Here is my 'current' hometown ALBION PARK RAIL.
The collage shows - Warilla Beach, Lake Illawarra, a view of the area with the red arrow pointing to our house and Minnamurra Rainforest.
I chose here for my hometown for several reasons....
Firstly when I moved back to Sydney from the bush in around 2002 I could afford a house here and be mortgage free.
I loved the 'open country' feel of the area and when I came down to look for a house, there was a girl walking a horse down the street - it made me feel right at home.
It is between the rainforest and the sea - 10-15 mins either way AND it was near my best friend Maureen who lived in Kiama.
So - I bought a house here at 'the Rail' and settled to my new life as a 'single' person.
Although there have been some changes to my original plans, it it has worked out well and I am happy here.
My DD Tracey and her family now live in my house and I share a house just a couple of streets away with my mate Maureen.
The beautiful Lake Illawarra is just 5 mins away and I love to look over it as I load my shopping into the car in the carpark of Woolies at Shellharbour Square. I also trundle down to the lake with my kayak and have a paddle sometimes - not as often as I would like.
If you look closely (click to make it bigger)at the lake photo in the collage you can see me paddling in the distance!
Just an hour up Macquarie Pass and you are in the Southern highlands towns of Mittagong or Bowral with their tulips and crisp autumn and winter (brrrrrr) days.
I like to 'adopt' a mountain range for mine - in Narrabri it was the Nandewars - here it is the beautiful Illawarra escarpment - so clear and crisp with the morning sun on the rock faces.
I now work 2 days a week just 10 minutes away in the picturesque old town of Kiama - life is good.
This is a shot of our house with it's lovely reserve out the back. We don't have much yard here but then who needs one when I can just go out the back gate with the dogs and we have all of this great area to walk?
Lastly a few more photo's of the area.
Yes there is a railway station here - Albion Park, but I usually catch the train the next station up - Oak Flats. It's a two hour trip to Sydney.
We also have an airport here - the Illawarra Regional Airport.
There used to be a QANTAS fight direct to Melbourne but we lost that a few months ago. The airport is home to HARS - the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society. The big hangar houses 'Connie' the only Super Constellation flying in the world. I remember seeing the '3 tailer's'at Mascot when I was a little thing. They also have a wartime Catalina flying boat, a DC3 and a couple of other historic old aircraft down there. The weekend is busy with small aircraft overhead practicing their 'stalls' etc plus helicopters and ultralights. There used to be a jet joy flight company called Topgun which was a bit noisy but they have moved on in recent months.
Then there's Kiama as I mentioned earlier. It's just down the road with it's trendy growers and craft markets on Black Beach. Zara and I love to go and feed the seagulls and pelicans.
Then sunset on Lake Illawarra - to get that shot, we went and sat by the 'Ski Gardens' with a glass of 'bubbly' and some nibbles waiting for the sun to set.
As I said - life is good.
