NSW Coast Walk : Green Island to Kiama

KM this section : 111
KM completed : 584

Él no es marinero / es capitán, es capitán...

I awake to see that Green Island is now properly out to sea, good thing I didn't camp there... Time to walk then, and yes, this means a beach or three - I confess, I am beginning to get a little bored of them.  It is easy walking at least, as far as lunch anyway, I eat beside Sussex Inlet which bars my way north, and seems very wide.  Well, the GPS line follows the bank inland, so I do also, then come to a point at which the line crosses the water, right next to a boat hire place, hmm.  Well, no need for me to swim all of them, so, a bearded nautical type takes me over for a mere ten dollars.  No sooner am I back on dry land, than I spot an echidna making its way across the track ahead, Australia continues to impress with its weird fauna.  From here a long gravel road takes me past the substantial St. George's Basin, and then off back towards the sea, but then the track vanishes, and I am faced with a kilometre or so of insane bushwhacking.  The brush is sometimes chest high, and I worry about what creatures may be lurking in it, other than the massive spiders who I can at least see overhead, sat in their giant webs which I try to duck under.  It is a great relief to rejoin a real path, then not long after I am at my planned campsite - sadly I find it is now just a picnic area, so, off into the woods it is then.

Looking over the Crookhaven, from where I entered the water.

Another day, and of course another beach, and then the longest swim yet, a channel busy with pleasure craft, whale watching boats and so forth.  I wait for a pause in the traffic, then clamber down the piled up boulders into the water, taking a few cuts and scrapes on the way, and then swim.  A strong current is flowing inland, better than out to sea I guess... I'm swept along rather faster than I can swim, but still make steady progress, perpendicular to the current as it were, and indeed as the inlet is curved I return to dry land pretty much where I intended, and only bleeding a little.  More beach walking in my pants ensues, then more water to cross, just a wade this time, and then a nice cycle path.  Leaving yet another beach, my GPS won't turn on, this is not a good time, the wood I'm in is some kind of mosquito hell, still I manage to go the right way and eventually the thing decides to work again.  On to, seriously, yet more water, namely the river Crookhaven.  I follow the line and get to a small jetty, and realise it must at this point be the record of boat trip - no boats about now, I fear...  So, I slog through mangrove swamp to find the best point to cross, the water still looks very wide, but it has to be done.  I set to stripping off and packing up, manage to shed some more blood too, slicing my finger on a shell... Then the swim, this takes a while, the other side just doesn't seem to be getting any nearer, I have to remind myself that this happens with walking too.  There is at least not much current, and eventually I get to the other side, which unexpectedly has a bar, I cannot resist, bring on beer plus pizza, yay.  Then a kilometre or two of night walking, first on road, then a farm track, private land I guess, no help for it, not least I need to find somewhere to camp - a flat bit of grass by some trees will do.

More crazy Australian animals.

Sure enough, I awake in a field, complete with cows, well, got away with it.  The tracks here are up on embankments, I guess this is a drained lagoon, it all feels kind of Dutch.  A short walk and I am looking at yet more water to cross, except this time I can take the Comerong Island ferry, well maybe - the guy in charge tells me sternly that no foot passengers are allowed, but no, this is Aussie humour.  Ha ha.  Comerong Island is very flat, there are more cows, and also horrid flies of the 'really want to land on your head' kind, I am glad to walk off on to a sandbank - seems that currently the island is not, in fact, an island.  Then, shockingly, a beach - a long, long beach, all the way to the small town of Gerroa.  Here my GPS line makes another odd choice, going through a house, heading for a stretch of private land by the looks of it.  I opt for a roadside cycle path instead, them for the rest of the afternoon take the Kiama Coast Walk, a fine cliff path leading to, of course, the historic town of Kiama.  Here I book into a proper campsite, and unsurprisingly head out to find beer plus burger, in a rather odd bar - beer is cheap, but I could do without the youths routing snippets of terrible music from their phones through to some kind of amplifier.

Possible location of pot of gold : Kiama.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Batehaven to Green Island

KM this section : 100
KM completed : 473

In a proper campsite at Batehaven.

I emerge from my tent, pitched in a not terribly stealthy spot at the edge of a beach, check my GPS, and discover that I am in Batehaven, where I planned to camp, just a hundred metres or so from the Big 4 campsite.  So, I move there, and have a very lazy day, I need the rest - I cannot even be bothered trying to find a bar for dinner, instead I get a pizza and a sixpack of beer, and consume them while reading some of campsite's book collection.

Cephalopod art by Batemans Bay.

