Ulladulla to Bawley Point

This was one of our longest stages of the walk; a family reunion that took over the entire camp ground at Lake Tabourie obliged us to walk to Bawley Point, 9 km further and 24 km in total.

Starting off in sunshine and sporting new straw hats, we left Ulladulla for the last time and headed south. We dropped off the headland on to Rennie's Beach, quickly crossing a rocky shelf to Racecourse Beach, with its calf-burningly soft sand. The quality of sand is something you become aware of quickly on a coast walk; there have been subtle differences in colour - white sand, ivory sand, tan sand, golden sand and even black sand, texture - shelly sand, coarse sand, fine sand and powdery sand, compaction - firm sand, soft sand, loose sand, and even sound - silent sand, squishy sand and squeaky sand. If Eskimos have 20 words for snow, there must be a similar number in some languages for sand.

As we crossed a rocky point on to Burrill Beach, we were relieved that the sand had become firmer. Passing the entrance of Burrill Lake, we climbed over Lagoon Head and descended on to a flat rock platform. A few hundred metres along we encountered a fairly gruesome spectacle, the decomposing carcass of a whale that had washed up onto the rocks. Carefully keeping upwind, we passed by and rounded the point to be greeted by a magic world of jumbled sandstone boulders on the southern side of the head.

Change in weather approaching over Wairo Beach

Wairo Beach from the rock jumble

Geoff found a good spot to camp, so we bade each other farewell and the two of us continued over the rocky shelf of Nuggan Point, through swampy forest to Willinga Lake, and finally on to Bawley Point.

It rained on and off overnight and we awoke to a grey sky. We slept in, had a late but delicious breakfast of poached eggs, smoked salmon and avocado at the B & B, and finally set off on this shorter 12 km stage.

The sky gradually cleared as we crossed the beaches of Bawley Point, past the narrow channel between the mainland and Brush Island and around the Murramarang Aboriginal Area. This wind-swept, heath-covered, sandy headland contains a large complex of shell middens and aboriginal artefacts and is a culturally important site to the local aboriginal people.

Dropping off the headland, we once again found ourselves heading down a long stretch of sandy beach. The southerly wind was picking up as we left Racecourse Beach to have a bite of lunch in the protection of the caravan park at this spot.

Looking south towards Kioloa with Durras Mountain in the background

By the time we emerged, the winds were starting to bring in a new band of dark clouds, and a storm out to sea provided a beautiful, but menacing backdrop to our trek down Kioloa Beach and through the casuarina and banksia forest on O'Hara Head.

Storm approaching from the sea on Kioloa Beach

Finally, we arrived at our destination at Merry Beach Tourist Park, not a moment too soon. Barely having checked into our cabin, and bought a few food supplies, the rain set in steadily. It looked like we might be holing up here for the next day or two.

        
The pool at Merry Beach Resort

The next two days of gloriously sunny, still weather enabled us to explore and laze on several of the beaches in this region on the northern border of Murramarang National Park.

Another glorious autumn day in paradise, but it was definitely time to move on. Our trip today would take us through the heart of the Murramarang National Park, first heading inland to climb Durras Mountain and pass through several different forest landscapes, and then descending back to follow the coastline past more beautiful beaches and around one of the nicest rock platforms that I have visited.

Leaving Merry Beach, we followed the track around Snapper Head as a sea-eagle soared overhead (a spectacle that we have almost come to expect), quickly reaching a viewing platform overlooking the magnificent forested coastline of the National Park and our route south. The sky was incredibly clear and from the end of Snapper Point, the coastline stretched far southward with the outline of Mount Dromedary, 80 km distant, visible on the horizon.

The track then descended steeply down the south-eastern slope of Durras Mountain through lusher forest, where rainforest patches mixed with spotted gums in the wetter gullies.

However, our souls were light and free, so we headed on over a low headland to the Pebbley Beach campground. It is an interesting piece of trivia that the unnamed beaches on either side of Pebbly Beach are stoney, while the one actually named Pebbly Beach is sandy.

