About six hours drive from Sydney and seven from Melbourne, on Thaua Country in Yuin nation, are the small towns of Pambula and Merimbula. This is not your stereotypical Australian coast of bold, gold beaches and “aparthotels” with salt-smeared glass balconies.
The far south coast of New South Wales has a gentle, hidden gem feel. Ringed by national parks and nature reserves, solitude is easy to find – yet so are some unexpectedly excellent spots to eat, drink and caffeinate.
The region is as leafy as it is sandy; as brackish as it is beachy. Just an hour from the Victorian border, the coastline is flecked by lagoons, lakes, estuaries and river mouths.
It has an abundance of crescent-shaped bush beaches, fringed by salt-pruned scrub and rustling tea tree tunnels that, on a big year for cicadas, can thrum with brain-rattling intensity.