Feeling better for a rest, I head out on to the beach the following morning, of course there is a small creek to wade.  Then road for a few kilometres to Batemans Bay, where I do a bit of shopping, including much needed new socks, hopefully my feet will like them - they are a little sore thanks to the constant presence of sand in my shoes.  I walk a along a bit of the busy Prince's Highway, not much fun, and then of course more beach, plus some mostly pleasant forest tracks.  There's a section where the GPS line suggests traversing a rocky slope above the waves, I take a path instead, and then my map shows a big river to cross, but I'm glad to see it is dry despite the recent rain.  Buoyed somewhat by this, I follow the line around one headland rather than taking the obvious trail, this involves much bouldering, then a walk on wet rocks beneath a cliff, if the tide was in just a bit more would not be possible, and as it is I worry about getting cut off by the rising water.

Glad I didn't try this at high tide.

After a night on a pleasant grassy spot by the sea, I walk a little then pop into a private campsite to obtain water and use their facilities.  Perhaps this earns me some bad karma, as while I am in the 'dunny', a bird steals the crackers I was going to have with some cheese for lunch...  Oops.  Ah well, it is at least a nice morning of walking on the Durras Mountain Trail, good to climb a hill - the 'mountain' being fully two hundred and seventy-seven metres above sea level.   I return to the coast, passing through a picnic area where Paul and Greg, a couple of friendly locals, provide me with tea and cake - as near to trail magic as I will get here.  I find a small store, where replacement crackers set me back four dollars fifty, ouch - they do come with some kind of cheesy spread, but it is so horrid that I bin it.  Then back to walking the beaches and headlands, I cross another dry inlet, and then another rocky ledge to get around, this time actual mountaineering is needed.

Think I can probably manage to wade this one.

The next morning there are, amazingly, more beaches, well it is easy enough going, to Ulladulla for lunch - I seem to be doing OK for money, so I find a bar for beer and burger.  Time for a bit of shopping too, this being my first town for a couple of days.  And still there are more beaches, then some excitement, a wide inlet to cross, much is just a paddle, I wish I hadn't wrapped up the camera as armies of dainty blue crabs scuttle about.  Then a deep channel, which I just about manage to wade, on a winding and tricky to see line of sand.  Lightning flashes nearby, and it starts to chuck it down as I walk one more beach, well at least all my stuff is wrapped up in the drybag.  The rain clears, a rainbow appearing as I reach Green Island, a little wooded spur of land, currently I can walk onto it and consider camping, but I don't want to get cut off by the tide - easy enough to find a spot by the beach anyway.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Victoria Creek to Batehaven

KM this section : 99
KM completed : 373

Walking doesn't get much easier than this.

Time for some serious walking, I make an 8am start, and as it turns out Victoria Creek is just a waist high wade.  Then there's more beaches, more headland, and another small town for lunch, Narooma.  My route takes me along a cycle route for six kilometres or so to Dalmeny, then it is yet more beach.  There is still lots of interesting wildlife, I see parrots in the trees, and out to sea there are mammals of some kind playing in the surf.  No, not the gnarly surfer dudes, though there are plenty of them, but rather I think whales of some kind.  And on the beach, I walk beside big, birdlike tracks, maybe an emu?  But it is a long day, my feet are feeling it, though I do at least make up the distance to get back on plan.

Bingie Bingie Point.  So good they named it twice...

I am still going, next morning I have another big swim, a strong current tries to drag me out to sea but I manage to resist it.  From here it is a nice walk to Bingie Bingie point, then there is a Bingie trail too, it makes a nice change from the beach.  And then further inland, to avoid a big estuary it seems, good to see a bit of the interior, there is much grass with cows grazing, it feels very English, barring the Aussie style buildings - squat and square built, with verandas and gently sloping roofs.  The weather seems kind of English too, it rains on and off, not cold though.  I reach my planned (private) campsite at 5:30pm but nobody is there, so I decide to camp in a small park across the road instead, but first, to a nearby bar for burger plus beer.

Makes a nice change from beaches.

A bit of road walking takes me back to coast, then some dirt tracks, easy enough.  I don't fancy swimming the Tomaga river, so detour around on the road, this means delay of course, I don't need it on what is a long day already.  Things get worse after lunch, there are many little beaches, with a slog up and over the headland between each of them.  Then I follow my GPS line over a rocky beach to find myself facing a cliff, maybe the people who made the line were here at low tide and it was possible to walk along the base of the cliff, but I have to backtrack and take the road, in fact it is a long road walk now.  Doesn't look like I will make my planned camp, and as it gets later I worry about finding some food before everything shuts at 8pm - as seems the norm in this country.  The road has plenty of houses, but no shops, restaurants or whatever, I keep walking, and finally reach some sort of place at around 7:30pm.  There's no bar, but I get a couple of cans of beer from a drive-through 'bottle shop', and a hearty plate of shrimp fried rice.  Everything does indeed shut at eight.

