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.