Lake Illawarra to Kiama

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Stage 6 - Lake Illawarra to Kiama
After a night of rain, the skies cleared a bit for our departure, as we continued on the bike path, crossing the bridge over Lake Illawarra entrance and following the last coastal suburbs and beaches to Shellharbour, a village that has been swallowed up by the Wollongong agglomeration, but which still retains some of its former charm.
Last view of the escarpement across Shellhabour Beach	Shellharbour village centre

Leaving Shellharbour after a cappuccino break, we finally escaped the creeping urbanisation and headed across a cow paddock to Killalea Reserve. Here a former dairy farm is being restored to protect an important wetland bird refuge and coastal habitat.

Killalea wetland

The sun emerged from the clouds and the surf was running high as we crossed Killalea Beach and climbed up a ridge overlooking Minnamurra Beach and the river mouth at its far end. The verdant green rolling headlands, characteristic of this coastal region, stretched out before us with the lighthouse-topped Blowhole Point at Kiama, our destination for the night, in the distance.

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Looking South from Killalea Reserve .................................................................................................................................................................Minnamurra Beach

In the Casuarina swamp

Mangroves of the Minnamurra River

With a high tide and strong seas, we chose to head inland to bypass the casuarina and mangrove swamps of the Minnamurra River to the north, rather than swim our packs across it on an air mattress, as originally planned. Wrong decision! At the end of the 3 km detour we reached the south side of the river, where a swim in the clear green inlet waters on the river side of the sand bar refreshed us from the hard detour and reminded us that the river crossing would have been definitely feasible. Such adventures will have to wait until the next water barrier.

Cathedral Rocks

The coastline from Minnamurra to Kiama was exceptionally beautiful, with dark brooding skies forming a backdrop to the sunlit headlands and rock formations.

Bombo Headland

Rain was not far behind us as we crossed Bombo Beach to finally reach the Blowhole Point Holiday Park, 23 km from our start, where a van and our base supply kit awaited us.

The rain arrived in earnest the next day, but not before we had stocked up with supplies (fresh fish and oysters from the port below us, fresh fruit, beer and a bottle of red). We were ready to hunker down over the next few rainy days.


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Stage 6 - Lake Illawarra to Kiama