The Coast Track

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The Coast track is a 26 kilometer (~16 mile) hiking trail through the Royal National Park to the south of Sydney. For most of its course the track follows the undulating coastline skirting around sheer cliffs and crossing sandy white beaches. Most people spend two or three days on the trail over-nighting at a primitive camping ground along the way.

We finished packing up Friday morning. Friends and colleagues had come through in loaning us the camping gear we lacked including: a tent, a backpack, and sleeping pads. I sewed up a fleece blanket to serve as a sleeping bag and prepared some backpacking snacks.

We took the train an hour south to the beach side suburb of Cronulla. From there we caught a ferry across Gunnamatta Bay to the village of Bundeena that lies on the outskirts of the Royal National Park. We set up camp at the Bonnie Vale camp site just outside of town and then spent the afternoon hiking around the area. On our walk we came across a red-bellied black snake stalking a beetle. We had a bit more excitement that evening when a possum decided our trail mix looked appealing and that he was going to join us dinner. The possum nonchalantly sauntered over and hopped up on the picnic table. After a water bottle to the nose and some clapping and shouting he slunk off.  

Big Marley Beach
Saturday morning Jean and I set off on the trail. We were soon hiking along the edge of mottled sandstone cliffs overlooking the ocean. Towards late morning we came upon Marley Beach, a long, white expanse of white sand where we stopped for second breakfast and a swim. Soon after leaving the beach we caught sight of a pod of whales moving south. For lunch we stopped at a dammed up pool and I had another swim.

After crossing several more beaches we arrived at the primitive campsite in the late afternoon. Jean and I set up the tent in a sheltered little valley and then padded off to the beach to cool off. The skies began to turn dark and around eight, just as we had finished dinner, big, fat rain drops began to fall. We crawled into the tent and let the drumming on the rain fly put us to sleep.

On Sunday we only had 5 or so miles to go so we eased out of camp towards mid morning. After a couple of ups and downs we hiked up to a ridge and followed the flat, canopied trail all the way to the end.
26 kilometers down
 

Comments

sly said…
What fun! The scenery is gorgeous! It looked like you were all alone there--don't the Aussies like backpacking? Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us!
8 November 2011 at 09:12
Aaron said…
I guess the pictures were misleading. There was a fair amount of traffic on the trail.
9 November 2011 at 14:12
M and D said…
Loved the pictures and information. Sounded like an intersting trip. Seeing whales! Brilliant!! Did you have to carry all your food and drink? Do you have some good footwear for walking? love M and D
10 November 2011 at 13:07
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