Meroo, Tabourie, and Burrill: 3 South Coast Adventures in 3 Days

When the dreamy late Autumn weather hit the NSW South Coast this year, surf-addicted adventurers Eva and Adam decided it was the perfect time to broaden their horizons. Enter non-surf exploring and the chance to get to know their patch of coast a little bit better.

When you love the outdoors, it’s surprisingly easy to sink into an ‘adventure routine’. I’m sure many of my fellow adventurers know this to be true. You have your favourite bike track, hiking trail or swim spot, you’re dialled in to the perfect conditions for each one and it becomes your default outdoor activity.

For me it’s surfing. I’ve got my go-to surf spots where I know what tide, swell, and wind will be perfect, and I’ve honed down my early morning pre-work surf routine to a fine art.

I’ve also surfed since before I can remember, so it’s just instinct to plan my weekends and mornings around the surf.

But it dawned on me recently that even though it gets me outside and into nature, my surf addiction might actually be stopping me from going on adventures.

I live on the NSW South Coast, which is a veritable playground; there are endless headlands, beaches, lakes, rivers, and forests to explore. But I often find the weekend goes by and, yet again, I’ve only surfed my two favourite breaks and haven’t explored at all.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s still a mark of a great weekend. But I wanted to break up the cycle a bit and do some exploring in the epic place I’m so lucky to call home. And hopefully find some new activities to add to my default adventure roster!

Friday: Sunrise SUP, Birdwatching, and a Cuppa at Burrill Lake

Armed with a hot thermos and some VERY snuggly Red EVO waterproof changing robes we set out pre-sunrise for our first adventure: stand up paddle boarding on Burrill Lake.

The 6am wake up was partly because Adam had to work, partly because the early morning is a spectacular time to be outside, and partly because we’re both huge bird nerds and that’s the best time to see them out and about.

We arrived at the Kings Point Ski Club (not as fancy as it sounds) to an absolutely classic autumn morning. There wasn’t a breath of wind and the water was pure glass, with some lingering low-hanging mist from the cold overnight temps.lied sea eagles, three endangered Glossy Black cockatoos and a whole squad of Yellow-Tailed Black cockatoos. Already a success and we hadn’t even hit the water yet!

Nice and warm after pumping up the Red Paddle Co Touring SUPs, we made our way onto the lake.

Now, you’d think that surfing would give you a good baseline of balance for stand up paddleboarding but we quickly realised the two aren’t quite the same thing. We spent the first 15 minutes in more of a kneel down paddleboard situation, wobbling and giggling our way around the shoreline (scaring away all the birds, whoops) before eventually getting into our groove.

The boards we took are actually purpose-built for longer touring and even multi-day expeditions so they’re definitely capable of much more than a gentle one hour morning session. The Bungee cords scattered across the deck are perfect for securing all sorts of gear and there’s plenty of room for more than just your own two feet.

In fact, once we got a handle on the technique it took me all of two minutes to say to Adam ‘I reckon we could definitely pack overnight camping gear onto one of these things’.

See? New adventure idea unlocked already and we’re only on day one!

We spent the next hour drifting up the lake, marvelling at the early morning sun glistening through the trees and the rippling reflections in the water. We ended up spotting a brightly coloured blue and orange Azure kingfisher which was a bonus.

Eventually, the real world (aka Adam’s office job) called us back to the shore. We dragged out the last few moments of glorious morning light with a lakeside cuppa before heading back home, excited to continue our adventures into the weekend now that we had a handle on our new adventure craft!

Saturday: Hiking, Swimming, and Campfires at Meroo National Park

I won’t lie to you, we did in fact start off our Saturday with a morning surf. It was just too good to miss! But come afternoon we were back on track with our non-surfing adventures.

This time of year is when the whales first start to arrive on the South Coast and I hadn’t seen any yet, so we set ourselves a mission to spot some whales. It’s easier to see whales from a higher vantage point so we headed south to check out the Meroo Headland Walking track in Meroo National Park.

Read more: Meroo Head Campground Offers Slacklining, Stargazing, and Seclusion

The short 1km walking track meanders past secluded campsites, through the bush, and around the headland, eventually leading you to a lookout with uninterrupted views of the ocean and beaches to the north. Although the view was spectacular and we peered excitedly at the horizon for a good 15 minutes, the whales eluded us. Sneaky things!

Luckily the beach looked so good from the lookout we decided to head back down and take a dip. While the water looked epic, it was still pretty chilly!  So our dip was followed swiftly by rugging up in the Red EVO change robes to get ourselves dry and warm.

The fleecy inside is perfect for drying you off and the shell layer keeps the wind out so you can warm up super quick and not have to leave the spectacular beach day behind.

The rest of the arvo was spent exploring the rocks and lounging in the protected south corner of the beach, soaking up the glorious afternoon sun. Even better that once we warmed up our robes doubled as extra comfy beach blankets. Snug factor 1000 for sure.

The cherry on the cake of a brilliant day was making a late arvo campfire as the sun went down, huddling against rapidly dropping temperature from the comfort of our Red EVO change robes. We sat contentedly around our little fire, watching the sunset glow up the sky, quietly chatting about a day well spent.

Sunday: Floating Picnic and Paddle at Tabourie Lake

After our short sunrise mission on Friday, we’d officially caught the stand up paddle boarding bug and were ready to take them on a bigger adventure.

Adam’s mum and stepdad had arrived for a few nights camping on the water at Lake Tabourie and had lugged their kayaks all the way from Canberra. We figured it would be rude not to put all of our watercraft to good use, so we recruited another friend in her little kayak and we all hit the water for a paddle up into the lake.

With a bit more confidence under our belts we packed a waterproof coolbag backpack with our thermos and some snacks and had a floating picnic up in the back of the lake. I swear things always taste better when eaten and drunk outdoors.

It was so nice to share the last bit of our adventure with some friends and family. And a great reminder for us that diversifying your adventures can make them more accessible and easy to share. Rather than heading out in the surf and Adam’s mum watching from the beach, we all got to hang out together and have a really beautiful time on the water.

We finished with Adam and I attempting to ride the tiny waves in the inlet on the SUPs. Let’s just say that, despite our surfing skills, trying to surf on a SUP doesn’t really translate! Especially when your boards are designed for epic touring adventures rather than shredding the gnar.

We had absolutely no hope of staying dry and I’m glad I’m a strong swimmer – and that we had leg ropes on!

It was great fun regardless and we eventually hauled ourselves in as the sun set, drenched, freezing, stoked to the core plotting another mission to take out actual surfing SUPs and give it another crack one day.

The cold was no match for our Red EVO change robes and we were soon toasty and warm, rugged up for dinner in the campground with the fam to round out an incredibly wholesome weekend.