nomad home page	start of walk	current stage	previous stage	next stage	visitor book	Whats new / Index

Stage 22 - Moruya Heads to Tuross Head

Looking at the map, this stage appeared to be a fairly direct route along the beach with a few headland crossings with no real features of interest, one of those journeyman days where the only aim is to get to the other end as quickly as possible. How uninformative maps can be; the South Coast was about to reveal more facets of its diversity and provide us with another fascinating trek.

Having sampled the soft sand of Dolphin Beach the previous evening, we decided to follow a dirt road that parallelled the beach inland for the first few kilometres. The road passed through coastal heath dominated by gnarled old banksia trees, illuminated with their lemon-coloured flowers. Where soil quality improved, patches of taller eucalypts replaced the banksias and in damper areas we passed through groves of casuarinas.

Dirt road parallelling the coast

Eucalypts on the left and casuarinas on the right
- the changes in vegetation were quite strongly defined

Gnarled old banksias

Coast houses near Congo Creek	Finally we emerged at Congo, a tiny isolated coastal village. Dropping down to the beach again, we rounded Congo Point, a softly moulded sedimentary headland. The twisted, jagged metamorphic rocks forming the headlands of the previous few days were now behind us. Ahead of us, the next headland glistened black in the sunlight; the first basalt flow that we had seen since near Bawley Point, 70 km to the north. The sun shone warmly on us, but a glance behind revealed the future of the day; dark grey clouds were approaching quickly from the north as we climbed up the heath-covered dunes and picked up a track heading inland from the southern edge of Congo village.
	Sedimentary cliffs of Congo Point	Basalt cliffs 2 km south of Congo

The weather ahead looked very promising but .........

...... dark clouds were chasing us from behind

Small pockets of undisturbed bushland, long narrow sections of coast, coastal lakes and wetlands and small islands have all been incorporated into the widely dispersed Eurobodalla National Park to protect them from further coastal development. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has done a great job in developing a system of marked trails within these park fragments and these, linked by sections of beach walking, formed the remainder of our path for the day. While walking through Murramarang National Park earlier, we had also noticed many improvements to park infrastructure. The National Parks and Wildlife Service deserves to be applauded both for the way in which it is taking steps to protect the beauty and diversity of the South Coast and for facilitating access to it.

Ironbark forest

View toward Meringo from a grassy headland

Rural landscape at Meringo

The marked track led us through an open ironbark forest before emerging on a grassy headland with panoramic views over Meringo and Mulimburra Point. Meringo is an old dairying property and the green rural landscape that we glimpsed contrasted sharply to the blue-grey of the coastal forest. We descended to the sandbar blocking the mouth of Meringo Creek and crossed the deserted beach, before climbing back up the next headland, where made our only human encounter for the day – a farmer riding a very large draught-horse. He told us that he was returning from Tuross and the giant hoof prints of his horse appeared from time to time throughout the day to assure us that we were on the right path.

Sand bar across Meringo Creek

Looking north from Meringo

Wind-sheared vegetation on the seaward side
of a headland

Climbing up through the wind-sculpted shrubs on Mulimburra Point, we again entered a diverse and changing vegetation, low acacia heath, taller banksias, scrubby coastal mallees, casuarina thickets and clumps of paperbark, as the track threaded its way across the headland to Meringo Beach.		In a grassy clearing
Track through the acacia heath	Wind-twisted coastal mallee

Lichen covered rocks on Meringo Beach

Again a changed and confusing geology confronted us in the form of mixed granite and basalt boulders, partly covered by orange-coloured lichens, brilliant against the grey sky that had by now engulfed us. At the southern end of the beach, Bingie Bingie Point is a well-known site for geology students because of the complexity of the igneous rock formations found there.

Bingie Bingie Point

Modern day middens - the remains of an abalone poacher's picnic

Crossing a grassy headland

The 2.5 m wingspan of an albatross -
What an ignominous end for this king of the ocean swells

The ocean is continually reshaping beaches

5 km seems such a long way in the calf-burning
soft sand of Bingie Beach

From Bingie Bingie, we could see the silhouette of Norfolk Island pines that marked Tuross Head. Only the 5 km stretch of Bingie Beach separated us from our destination. An hour and a half later, we arrived with calves aching; it is surprising how much soft sand can slow you down. However, the diversity of vegetation and geology had ensured that our fascination for the South Coast did not diminish.


nomad home page	start of walk	current stage	previous stage	next stage	visitor book	web design by gang-gang
Back to top