Two fine holiday spots sitting more or less side by side. We got the bikes out again and rode from South West Rocks down the track to Trial Bay, past open country where kangaroos lazed about, entirely unbothered by us.
A swim at Trial Bay followed, in water that was as close to perfect as it comes, under a sky well past 30 degrees — summer in full voice. The one blot was losing the car key, which cost us a long and anxious search. Even so, and even with that side-quest, it was a thoroughly good day.
On the headland above that idyllic bay stand the granite ruins of Trial Bay Gaol. Built in the 1880s and later abandoned, it took on a stranger role during the First World War, when it became an internment camp holding some 500 German and Austrian civilians — men who happened to be living in Australia when war broke out. They staged concerts and plays behind those walls above the surf; the ruins, and their unlikely history, are open to visitors today.
Further reading: The Trial Bay internment camp