Paperbark Camp

Paperbark Camp is a ‘glamping’ site, that has 15 fixed tents across the property. The tents were pretty spacious, with a large king-sized bed, a dresser, private toilet and shower out back, and two large wooden chairs on the entry patio. It was only a ~3-hour drive from Sydney, and we got settled in pretty quickly.

The tent | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-700 f/2.8 GM | 24mm | f/4 | 1/60th | ISO1000

The Gunya restaurant onsite provides breakfast in the morning, and a 3-course dinner every evening. You can actually book dinner there even if you are not staying at the property. The food was all very lovely, and well presented.

The proprerty is set in nature reserve, so as a result, I was really surprised waking up with this mass of birds!!! They were singing away as the sun was coming up. There was absolutely no need for an alarm clock – you wouldn’t have been able to stay asleep though it!!!

We got a hot tip to go to Cave Beach and park in the car park. However, before taking the steps down to Cave Beach, there is a dirt path that leads off to the right. You walk past a small swampland, but end up on 5-Mile Beach.

Swamp before the beach | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-700 f/2.8 GM | 26mm | f/16 | 1/160th | ISO200 | HDR

We arrived to 5-mile beach, and there was literally no one else there – not a single person as far as the eye could see.

5-Mile Beach Sony A7R II | Sony 24-700 f/2.8 GM | 25mm | f/11 | 1/400th | ISO200

We ended up walking about 1 km up the beach and back – and still there was not another person in site. We spent a decent amount of time swimming, and generally just relaxing. After about 3 hours, we left, and there was still not another person in site.

One of the other couples at Paperbark were Jill and Brian, both Doctors and living in Sydney as well. We got started talking because Brian got out one of the largest lenses I’ve ever seen in person, as well as his camera. Apparently, his focus is bird photography, and you do really have to have a long lens – and a lot of patience – to get good bird photos. I’m not really sure how they found this out, but another, much younger couple, were to get engaged that evening at dinner, and the guy asked Brian to use his fancy lens to get some candid shots of the moment, which he certainly did.

I don’t have any photos of this, but the next morning, we took a couple of the stand-up paddle boards and made our way up the river that Paperbark is next to. I’m not sure why, but I’m surprisingly good at stand-up paddle boards, I’ve never fallen in once. We had a good time of it, Brian ended up joining us in a kayak, and we got our appetite up for lunch.

After our final breakfast, we spent the morning on some swinging beds, taking in the calmness of the camp. I would highly recommend Paperbark for a long, leisurely weekend to relax and get in touch with nature.

Full photo album