It’s crunchy underfoot but that doesn’t deter the kangaroos who have their own fur coats to insulate themselves against the late-autumn, early-morning frost. They’ve hopped into the grounds of Bundanoon’s Osborn House from the neighbouring Morton National Park and are feeding nonchalantly on the lawns between the forest lodges at the back of the hotel’s original 1892 building. Lodge guests have front-row seats on what feels like the set of a David Attenborough natural history documentary, but is almost a guaranteed daily dawn and dusk occurrence at the Southern Highlands boutique hotel.
The opportunity for up-close contact with kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, echidnas, koalas, possums and numerous other bird, animal and ocean residents of the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven regions of NSW is one of many highlights nature tourism specialist Amanda Fry, owner of Experience Nature, provides for guests in the region she is proud to call her ‘backyard’. Since she moved to the Southern Highlands in 2016, she’s become a passionate advocate for the region she describes as Australia’s Hamptons, as well as the extraordinary escarpments of the Cambewarra and Barrengarry Mountains on either side of Kangaroo Valley down to the curvaceous sandy stretches of Jervis Bay and the Shoalhaven’s splendid Seven Mile Beach.
Experience Nature specialises in curated itineraries for people who want to get off the beaten track with personally guided outings. While nature is always the hero, Amanda is careful to get to know her clients’ interests and tailor appropriate three-to-four-day or longer experiences. Whatever your preference, be it wine tasting, art galleries, meeting a cheese maker at the dairy, foraging for pine mushrooms, horseriding, visiting an antiquarian bookseller, or settling down for lunch at a private club in a former holding cell of Berrima Jail, Amanda can arrange it. It’s like having a very well-connected friend – who knows everything and everyone in the district – share her network.
According to Amanda, this region is designed for intimate travel. “It’s not overwhelmed with tourism. It’s an emerging wine region, so if you visit a cellar door, chances are the person serving you will have had a hand in making the wine.”
Accommodation options are selected to satisfy each client’s definition of the perfect holiday base. A busy executive travelling with friends might opt for the seclusion of The Sticks, a private five-bedroom home with breathtaking views across Kangaroo Valley, with or without the service of a private chef. A family holidaying over the summer break might prefer the barefoot bounty of Bangalay Luxury Villas, just a stone’s throw from the surf rolling in at the southern end of Seven Mile Beach. Another option is Osborn House, an elegant oasis with 15 suites and 12 Forest Lodges.
Foodies are in for a treat. Amanda cherry-picks the region’s outstanding growers, makers and chefs who know how best to showcase local produce. At Bangalay, chef Simon Evans shares knowledge he’s gained from Indigenous elders when he takes guests on a stroll along the foreshore, foraging for native edibles that star on the menu at his hatted restaurant. Osborn House offers a splendid Fire Feast where everything is cooked South American-style over flames, on planchas (the griddle) or infiernillo (in an outdoor oven), while exclusivity is the order of the day at Berrima Vault House’s underground cellar in the convict-built sandstone Taylor’s Crown Inn.
Guests dictate the pace: whether it’s a leisurely bushwalk, a canoe paddle, or being whisked away by helicopter, Experience Nature’s mission is to make every moment a major memory. A wildlife warrior in her ‘spare’ time, Amanda has completed training to care for rescue animals, and is in the process of rewilding her first wombat. It’s all part of the bigger picture of turning her own property into a sanctuary with the goal of adding even more exclusive native animal encounters to Experience Nature’s options.
