The Cove, Jervis Bay: “Noah, we’re going to need a bigger boat!”

It has been 18 months since we’ve been on any sort of mini break. Like many of you, we had to cancel holiday plans last year due to Covid and come April 2021, I had a case of seriously itchy feet. It was time to book the miniest of breaks, nice and close and somewhere where we could see all the animals! And so, I jumped online to book one of the cabins at The Cove in Jervis Bay. And because I’m a genius of epic proportions, I just happened to choose the two wettest days ever in the history of all the lands. An exaggeration maybe, but an ark wouldn’t have gone astray!

Location, location, location

The thing that makes The Cove so lovely, also makes it a bit of pain: the long trek in. The property sits at the end of Ellmoos Rd in the Booderee National Park, a gravel road with a very sensible speed limit of 40KPH, bordered by towering trees and bracken, the odd wallaby and kangaroo and that takes about 25 mins itself. So that’s an additional 25 minutes that you need to consider if planning to head into Huskisson for dinner and an additional 25 minutes back. Considering the rain we were getting pummelled with, we soon put the idea of a romantic dinner out to bed, and instead stopped at Woolies coming home with schnitzels and chips to chuck in the oven to have with our wine. Still, the location means that the turquoise waters of Sussex Inlet and the Bherwerre Beach are literally right there and while we attempted a couple of walks, we came back absolutely drenched, leaving our cabin smelling like wet socks.

Our cabin

We stayed in the Ocean Cabin, which is the only 2 person cabin on site and is touted as a bit of a romantic retreat, think: king size bed, fish scale tiled kitchen, a private courtyard and a FREAKING HUGE ROUND OUTDOOR BATH!!! They totally had me at outdoor bath. So I’ve mentioned the rain. There was much rain. And that kind of put paid to the picture I’d had of me floating around in the bath underneath the stars. But if you think a little rain and hurricane level winds was going to keep me out of bath, you don’t know me at all. And so I headed out, in the pouring rain, wine in hand and jumped in. The wind was so strong my modesty bubbles blew straight off and and into the nearby succulent garden, leaving my ah, succulent garden on display! 😉 😉 And the rain also significantly watered down my lovely glass of Cab Shiraz we picked up from Silos Estate on the way down. Still delicious though and definitely recommended if you’re travelling down from north. silosestate.com

I have to say, I’m so happy I decided to still take the plunge because I laughed so hard and so much in that bath and just felt all round brilliant. Never underestimate the power of a hot bubble bath in a stunning location!

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The Wildlife

Now this wouldn’t be a Backyard Zoology post without animals, right?! And my absolute favourite thing about our stay, hands down, were the Eastern Grey Kangaroos who visited the grounds regularly. I mean, we had lovely roos hanging around as we played, and my husband cheated at, giant chess. I mean, why can’t I move the pawns as many squares and in as many directions I want at once? Actually the garden games were loads of fun and the area is lit up with fairy lights at night which would have made the perfect spot for some wine drinking, game playing and kangaroo watching if the weather had played nice. There was also a rather large joey that kept sticking its head into mum’s pouch for some extra sustenance. Oh my heart! One particularly curious kanga may or may not have even come into our room briefly for a nosey around but shhh don’t tell anyone 😉

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There were also kookaburras singing, head back, beaks to the sky from the top of the striped umbrellas, and rainbow lorikeets feeding noisily nearby. The waters of Sussex Inlet also had plenty of waterbirds like pied and sooty oystercatchers, white-bellied sea eagles soaring past, little black cormorants and pelicans including one that sat deep on its haunches, bill open wide to catch the rain as it poured down.

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Verdict

I really think that if the weather had been lovely we would have enjoyed our stay even more. There are free kayaks and stand up paddle boards that we were dying to try. Also, I’m secretly a little bit chuffed I didn’t have to add either of those two things to my growing list of ‘tried and failed’ endeavours. We missed out on the fire pits and romantic night walks along the sand too. Would we go back? Um, hell yes! I want all of the above mentioned things in my life. But I’d also be a little more prepared.

My advice? Shop before you head in so if you don’t want to, you don’t have to leave. There’s BBQs and even a pizza oven on site but due to our severe lack of planning (hey, I planned to do hikes through the national park and take photos of animals, food wasn’t part of my pre planning regime!) we had corn chips and chocolate and wine for dinner on night one!

I visited The Cove Jervis Bay, so you don’t have to but I suggest you add it to your South Coast adventures list, and I might even see you there next time!

https://www.thecovejervisbay.com.au