The insurmountable cliffs.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Tathra to Victoria Creek

KM this section : 63
KM completed : 274

Why, I didn't need to bring the tent!

The Big 4 Tathra campsite is very convivial, I get free tea and cake, plus a chance meet the other residents - all elderly Aussie holidaymakers.  They seem impressed by my crazy walking, and the owners even call their son, who has walked the section north of here, he is going to pop over and advise me.  I do the normal zero day stuff, shopping, clean clothes, and decide to stay at camp and cook meat tonight.  Visiting the bowling club where I had dinner last night, and apparently the only place around that sells alcohol, they offer a sixpack of small bottles of beer for twenty dollars, or four and half litres of wine for eleven dollars... I am confused.  The owners' son, Mark, turns up, he seems to agree with my planned route, though he reckons I will do about fifteen kilometres tomorrow.  I then drink too much wine...

Seagulls in flight / like a song, but not quite.

There follows a 10am start, this is not great, the morning goes well enough though, a mix of beaches and good paths.  I do have to swim another inlet, well, the water is maybe chest high, perhaps I could have waded.  I am fine with the swimming, but the wet bag is very heavy after each dip, and I find that I chafe unpleasantly walking in wet pants...  Things go downhill after lunch, the paths are less well used, this section includes the wallaby tracks, and indeed fence hopping, that Mark warned me of.  There is another swim too, I really don't need two in a day.  Then gruelling, barely visible track over headlands and down into numerous coves, going is very slow, I end up camped in one cove, it is just too dark to keep walking, but I am several kilometres behind plan.

Definitely got her best side here.

I try to make up the distance next day but it is hard, I need to cross another inlet, I'm able wade this one so the bag stays dry at least, but then there's a long section of rocky scrambling, it's slow work.  I get lunch in the little town of Bermagui, from of all places Woolworths!  Good to see some countries still have them.  Then some long beaches, separated by headlands, I need to climb over those of course - descending one at around 7pm, I can see the water of Victoria Creek below, I'm not going to swim now so no choice but to pitch up here... still three kilometres short of plan.

Swamp Wallaby!

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Hegarty's Bay to Tathra

KM this section : 93
KM completed : 211


A Goanna.  Massive thing it was.

From my camp at Hegarty's Bay (suitable for experienced bush walkers only, as the signs have it) I continue onto the second half of the Light to Light walk, it's just as nice, fine cliff walking, more deserted beaches, all cool.  I spot a couple of big lizards, two or three feet long, and less welcome, some massive spiders, as big as my hand, their huge webs stretched across the path, even when it is wide enough for vehicles.  End of the marked path is Boyd's Tower, built by a Scottish entrepreneur in the 1840s, after that I am back to a line on the map that in theory, at least, somebody has walked.  This soon goes wrong, the line leads me to private land, high fences block the way, I work around on gravel tracks built to allow access to the electric pylons around here, this makes for some very steep climbing.  Then down to another water hazard, this one seems wider, also the current tries to drag me away from the finger of sand I am aiming for, but I make it.  I then walk a mile or so of sandbar in my pants, as you do, but cover up before reaching the small community of Boydtown, yes, founded by the same man.  There is a pub, yay, I obtain beer and Aussie speciality Chicken Parmigiana, or 'parma / parmie' - there seem to be a variety of short forms.  Anyway, it is a breaded chicken breast, topped with tomato sauce, a thick slice of ham plus cheese, many calories are involved.

A huge Orb Weaver - saw an awful lot of these, I gather they're not poisonous.

The next morning there is more beach, but no path - after a while I find myself clambering along rocks at the base of a cliff, this is very hard, at one point I have to drop down a sheer face into the sea, only a foot or so deep at least.  It proves hard to get into Eden this way, a big fenced off area blocks my path requiring a lengthy detour..  Good to get to a proper town anyway, I do a bit of shopping, but then it is tricky getting out too, after more sandbar I follow the only way forward, and end up in someone's (giant) garden.  The afternoon goes rather better, there's a nice path through woods, then a few miles of beach, but of course a sting in the tail, I have to swim a broad river, but in fact it is actually fun, and the look on the faces of people on the other side as I emerge from the water is priceless.

Tough walking on a power line maintenance track.

