To round out our five-day road trip, which has seen us tour Western Sydney's Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park and Cabramatta's Vietnamese dining scene, we left the west behind to head to the South Coast of NSW. 

Waking up in our little oasis, The Bower Broulee delivered a sensational night's sleep, which had us refreshed and prepped to get better acquainted with the stunning Eurobodalla region of NSW. 

Day Four

A lazy morning was spent enjoying the hearty breakfast hamper provided by hosts Sue and Mark whilst soaking up The Bower's leafy outlook – in our bathrobes and complimentary slippers of course. Switching into our swimmers, we took the short stroll from the property to Broulee Beach for a quick dip in the ocean, making for the perfect start to the morning.

Mogo Wildlife Park

Using our Ultimate Explorer pass, which allows unlimited visits across each of the Australian Wildlife Parks locations – Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park, Mogo Wildlife Park, and Hunter Valley Wildlife Park – we spent the day discovering the park's large variety of exotic and endangered animals.

The expansive wildlife park is easy to navigate, with walking paths leading you to each animal enclosure. The highlight of our visit was the undoubtedly the animal encounters, and no visit to Mogo is complete without at least one, in our case, two.

First up on the encounter list was the African Serval. These fabulous felines are quite comfortable with you getting up close, and super playful – they will be sure to win your heart within minutes.

We couldn't help ourselves and signed up for a second encounter, this time with the very gorgeous and gentle Baru the Binturong, who also happens to be the best-smelling animal in the park, a fascinating fact you'll learn all about when you take part in the encounter.

The best part about Mogo is the interactive activities you can get involved with throughout your visit. The giraffe feeding was one of our faves, as were feeding the deer, camels, ostriches, and kangaroos.

You can easily spend the day wandering, checking out the feeding times and keeper talks, or just relax and watch the animals go about their daily business.

Mogo Wildlife Park
Address: 222 Tomakin Rd, Mogo NSW 2536

Stay

Leaving the Mogo behind we made our way back to the beach for our final night's accommodation, checking into the Abode Malua Bay.

The super roomy self-contained apartments are within stumbling distance of Malua Bay Beach, and with our verandah ocean views calling us, it made for the ideal afternoon location.

Abode Malua Bay: 4 Kuppa Avenue, Malua Bay NSW 2536

Dinner

Recommended by one of the locals at Featherdale, we dropped into Smokey Dan’s for dinner. As the name suggests, the menu is all about the smoke and BBQ-style food that highlights the best local ingredients. The 24-hour smoked brisket is one of the stars of the show, as are Smokey Dan’s famous BBQ pork ribs.

Visit on a Friday or Saturday night and the venue comes alive with their weekly music acts which showcase some of Australia's biggest names in music alongside local and touring artists.

Smokey Dan’s: 2152 George Bass Dr, Tomakin NSW 2537

Day Five

On the morning of our last day, we closed things out with a glass bottom kayak tour around Bateman’s Bay with Region X. The environmentally-friendly tour operator has a long list of guided or self-guided experiences, from 2-hour kayaking tours right through to multi-day expeditions that will see you snorkelling, whale watching, hiking, and camping, to help you get better acquainted with this incredible corner of NSW. 

The 2-hour tour we jumped on had us gliding over seaweed beds and rocky reefs, discovering a whole host of watery creatures as we paddled. The tour also allows you to learn about the First Nations Peoples' use of the area, before heading into the mangrove maze to do some taste testing of the local ingredients.

Our final stop for the trip was a foodie one – following a busy morning of paddling, a solid meal was needed to get us home. The ultra-cute Mossy on Pacific provided the goods.

We were starving, so ordered up big! Like its sister venue, Mossy on Gardens which we visited yesterday, the menu is fresh, wholesome and features a nice mix of all your breakfast favourites, alongside a few surprising flavours. 

Where we ate: Mossy On Pacific: 31 Pacific St, Mossy Point NSW 2537
What we ate: Pulled Pork Eggs Benny, Smashed Avo, Lemon Meringue French Toast and the Middle Eastern Bowl.

Driving out of the Mossy to head home, our whirlwind five-day tour delivered everything we expected and much more. We barely scraping the surface of activities and places to see, both in Western Sydney and the South Coast! But our appetite has been whet, and we'll no doubt be back for more.  

Caring for over 3000 animals across 400 species in three iconic wildlife parks - Mogo Wildlife Park on the NSW South Coast, Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park in Western Sydney and Hunter Valley Wildlife Park in the Hunter Valley.