Day 4 of our Across Australia famil with Sydney Melbourne Touring is the first spent entirely on the New South Wales South Coast, working north from Eden. After breakfast in town and an inspection at Currajong Retreat, the morning goes to kayaking and shucking oysters on the Pambula River with Navigate Expeditions. The group then stops in the heritage village of Central Tilba before reaching South Durras by evening, where the resort sits inside Murramarang National Park.
Over breakfast in Eden, Paul runs the group through the day in what he cheerfully calls his best radio voice: an inspection in the hills behind town, then back to the coast for a paddle and some oysters, a short stop in a historic village, and a beachfront resort to finish.
Breakfast is at Eden Ground by Toast, a small café in the centre of Eden serving ONA Coffee — a respected Canberra-based specialty roaster — along with cooked breakfasts and takeaway plates.
Herbs, flowers and produce are grown in a kitchen garden behind the dining room. By 8.45am, we are back in the cars, turning away from the coast and climbing inland.
Our first stop is Currajong Retreat, a glamping property on a working Angora goat farm about 45 minutes inland from Eden, in the Towamba Valley. Geny and her husband Grant run it as a family business on a 100 acres farm. The farm carries more than 400 Angora goats, raised for mohair.
The property has three 3 tents set on a ridge above the river, each sleeping two, for a maximum of six guests at a time. They run off-grid, on solar power and rain water. Each tent has a queen bed, an ensuite, a kitchenette and a wood burner, and a private deck that runs out over the valley with an outdoor bath at one end.
There is a two-night minimum stay. Dinner and a generous breakfast hamper are included, along with a daily drinks package, but lunch is not. Before arrival, guests fill in a questionnaire covering their wine preferences, any dietary needs and their choice of first-night meal, and Geny says the hosts also work from a short profile passed on by the travel agent.
That knowledge shapes the welcome. A tea tray waits in the tent, with a bottle of "australian champagne" and the wine each guest has chosen. Dinner is carried to the tent, and the timing is flexible. International guests are also offered welcome drinks at the fire pit by reception, which looks out over the valley.
The setting does much of the work. Guests can walk across the farm and down to the river, "where platypus surface most evenings around dusk if the water is calm", says Geny. Wombats and wallabies come close to the tents at night, and the birdlife is varied. Each morning the hosts offer a farm tour, "where the goats, Geny notes, come straight over for a scratch".
Two practical points are worth flagging. The retreat has no direct walking access to the surrounding national parks, because the tracks cross private farmland, so any park visit means driving and route advice from the hosts. Services are also distant. Eden, with the nearest supermarket, is 45 minutes away, and the only closer shop is a small general store at Wyndham, about 10 minutes off, useful for fuel and basics. In practice, Geny points out, guests rarely need to leave, since almost everything is brought to them.
From Currajong we drop back down to the coast and on to Pambula, where Navigate Expeditions takes us out onto the river. Over breakfast that morning Paul had set out the plan, with the paddle running "back to where the fresh oyster farms are." The company is a small-group operator based in Eden, run by its founder Jess, who often guides on the water herself, and the business holds Advanced Ecotourism certification.
The tour is the one they call Kayak and Shuck, and no experience is needed, since a guide sets everyone up in stable kayaks, single or double, and leads the way. For European travellers the team can lay on French or Italian-speaking guides on request.
Partway along we pull the kayaks onto a beach for a picnic the guide lays out on the sand, with salad, bread, fruit and quiche. A boardwalk from the Pambula River walking track runs along the bank behind us, inside Beowa National Park. As we land, a band of small crabs scatters across the sand and spirals straight down into it. These are the light-blue soldier crabs, which gather by the hundred on estuary sandflats at low tide and corkscrew into the sand the moment they are disturbed. They walk forwards rather than sideways, which only adds to the impression of a small army falling back!
The river soon opens into Pambula Lake, one of the cleaner estuaries on this coast and the source of the "Sydney rock oysters" the area is known for. We paddle up past the leases, long rows of mesh baskets sitting just above the water on their racks, where the oysters are grown and graded. The guide points out the oyster farming as we move through it, and the birdlife along the banks, including the sea eagles the river is known for.
