NSW Coast Walk : Bulli to Sydney

KM this section : 58
KM completed : 712

You know where I am?  I'm in the jungle...

Looking to the north from Bulli, I can see that the land slopes steeply up away from sea, there are high cliffs a little way inland in fact.  Sure enough, my route goes that way, to begin with climbing along mountain bike tracks, through what the Australians call rainforest, rather different to the forests I've mostly walked through up 'til now, much of the undergrowth being some kind of palm tree, it feels very exotic.  Then I get to the 'Sublime Point Track', this is crazily steep, a sign warns me that there will be ladders, I assume this is local dialect for steps, but no, a series of metal ladders takes me up a vertical cliff face.  It is hard work with my pack on, but I'm rewarded with a fine view, and then a pleasant and pretty much flat track through more familiar forest.  Eventually I start to descend again, this time a gentle enough grade back down to a beach, and then up again, this time on an unpleasantly busy narrow road for a kilometre or two.  From here, the rest of the walk will be along the 'Royal Coastal Walk', this is a lovely walk, mostly along cliffs, and almost entirely on a walkway with a tough, artificial surface - I think this is the sort of thing the Kiwis I spoke to meant when they talked about Aussie paths all being wheelchair accessible.  I make it to camp at sunset, there is just enough light to cook up the kangaroo burgers I've bought as a celebratory last meal in the wild, who says such a thing cannot be cooked on a camp stove.  They're pretty tasty too...  There are many other campers, it seems to be some kind of christian young men's thing, well, they don't really bother me.

View from Sublime Point.

The christians leave at 4am, all very character building I am sure.  I wait for the rain, which has come down pretty heavily during the night, to stop, and then continue on the Royal Coastal Walk - it seems that the artificial surface is a recently laid new route, sadly they haven't bothered to remove the signs pointing along the old route, this leads to me walking around in a circle.  Then a few more beaches, passing a few points of interest such as wedding cake rock (carefully fenced off to prevent people taking selfies on it, apparently it may fall into the sea at any time), and some examples of aboriginal rock carving.  And that's pretty much it for the planned walking route... though in fact, after a ferry to Cronulla, and a rail replacement bus to Sydney's Central Station, I still find time for hurried tramp around the city - I have to get to the opera house for a photo.  Sydney seems nice, I like the botanic gardens, I should come back here.  Not totally sure about the harbour area where my hotel is, there seem to be lots of loud bars, but I manage to find one more to my taste for one last Aussie burger.

On the Royal Coastal Walk.

Well this was all rather awesome, totally worth the trip, great walking through beautiful countryside, and just so many interesting creatures to gawp at.  I could maybe have done with slightly less swimming, although honestly it worked pretty well, and given that this was not an official route in any way, it's amazing how little trouble I had, only very small amount of hacking through the bush or climbing fences, which to be honest with a little better planning I could probably have avoided.  I may do a more detailed retrospective at some point, with more facts and figures.  And I can certainly see me coming back to Australia, I have only scratched the surface of this huge country for one thing - or indeed, even within the region I was in, there is also a trail leading up the the country's highest mountain which sounds worth a look.

Had to be done.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

NSW Coast Walk : Kiama to Bulli

KM this section : 60
KM completed : 644

Walking out of Kiama, past the lighthouse.

Unsurprisingly I make it a lazy day in Kiama, it seems a nice place, and there are actually things to see - various buildings dating from victorian times, a large lighthouse, many churches, and I see many signs for the 'blowhole', which I guess will be a sea cave with a partially collapsed roof.  But apart from getting out to do a bit of shopping, I pretty much just hang around the campsite TV room...

Basalt columns.

It really is not far to Sydney now, and not far to walk on my first day out of Kiama, just twenty-seven kilometres in fact.  The Kiama Coast Walk continues, it is still nice, passing some interesting rock formations today, some are natural, some are the results of old quarrying.  There still is a quarry here, my GPS line goes along the road to it in fact, and there look to be many lorries rumbling along it - I find a better route among houses, although for a while I worry that I am in a gated community.  Then back to the sea, good to return to a beach, except, oops, it seems to be being dug up - there is a new marina under construction it seems, there are many danger signs, and on the beach a massive bulldozer is slowly shifting sand about.  Of course, I backtrack and walk around on the road, going through the construction site would be bad and wrong, and I certainly wouldn't want to spend the rest of the afternoon worrying whether somebody there called the police to report me for trespassing...  Well, I make it to camp, at a place named Windang, by 5pm, for the third night in a row I'm at a proper site.  And there is a nearby bowling club where it is schnitzel night - like the Kiwis, the Aussies like their schnitzel, although over here they still generally make it with chicken.

There is a beach somewhere under all that.

I walk out of Windang along a busy road, looks like there's not much land between the sea and the (very large) Lake Illawarra, what isn't this road is houses or a huge golf complex.  I do expect to leave the road after a few kilometres, but, it turns out the GPS line runs along a railway line, not ideal in this country where, unlike America, trains are fairly frequent and go faster than walking pace.  So, I walk along a cycle path instead, which is absolutely fine, for all that it is beside a six lane highway, with a truly enormous steel works between me and the sea.  The afternoon is rather better, I'm still on the cycle path, but it's now a nice route along the coast.  And it is another short day, I reach (another paid) camp for 4:30pm and this evening I find a 'workers club', I must say I approve of Australia's clubs, I have visited a few now and they are generally comfy, and are happy to provide non members like me with food - massive fish and chips tonight - and beer.

Windang Bridge, over the Lake Illawarra inlet.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

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.