We stopped for lunch here and, no sooner had our sandwiches appeared, than a flock of currawongs appeared ready, willing and able to steal any bit of food that wasn't held or nailed down to the table. Even a couple of bowerbirds joined in. Because of its attractive setting and resident beach kangaroos, Pebbley Beach is a popular spot for mass tourism and, in season, busloads of tourists stop for a brief visit. The local bird life obviously gets too many free handouts from their lunchboxes.

Rock platform beneath Point Upright

One slight disappointment faced us at the end of a great day; the channel from the sea to Durras Lake - a great place to swim when the tide is rushing in or out - had closed over. At several points along the coast, we had noticed that there appeared to be a build up of sand and this confirmed it. Six months ago the sand finally won and closed off the entrance until the next cycle when a build-up in lake water levels should break through to the sea once again; such is the rhythm of life for many of these coastal lakes.

Although it was no longer possible to swim in the channel, the closed entrance did not detract from the aesthetic qualities of Durras. The view across the lake and dunes to the sea from the deck of our cabin at Joalah Holiday Park is one of those that you could sit and enjoy for hours on end. We spent the next two days at North Durras relaxing and catching up with washing, website updates etc. The village of North Durras is a time warp, where most buildings are still the old style beach houses of the '60s era. This is a pleasant change from many of the ultra-modern new developments. North Durras should be heritage listed!

North Durras beach houses

For the first time in our walk, we had to put on our wet weather gear as we set off around the crab-holed shoreline of Lake Durras under an overcast sky and light drizzle. However, we were happy as, for the first time, we had company on a stage of our walk. Julie and Carol, the better halves of Trevor and Lloyd of Ulladulla fame, were walking this stage with us. The four had joined us at North Durras the night before and, while Julie and Carol walked with us, Trevor and Lloyd went on ahead to set up camp in Bateman's Bay and work out the logistics of our crossing of Bateman's Bay in Trevor's boat. With the prospect of this unusual end to the stage, the day augured well.

Rounding the lake and heading south once again, we passed through a small section of dunes, before dropping back on to Durras Beach, crossing a small headland to Cookie's Beach and climbing up to Murramarang resort. By this time the drizzle had ceased and we had a cappuccino break at the resort. This pattern from beach to headland to beach was to be the rhythm of the day, as we were passing through a rugged deeply indented section of coastline within the southern part of Murramarang National Park.

Back into the forest once again, the track led us to Flat Rock Point, where a magnificent view was to be had of the deeply indented coast that we had just walked along, framed by the silhouettes of Durras Mountain and Grasshopper Island.

We retraced our steps from the end of the point and dropped down on to Myrtle Beach, where the different geology of the cliffs, with their uplifted jagged layers angled toward the sky, became even more apparent.

The cuttlefish grow big in this part of the world

Strolling down a forestry road

From Myrtle Beach we joined up to a dirt forestry road, passing through more of the superb spotted gum / burrawang vegetation, before again dropping down to Little Oakey Bay, where the metamorphic rock had uplifted exposing tortuous folding and razor-sharp edges. This coastline must be a geologist's paradise.

Here the track finally ended, but with the aid of JPS (Jules Pointing Straight), backed up by GPS, we made a bee-line through the bush and across a series of small headlands and beaches, before descending steeply to the calm waters of Maloney's Beach. Trevor's earlier reconnaissance trip had determined this to be the safest pick up point for the Bay crossing

A few hundred metres off shore, he and Lloyd were waiting in the boat as we reached the beach. A few minutes later, we were speeding our way through the ocean swells on a 6 km crossing from Maloney's Beach to Corrigan's Beach on the southern shores of the Bay, where our cabin awaited us a short 50 m walk from the shore.

The weekend was special for another reason - both Carol and the fair Nello were celebrating their birthdays, so, joined by Jenny, another good friend from Canberra, we all celebrated with a great meal at a local restaurant and a birthday cake provided by Julie back at the cabin. We had such a good time that I forgot to take any photos.