Nethercote - Riverside Camping

We try to pack the camping trailer and get away for a week in the Summer holidays just before school returns. Last year we stayed at Tathra on the South Coast and loved it so much we decided to head back down that way for the end of the 2024 holiday season.

We jumped onto the Hip Camp website and began looking for suitable camps along the Sapphire Coast. Staying on the coast last year, we chose to go inland this time and camp along the Nethercote River. Our first completely off-grid camp supplying our own water, power and firewood. The property provided us with the perfect little campsite along the crystal clear river, a compostable toilet, farm animals that the kids could go and feed each morning (including bottle feeding 2 calves), and a tranquil home base for 1 week where we could switch off and reset.

Only… it wasn’t all relaxing. Have you ever camped off-grid with a 5 year old next to a running river? It’s a good mix of relaxing and managing because they can’t grasp the concept of having to boil water for showers, only having enough drinking water for x amount of time and having to be mindful of electricity because the sun isn’t always out to charge the solar panels. It was a good learning curve for all of us.

The property had a private track down to Nethercote Falls, a large multi-drop waterfall that ends in a large swimming hole and is surrounded by 50m high cliffs on all sides. An incredibly popular swimming spot in Summer, but a very chilly swimming spot if the sun isn’t playing it’s part. There are smaller ‘potholes’ leading up the falls that can be quite dangerous to swim in if you aren’t aware of the way the water moves in and around the rock formations.

We love the Sapphire Coast and will most likely end up back down that way for the end of the 2025 holiday season. The beaches are clean, quiet and the people are all lovely. There is hundreds of tracks to explore both on foot and with a 4WD and plenty to do with kids.

I am not much of a talker (as anyone that knows me, knows) so I will end this blog post with some visual storytelling of our week away at Yowaka River Camp