing up since rain looked to be threatening. But it was worth the drive there, and long walk across town for a great market.

Final stop was Kangaroo Valley, with its historic sandstone Hampden Bridge, complete in 1898. We had a lovely walk near the bridge, posed for photos (with Steve's pretending one of the pillars was a postal box which is exactly how it looked) before striking along the bush-clad Shoalhaven where lots of people go swimming and kayaking. It was getting dark and close to closing time when we finished the walk so we didn't check out the few arts and crafts stores figuring they could wait for another visit.

Then back home via Berry and the freeway from the South Coast and  a quiet night.