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.