The run ends near Broadwater Oysters, a farm on Pambula Lake, where the paddling is rewarded with a tray of just-shucked rock oysters and a wedge of lemon.
The tour asks no skill of clients and the guide does the instructing, while still putting them on the water and finishing with the region's signature produce. The operator works to a minimum of four, so a couple booking alone would either pay for four or join one of the public departures, and the run can be taken privately and tailored for groups.
North of Pambula, we follow the highway up the coast, passing through the beautifully preserved historic village of Central Tilba.
It's a heritage dairying settlement, classified by the National Trust since 1974, a single weatherboard main street that grew up in the 1890s around the first cheese co-operative in New South Wales, set beneath Gulaga, the mountain sacred to the Yuin people. The shopfronts now hold craft, produce and a couple of old pubs, and it makes an easy short stop for travellers on the drive north.
By late afternoon we reach South Durras, a small, quiet coastal settlement about 15 minutes north of Batemans Bay, hemmed in by Murramarang National Park and fronted by long, largely undeveloped beaches.
" Kangaroos graze on the grass between the villas and the beach, morning and evening."
We check in at the NRMA Murramarang Beachfront Holiday Resort, which sits on Mill Beach inside the national park. Run by NRMA Parks and Resorts, it covers a wide range of accommodation, from caravan sites through to cabins, glamping safari tents, villas and two-bedroom beach houses.
Our group takes individual villas, several of them a short walk from the sand. The resort has a pool, a poolside bar, a takeaway counter and a bistro. Walking tracks into Murramarang National Park start from the grounds.
That evening we eat at the resort's Beach Bistro, the casual on-site option, which serves nice meals with a range of local wines and tap beers.
“In the morning and evening, kangaroos graze on the grass between the villas and the beach, while lorikeets, kookaburras and other native birds often come close to the verandas. Offshore, whales may be spotted during the May–November migration season,” Paul says.
Eden Ground by Toast (Eden): Small café in the centre of Eden serving ONA coffee, cooked breakfasts and grab-and-go plates. Suits a breakfast or coffee stop at the start of the South Coast leg.
Currajong Retreat (Towamba Valley, inland from Eden): Off-grid glamping on a working Angora goat farm, with 3 safari tents and a maximum of 6 guests. Close to all-inclusive, with dinner, a generous breakfast hamper and a daily drinks package, though no lunch, and a pre-stay questionnaire that tailors meals and wine to each guest. Suits couples and small groups wanting seclusion and wildlife, including platypus, wombats and wallabies. Flag the two-night minimum, the limited phone signal and wifi, the lack of direct walking access to the national parks around, and that the nearest services are about 45 minutes away.
Navigate Expeditions, Kayak and Shuck (Pambula River): Guided estuary paddle from the river mouth up to the Pambula Lake oyster leases, with a picnic along the way and freshly shucked rock oysters at the end. Small-group operator based in Eden, holding Advanced Ecotourism certification, with stable kayaks, single or double, and no experience needed since a guide instructs. Can provide French or Italian-speaking guides on request. Suits mixed-ability clients who want to be active and taste local produce. Flag the minimum of four, so a couple either pays for four or joins a public departure, that private and tailored departures are available, that the start time follows the tide and is set by the operator, and that winter paddles are cool so clients should dress in layers.
NRMA Murramarang Beachfront Holiday Resort (South Durras): Beachfront park inside Murramarang National Park, run by NRMA Parks and Resorts, with accommodation ranging from campsites and cabins to safari tents, villas and beach houses, plus a pool, a poolside bar, a takeaway counter and the on-site Beach Bistro. Kangaroos graze in the grounds morning and evening. Suits a wide range of budgets and group types, and one-night stops in particular, since meals are available on site. Flag that the beaches are unpatrolled and can carry rip currents, that the surrounding national park charges a vehicle fee for its day-use areas.
