April 6, 2019 by Chai Vuriti
Hiking the Royal National Park
My roommate and I started from home to Cronulla early in the morning to catch a ferry to Bundeena, the start point of the trek.
Having reached around 9:30 AM in the morning, our initial plan was to complete the entire track of 26KM on the same day but I had other thoughts when we took our first detour at Jibbon Head.
Instead of following the track, we planned to walk along the shore with an ocean view. It was a breathtaking experience crossing the cliffs, climbing up and down changing the nature of walk to a trek. The track was so far away at this point but I did not care. There were no people near me (except my roommate of course) and all I could see was the deep blue ocean and bright cliffs. I felt so alive. After a few minutes, we reached The Balconies. The stunning views never stopped coming. We followed the trail to continue our way to the Wedding Cake Rock. It’s a rock but shaped like a sliced piece of cake. It looks beautiful and magnificent as a wedding cake. Honestly. As the entry on to the rock is banned due to rock slides, I couldn’t actually step on it. But the views were so cool but again the place is crowded with people. We continued our trek along the cliffs and reached Marley Head. This is one of the places where the panoramic views are a delight. It’s very high and a bit out into the ocean so you’d actually get a 360° view of what’s around you. And guess what. The answer’s nothing. It was like a No Man’s Land. There was not even a single person except me and my roommate. We then climbed down to Marley Beach and laid down for a couple of minutes under the sun enjoying the sea breeze. After a quick refresh, we then started our trek along the coast to reach one more beach, goes by the name Little Marley Beach. By this time, it’s a known fact that most beaches in Sydney are accompanied by either a Little beach or Shelly Beach. Noteworthy. We crossed Little Marley beach and then started going deep into the woods at this point. The bushes are dense and I started to hear the sounds of water falling from not so high. The sound started becoming more and more apparent. I could finally see where the water was falling as we reached Wattamolla waterfalls. It was a beautiful sight and very peaceful with just the sound of the waterfalls. I refilled my water bottle from the running water after the waterfall. I like how I get these wild experiences without even a clue. We continued our trek and after a considerable distance, we reached Eagle Head Rock. As the name goes, the rock is shaped like a beak of an eagle. The views were also very beautiful and stunning from up here. We continued our hike sticking to the track for some time as the light started fading and we were only halfway there. I initially thought this would happen when we started our trek along the cliff edges instead of just walking along the track. After a lot of walking, we finally reached the Garie beach. We have a decision to make. Either to continue the walk till Otford or break the hike into a 2-day plan. I opted for the latter as I did not want to rush the remaining track. We rested on the beach for quite some time and tried to book a cab. Unfortunately, the cabs will not come into the national parks to pick passengers. So our option is to walk to the nearby railway station which is almost 14KM away. We started walking just out of the parking spot and a very nice gentleman offered us a lift after almost 5 cars crossed me waving my hand asking for a lift. I had a lot of fun playing with his beautiful and cute little daughter Victoria. After he dropped us at Loftus station, we returned home with so little energy and so much adventurous experience.
Although I went to the Blue Mountains the very next day and that’s not until next chapter, I’ll skip a week here and move to following weekend.
After leaving the Coastal trek halfway last week, we decided to finish what we started. We reached the Waterfall station to reach the start point on the walking track. Although it was 14 KM away, we decided to walk to Garie beach through the dense bushes of Royal National Park. There was no trail as such but walking through the bushes along the road and overlooking all the valleys and waterfalls was a beautiful experience. We somehow completed the 14 KM walk without much difficulty as the route was not too high-grade track. After reaching Garie beach, we resumed our trek right from where we stopped last week. After crossing the Little Garie beach, we continued walking along the coast and reached Burning Palms beach. Instead of sticking to the track, we again took a detour climbing the rocks along the shore to reach the Figure 8 Pools and we did. It was one hell of a journey but the experience was amazing and breathtaking. Figure 8 Pools are so beautiful and a must visit. The pools in the shape of 0’s and 8’s formed by constant erosion were so exciting and a place to chill out. But here’s the funny thing. At this point, we are completely out of track and we need to walk back to Burning Palms beach to join the walking track. I did not want to do that. When I opened Google Maps, I could see the Coastal Trek metres away but the catch? It was on the hill. Yes, you guessed me right. That’s exactly what I was thinking.
We climbed the entire steep hill which is at a 90° grade. With no climbing gear whatsoever, we gradually started climbing the hill with the help of rocks above the pools but a few meters high, there were no supports. At that point, I realised it’s more fun than rock-climbing at amusement parks as this is an actual hill and we have no harness. We climbed more than 100 feet with so much difficulty and finally reached the top of the hill and only metres away from the Coastal track. But the track is nowhere to be seen. We are lost again. Trying to walk to the nearest track location, we passed a lot of dense bushes and that’s when I stumbled across a black snake. It was only an encounter of 5 seconds but somehow I did not feel scared. The snake went back into the bushes and I alerted my roommate to check twice while stepping on the bushes. After about 10 minutes of wandering over the hill, we finally joined the Coast track as it just entered the Palm Jungle. Walking through a dense forest covered with Palm trees and not much light could penetrate, it was one of the best scenes. I felt very refreshed. We continued our hike along the track and reached Werrong Lookout. It’s the last milestone before the Otford Lookout. I climbed over the cliff and spent a little time experiencing the breathtaking views and sea breezes. Then after a long hike, we finally reached Otford Lookout which is the endpoint for the Coastal Track. We made it. Even though we had to split the trek into 2 parts, we experienced a little different from other people doing the same walk. It’s all adventurous and scenic all along the way. It did not matter when we lost in the bushes, or we walked a 14 KM extra length to reach the start point of Part B, the Royal National Park Trek was one of the best and amazing experiences in my life and has given me a sense of Freedom and Wilderness. I laid down on the grass at. Otford lookout overlooking the beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.
