Friday
3 February 2012:
We all met up at our accommodation "Art on Hart
Cottage" 9 Hart Street, Bermagui at 11.45am. Gretel, the owner, gave us a briefing on her beautiful
little cottage, the walls covered with works of art and the township of
Bermagui. Eager to get going, we drove to our start point at
Wallaga Lake. Unfortunately the cloudy
morning developed into a steady rainfall which continued for the rest of the
day. After a photo at our start point in front of a shabby “Coast Walk” sign we
zipped up our wet weather gear and tramped off southwards. Not far along the track we came across a snake skin
which John C thought might be from a very large tiger snake, luckily it was a
bit wet for him to be out today!
Defying her sore Achilles tendon, Geri marched off
ahead – out of sight. Probably 20
minutes later we came across a lookout over Camel Rock and Haywards Beach. We should have easily been able to see Geri
ahead of us, but she was nowhere to be seen. We had lost one of our bushbabes!
We waited a little while but then became concerned and leaving John C at
the lookout in case we missed Geri, we retraced our footsteps whistling and
cooeeing and calling her on the mobile as we went. We soon heard Geri from somewhere in the
dense coastal scrub and managed to make contact and guide her back to the main
track. We resolved that we must “stick
together” as in the Bryan Ferry song, because it is so easy to get lost!
The remainder of the walk was without incident. We walked along Haywards Beach, the back of
Keatings Headland, past the Bermagui Lagoon on the boardwalk and then made our
way from Moorhead Beach to the Bermagui River Bridge a trip of about 3 hours
and 10 kms. John C walked ahead and
came back with his car to give us a lift home.
Geri had brought a delicious Lasagne which we
enjoyed for dinner.We were all pretty tired after the 5 hour drive from
Sydney and the walk so we relaxed in front of the TV and watched a DVD we found
in the Cottage “The Man who sued God” starring Billy Connolly and filmed on
location – in Bermagui!
Saturday
4 February 2012:
Today we walked from Bermagui town to Barraga Point,
again a trip of about 3 hours and maybe 11 kms. Luckily the sun came out and it was a
beautiful day.We headed north from the town and walked along the
eastern side of Horsehoe Bay proceeding along Scenic Drive between some
beautiful modern homes and the cliffs. A
feature of this part of town is the Blue Pool, an extensive beach pool
constructed many decades ago on the rock shelf.
We then walked along Beares Beach, Barragut Beach
and Cuttagee Beach, walking along whatever tracks and a section of roadway
behind the dunes we could find to Barraga Point where we had left the
car.
It was a fairly easy day but gave us the chance to
return to Bermagui for a monstrous seafood platter lunch at the Saltwater Cafe
overlooking Bermagui Harbour. John C
made our meal even more enjoyable by slipping back to the Cottage for 2 bottles
of chilled Semillon, perfect with seafood!
We then discovered the local patisserie and bought several delicious
cakes for later.Afterwards we enjoyed some time on beautiful
Bermagui Beach while John C went fishing.
The girls enjoyed watching a beach wedding with the bride and her
entourage walking up the beach and splashing in the water. The sea was clear and beautiful. Unfortunately, Geri lost her sunglasses in
the surf, they are down there somewhere - perhaps in an octopus’s garden in
the shade?
Geri had a second lasagne which we polished off for
dinner. John C had gone fishing and returned for a late meal 2 hours later than
expected but Rose forgave him when he
produced a large Bream he caught off the beach.
Sunday 5 February 2012:
Today was to be “the jewel in the crown” - The Kangarutha Track and we were not to be
disappointed. The Kangarutha takes
walkers through the Bournda National Park from the boat ramp at Kianinny Bay
Picnic Area, just south of Tathra, to
the boat ramp at Wallagoot Lake a distance of about 11 kms but traversing many
creekbeds and steep gorges on its way south along the coastal cliffs. Wildwalks rates the track as “Hard” and to
allow at least 4 hours for a relatively short distance so we were a little
apprehensive.
We left our cottage in Bermagui and drove to our
friend Hugo’s place in Merimbula where he had left a key for us. Geri had decided not to test the Achilles too
much and planned to stay behind in Merimbula.
We had no trouble positioning a car at Wallagoot
Lake and then Geri drove us to our start point at Kianinny Bay and off we set
again in glorious sunny weather. After
passing the National Park sign at the start of the walk the track proceeded on
log steps straight up the hill through the Melaleuca forest. “Woops!” we thought, this really IS
going to be a tough walk! However, this
turned out to be the steepest section although some other stretches came
close. The first big bay which would
have been great for swimming was Boulder Bay.
However, although beautiful clear and sandy we passed by as we had only
walked for half an hour. Shortly
afterwards we came across a giant goanna half way up a tree. This was serious potential “bush tucker”
close to 2 metres in length! Next we
came to White Rock and then Games Bay with many craggy inlets, too treacherous
for swimming in between. Finally we
reached Wallagoot Gap. This is a hidden
flat sandy beach between two cliffs split down the middle and about 20 metres
apart – beautiful. We swam or waded in
the beautiful clear water. However,
massive surges when waves pounded the mouth of the inlet suggested this could
be a very dangerous place to swim on a stormy day. After our swim, we proceeded to the car park
near the Wallagoot Lake boat ramp, a distance of about 1.5 km along the shore
of the lake. Signs indicated the
lakeside area was out of bounds to protect bird nesting. We saw many black swans and cormorants. On
the way back to Merimbula we stopped at Hungry’s Cafe for some Chicken Burgers reputedly the home of “the best fried chicken on Earth” – quite a big call!
We then headed back to Hugo’s place where we enjoyed
drinks with Hugo, Naomi and their son Jeremy and Di cooked us a delicious
fish red curry.
Monday
6 February 2012
Today’s walk was from Hobart Beach located at the
end of Bournda Road (off the Sapphire Coast Drive) along the coast to Hugo’s
place at Merimbula. We expected an easy
stroll but it took longer than we thought, 4 hours of walking time about 12 kms. Hugo came with us this time, with John C
excusing himself on account of angling duties.
We proceeded along Wallagoot Beach, Bournda Beach passing between
Bournda Island and Bournda Lagoon and along Tura Beach almost to Tura Head passing where possible by way of tracks through the Melaleuca forest at the
back of the dunes to avoid walking on the beach which can become very
tiring. At Tura Head, relying on Hugo’s
local knowledge of the area, we branched off to Club Sapphire (home of the
Merimbula-Imlay Bowling Club and Tura Beach Country Club) where we enjoyed a
delicious lunch of hamburgers, chicken burgers and fish pie. After lunch we walked down to Short Point
Beach to Short Point Park.
Coincidentally, we sighted Jeremy’s dog Jose bounding around and shortly
thereafter Jeremy himself who offered Geri a lift home in his old truck, which
was gladly accepted.
Jeremy kindly drove John H up to Hobart Beach to
collect the SP23.
Hugo had to go to work but promised to return for
evening drinks. Sure enough we enjoyed
some refreshment later and a delicious meal of Portuguese chicken and fish
(Bream and Australian Salmon expertly caught by John C) prepared by Rose.
Tuesday
7 February 2012
Today we drove back to Sydney – a journey of about 7
hours with fuel/food stops.
Summary:
Day 1:
Wallaga Lake to Bermagui – 3 hrs – 10 km
Day 2:
Bermagui to Barraga Point – 3 hrs – 11 km
Day 3:
Kangarutha Track – Kianinny Bay to Wallagoot Car Park – 4 hrs – 11 km
Day 4: Hobart
Beach to Merimbula – 4 hours – 12 kms
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