My trip to the Southern Highlands was purely last minute. Sarah and I originally planned to go to Jervis Bay with the Mountaineering club, but that trip was cancelled due to rain. So, in less than an hour, we had a car booked (through ANU carshare) and a place thanks to Airbnb.
We left that afternoon to head to a quiet small town in the highlands called Moss Vale. The drive there was pretty doable, but as I was driving on the other side of the road, it was challenging! Its hard to describe the differences, but something just felt slightly off. The biggest adjustment to driving on the other side was how the blinkers and windshield wiper controls are switched. I constantly mixed the two up, much to my annoyance. Only once, in Moss Vale, did I turn into the wrong lane. Along the way, I noticed a few things; there are signs for creeks and rivers everywhere but they are all dried up; there are dead kangaroos and wombats littered all over the road (Aussie roadkill!); and driving in Australia is just fucking beautiful. We arrived in Moss Vale around 5pm and found our house. It was a small house but very nice. There was a very fancy bathroom with built in heat lamps (the height of luxury). Our Host, Michael, was a nice old man who loved to talk and enjoyed company. He told us where to go and what to see. After getting settled, we went out to look around Moss Vale. Moss Vale and the entire surrounding countryside was entirely reminiscent of small-town Americana, and driving on the roads there reminded me so much of driving in Mt. Airy. If it weren’t for the accents, I would have forgotten that I was in Australia. As it is a very quiet place with not much to do, Sarah and I spent the night getting drunk in our room while watching a movie.
The next day, we got up early and headed to our first spot: Fitzroy Falls. The falls were a 45 min drive away and normally the drive isn’t anything special. But that morning was extremely foggy and that made the whole region look like a primordial jungle. When we got to Fitzroy Falls, we noticed that we couldn’t see the falls or the valley at any of the overlooks. It was weird, but it was one of the coolest things ever. It felt like I was standing at the edge of the world. Everything was just a wall of white and you couldn’t see anything 5ft in front of you. I dropped a rock over the edge and it disappeared into the abyss. We made a 5k loop and on our way back the fog started to clear up. The view was incredible as the fog cleared before our eyes as the beautiful valley opened up to us. Our next stop was Belmore Falls, which was a little off-road. We drove 45 minutes through the small dirt roads and over the actual waterfall to get there. Once we got there, we had lunch next to an overlook of a valley that looked just like Middle Earth. We then walked another 300m to another overlook that was directly across from the falls. By now, all the fog had cleared from the valley but there was still a huge overcast and mist hanging around. Belmore Falls had a pool that separated the two falls where people can go swimming. We tried for an hour to find a way down there, but to no avail.
Thus ended our waterfall excursions. We then drove an hour down into Kangaroo Valley (which by coincidence, turned out to be the Middle Earth valley) and made our way to a winery called Yarrawa Estate. the estate was in the middle of nowhere but had incredible view. It was situated at the base of a mountain and was lush and primordial. Upon arrival, we were greeted by two golden retrievers and were immediately treated to free wine, cheese, and nuts. We spent about 2 hours drinking wine, spotting tiny frogs in the bushes, and exploring the premises. We left with each of us buying a very good $20 bottle of wine.
That night we went to a small town called Bundanoon for dinner, and then headed to a glowworm glen. The walk to the glen was a half hour in the dark, but luckily our host Michael gave us some flashlights to use, The glen was actually incredible. We turned off our flashlights and saw all the glowworms on the side of the rock wall. I expected them to be in a cave and not just a rock wall; it was still cool though. It was so dark around us that you could only see the glowworms. they actually looked like constellations in the night sky. After the glen, we called it a night and headed home.
We left the next morning to head back to ANU. Before we left however, we stopped for breakfast at Bernie’s, the seemingly classic American diner. The Southern Highlands was an unexpected but awesome trip. It felt like we stepped back in time. If you have a weekend with nothing to do, I highly recommend visiting this place.