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Stage 38 - Little River to Lake Wau Wauka

Overnight a cloud band had moved across and we awoke to an overcast sky. After breaking camp, we crossed the beach at Little River, before climbing up once again into the paperbark and banksia forests that lined the coastal cliffs. After a few kilometres, we turned inland to follow an old disused dirt road toward Harry's Hut on the Nadgee River. We decided to do this rather than stick to the coast after talking to Rick, a solo walker heading south to north and who passed by our campsite at Little River the previous evening. He had advised us that fresh water was plentiful there and we needed to fill up our containers again.

As we headed inland, eucalypts again became dominant and the forest was taller. Finally we reached the ford at the Nadgee River, lined with a luxurious vegetation, including dense ferns and vines. The extra weight of the water in our packs was noticeable as we crossed the river by crawling across a fallen tree trunk, but soon we were greeted with the welcome sight of Harry's Hut in a tiny clearing, a reminder of a failed farming venture in this wilderness area that was abandoned over 60 years ago.

Creek bed vegetation

Lush fern-filled river flats

Nadgee River

Crossing Nadgee river

	The track from Harry's Hut soon turned back toward the coast, the vegetation becoming drier and less lush as we headed away from the river. Finally, it emerged on the edge of Nadgee Moor, where the forest suddenly gave way to a large area of low coastal heath. The track then turned due south in a straight line across the moor. Small white everlasting daisies, and the red, white and pink bells of epacris provided a dash of colour to the flat green of the heath as we passed by.
	At Harry's Hut	Grassy clearing in the forest

Heading south across the heath of Nadgee Moor	mmmmmmmmmm
	mmmmmmmmmm

The track across the heath turned east and brought us out on a wild isolated section of beach and the sand bar blocking off Nadgee Lake. The view back over the lake, with its resident flock of black swans, to the blue silhouette of the mountains behind it made it a perfect lunch stop. There had been a lunar eclipse two nights earlier and the conjunction of sun and moon led to monster tides, which, from the patterns in the sand, had flowed over the bar and into the lake. We were glad to pass by on a low tide.

Back to the sea again

Black swans on Nadgee Lake

Nadgee Lake and the Pacific Ocean

Track through low heath on Endeavour Moor	Leaving the lake, we climbed up on to Endeavour Moor, where the track became increasingly tenuous as it wound its way through heath that ranged from shin-high to head-high. We were glad that we were wearing long-legged trousers on this stage; the woody heath plants would be merciless on bare legs. Nadgee Wilderness is reknowned as a stronghold of the rare ground parrot, but we only saw one, on Endeavour Moor, as we crossed. This made us realise how privileged we were to have had several encounters with these secretive birds during the lighthouse to lighthouse walk the previous week.
	In the windswept mid-height heath	Emerging from a crawl through a paperbark thicket

As we approached Cape Howe, the track became increasingly vague and we had to concentrate hard to remain on it; the punishment for losing the track risked being very severe in this dense heath. Several weeks earlier, a ranger had commented about crawling through paperbark thickets at stages of this walk and we had thought he was exaggerating. He wasn't! Finally, we emerged from the last dense thicket to the Bunyip Hole, a pleasant little waterhole and camping spot in a depression between the moor and the coastal dunes. At the Bunyip Hole we had a quiet celebration; the sun had emerged for a brief spell and we had just reached the 600 km mark of our walk.

mmmmmmmmm

The Bunyip Hole

Climbing over the banks of the depression, we descended at last to the beach; across the rolling breakers to the south, the sun shone on the massive sand dunes, up to 40 m high, of Cape Howe. Climbing up into these dunes from the beach, Nello spotted the tracks of a dingo heading south. We followed them and they led us across the cape to where a small cairn of stones and slightly crooked concrete pillar marked the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Stepping onto Victorian sand for the first time, we reached another milestone in our walk. We had left Nadgee and were now in Croajingalong National Park. Cape Howe - where the east coast of Australia turns into the south coast		The New South Wales - Victoria border at Conference Point
Nello follows the dingo tracks across the dunes	40 m high sand dunes	Crossing Cape Howe

For the first couple of kilometres the Victorian coast comprised a rock shelf with a stone-covered shore line, but finally emerged onto a broad sandy beach. Curiously, the beach appeared to have no defined edge as it flowed seamlessy into the dunes behind. We walked quickly along the beach for the last three kilometres, as the sun was sinking close to the horizon.
Dunes and rock platform near Conference Point	Stony foreshore south of Cape Howe	Start of the 20 km long Big Beach

Early evening at Lake Wau Wauka

Our last night of the walk

Finally, a gap in the dunes announced the entrance of Lake Wau Wauka, a beautiful freshwater (slightly brackish) coastal lagoon. We entered the gap, followed the shore of the lake around to another beautiful campsite, under the banksias and overlooking the lake. As at Little River, other campers had left a quasi-permanent site with seat, timber for a table and fireplace and, with just enough light to set up our tent and get the fire going, we soon found ourselves relaxing after a hard 18 km slog through some difficult terrain. The rest of the walk promised to be much easier and, as we watched the flames dancing in the fire, we contemplated the fact that this was the last night of our adventure.


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