Next day brings a fine morning of walking, beaches of course, a stroll through the small town of Merimbula, and some pleasant woodland paths.  After an 8am start I am halfway through my planned day's walk by lunch at midday, this is all good.  But then the Kangarutha trail turns out to be a bit of a trial, there is so much steep up and down, surely more than can possibly fit into the supposed nine kilometre distance.  At least today there is no swimming, and in the end I make it to camp for 6pm, time for a rest, then to a bar for fish and chips and a 'schooner' or two of beer.

The Pambula River - took a little while to swim across this one.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Genoa to Hegarty's Bay

KM this section : 118
KM completed : 118

Kangaroos!

My first day of walking in Oz is an easy one, just twenty-three kilometres of road to Mallacoota.  I feel it afterwards though, seems I am a little out of shape, I guess this little stroll by the sea should do me good.  There are nice, grassy surroundings, cows graze, it is quite reminiscent of England.  Of course there are mosquitoes, but rather more excitingly, kangaroos - a whole mob of them hanging out by the campsite that is my destination today. Also plenty of birds here, many of them making some odd noises.  Mallacoota is located on the shore of a large lake, separated from the sea by a long sand bank, I need to get onto that tomorrow, hopefully this can be done without swimming.  The evening sees me drinking more pricey beer, but I decide my budget doesn't stretch to eating out, pasta at the camp kitchen it is.

Mallacoota sandbank.

I walk around the lake, spotting a large jellyfish at the water's edge - a local assures me it is not poisonous.  Well, for now I need not worry about dangerous marine life, it seems that currently the lake is cut off from the sea and I can simply walk down to the sand, and then indeed for a long way along the beach, it is all rather splendid, and not unlike the beginning of my walk in New Zealand a few years ago of course.  I pass a couple of islands, stop for a paddle, then it's time for some tough walking on dunes of soft sand.  Then an actual path, it is little used and quite overgrown, but interesting as many of the plants are bristle cones - they are indeed bristly, with numerous open seed pods like strange mouths between the bristles.  I camp by a lake, a lovely spot for a little swim, many black swans paddle about as I collect some water - it's a bit salty, but I am sure it won't kill me.  Time to build a fire and cook up some noodles!

Cooking up dinner by Nadgee Lake.

Next morning the path is still very overgrown, this makes for slow going, then things get even harder as I need to do a bit of bushwhacking, this is hard work, I am glad to emerge on to the Wilderness Coast Walking Track.  It also seems little used, I see no hikers, but the path improves over the course of the day.  Aussie woods seem more like England than NZ, the occasional termite mound notwithstanding.  I ascend some big hills, then down to Wonboyn where there is a garage that sells me chocolate, a campsite and little else - I think I need to get a bit further, and end up wild camping in the bush.

A little more beach walking, then a short bushwhack, and then I encounter my first water hazard of the trip, Wonboyn Lake inlet.  In the event the swim is easy enough, and my waterproofing holds, this is good.  I worry that I now have half a mile or so of trackless bush to get through, but in fact there is a clear path, and then a road to Green Cape Lighthouse, this marks one end of the Light to Light Walk, a proper signed path, with actual other hikers!  It is fully thirty kilometres long, signs gravely warn me that if attempting to hike the whole trail, I should let someone know what I am doing - I don't think they really do long distance walking in this country.  It is a fine walk anyway, through trees and scrub, then bare rock, all within earshot of the sea, and I find a nice grassy campsite, complete with an actual fire pit.

At Green Cape Lighthouse.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Intro

Making my way from Sydney airport to a hotel.

More adventure!  Well, it is about time, so, off to Australia, not quite a new country for me, but I've never been further than Melbourne Airport here.  A huge place of course, I have a month here so barely time to scratch the surface.  My plan is to take a couple of buses seven hundred kilometres south from Sydney, just over the border into Victoria state, then walk the coast back up.  This is not any kind of official route, there will not be signs, but it has been done before by at least a few people, one of whom has recorded their route so I know more or less where to go.  What can go wrong?

Well, it sure is a long way to the start, I could do without spending much of a night at Singapore airport, though clearly they are set up for it.  Then to Sydney, a bit of hassle buying a SIM card that turns out not to work, then a bit of a trot to my hotel, and a nearby bar for beer and burger.  Beer is pricey here, also looks like they do the same thing as NZ, only special 'liquor stores' can sell it at all, annoying.

Next day I have a long bus ride to Eden where I find a nice campsite, do some shopping, food here is not too pricey at least.  One beer in a bar, but there is no food there so it's back to camp with a pizza, though of course I can't buy a beer to take back with me, all the town's liquor stores having shut, fortunately a generous fellow camper comes to the rescue.  A night in the tent, one more hour of bus to the historic, but tiny, settlement of Genoa, and it is time to start walking!

At the start of the walk in Genoa - behind me you can see the bus I took from Eden.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.