Not long ago I completed two daywalks along sections of the Coastal Track in Royal National Park. This is first class coastal walking. The scenery varies from making your way along the tops of mighty cliffs, hiking through moors, along sandy beaches or clambering over headlands.
On my walks, I had really nice weather – perhaps not the best for photographs, but certainly nice for walking. A very striking feature was the number of honeyeaters flying around. They were all New Holland Honeyeaters and there seemed to be a plague of them. In every direction you looked there were dozens of them.
Lots of people were about – on the beeches and at Wattamolla, but I saw few actually walking along the track. It was midweek when I did my walks – but it was also school holiday time.
Its interesting to be by yourself and armed with a camera and tripod and see what you can find that is interesting. You need to take your time and potter around. I wandered along some side tracks looking for waterfalls or interesting rock features.
The cliffs between Bundeena and Marley are always spectacular. A good place to look for whales at the right time of the year. It would be a great coastline to walk along when really big waves crash into the cliffs.
The beach at Marley has a well deserved reputation for being dangerous for swimming. The preferred option being the smaller and much more placid Little Marley Beach. The lagoon behind Marley is quite interesting.
The major stream flowing into the lagoon at Wattamolla is another place to stop and look at the waterfalls. These lie below a small rock dam. Its a short but worthwhile diversion to scramble down some of the small waterfalls.
Further south lies another fascinating place – the inlet of Curracurrang. This is one more place that it is worth wandering upstream along Curracurrang Creek to a nice pool and waterfall. A very beautiful and peaceful place.
Then it is not far through the moors to Curracurrong. Unlike Curracurrang, the quite large creek here tumbles over a high sheer drop into the sea. Close by lies the overhanging Eagle Rock.
Then it is more moorland walking to windswept Garie Beach. Not far away, across headlands are North and South Era Beaches. The old shanty huts close to South Era that date back from the depression now seem to be heritage listed. At one time, under a different policy, the huts were apparently owned by some of the “oldest” people in Sydney. In those times, when the owner died, the hut was supposed to revert back to NPWS possession. It seemed that very few owners died.
Its also interesting to think back to a conservation campaign, I think in the 1930’s, to preserve the Garrawarra area above the beaches. The area was saved due to the actions of Myles Dunphy and others. One key part that stopped developers was when the Sydney Bushwalking Club purchased a key block of land (South Era Beach). This land was latter added to Royal National Park. This is part of history that should not be forgotten.
For more photos of my walk – see my website here. For photos of the section between Era and Otford look at an older blog entry.