Roads, where we're going, we don't need roads!

[2009_09_12]
Oh wait, now I have a rental car! I guess I do need roads! Hmmm...

Speaking of the car, here is a quick view from behind the wheel. Notice the road signs, red circles with an 80 in them. I think it looks like a bullseye ;) Its like the speed limit is a target!


I started my day with a drive through Royal National Park. Its Australia's first national park and the worlds seconds (Yellowstone is the worlds first). Its a very pretty park, it reminds me of the forested area of Yellowstone. Lots of green trees, etc. Royal NP is also right on the coast, so naturally I drove to the beach. My first stop was Garie beach. I arrived about 7:45am, I missed the sunrise but the sun was low when I arrived. It was a beautiful beach (See the top panorama of the beach).

I spent about 3 hours at the beach, watching the surfing competition that was going on. Also walked the length of the beach and while some of the spectators were wearing winter hats I went swimming. It was brisk but definitely swimable.




After Garie beach, back in the car I went. I drove North to Wattamolla, another beach and access to the sea cliff track (trail). It was about 11:30am and the kiosk there wasn't yet open (for food and drink). I had my water and a granola bar so I set uoo for a hike down the coast. What a beautiful day to go. It reached 30c (~86F), quite warm for a Winter day! Perhaps a bit too hat for a hike in the bush (as there are really no trees to provide share). The first couple of pictures below are some shots of the track, though albeit very flat sections. The next two is is a great view of one of the sea cliffs, fantastic 'eh?

The last photo in the series is where I turned around. Its a cliff called 'Eagle Rock'. Pretty kewl! It does look like an eagle.




Here's a great view of where the track took me. I was already a ways into the trek when I took this and I ended up walking past where you can see here so it was a long walk. I followed the coast down to that inlet, which reaches sea level. Then up the other side to the cliffs off in the distance. The trail was pretty easy to follow but there were a few scrambles where the trail posting wasn't marked well and it took a few minuted to find where I was meant to go. At one point I lost the trail and followed a much smaller, narrower trail. It turned out to not be the correct trail at all but joined back up with it, whew!



Here's yours truly standing near that middle bay in the the photos above. This was a large cliff, barren of vegetation, most of the rest of the cliffs had bushes on them, but not here. I found a convenient ledge to place the camera on. I was a little nerve wrecking walking out onto the rocks as you didn't know how if you were on an overhang, and if so how strong it was. I stayed away from the edge for the most part but some of the views demanded I get closer.



After my hike, I went back to the Wattamolla beach. What a different beach! There is the ocean frontage (foreshore) on right but on the left is a large lagoon. Both remarkably clear water and warm enough to be swimable. I swam in both the Lagoon and the beach. Very relaxing! After a while of swimming, I left the beach and came across the sign below. Sharks, great, good thing they didn't find me!


After Wattamolla, I drove down the south shore. Here's a photo of a fantastic overlook. What a magnificent view! Daylight was waning and I wanted to press on, so after a quick ice cream, it was time to head further on. Soon after the outlook I came across the new Sea Cliff bridge. This is a photo of just a portion of it but you get the idea. Its a section a road that tightly hugs the sea cliffs. It was built in 2005 after a large rock slide severely damaged the original road that had been carved into the sea cliff. What a great stretch of road!


That was the end of my day. I had dinner (fish and chips, what else?) at a small restaurant on the beach and drove back to Sydney.