Brooms Head to Minnie Water
18 km (271 km) | 5 hr
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Sunrise over beautiful Brooms Head is an ideal way to start the day. Then it’s down to the beach along a well-made track for the 9 km stroll to The Sandon. Plenty of birdlife along this stretch, most impressively the many white-bellied sea eagles who sometimes feel like my totem bird for the walk. They swoop and soar past me and always seem to be heading south, scouting the way. Occasional dingo tracks near the dunes, and a dingo-mauled mauled wallaby along the beach, but no sign of dingo stalkers (at least that I know of!) anywhere along the walk.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) website provides contact details for a boat to take you across the Sandon River. It’s a great service and reasonably priced - I paid $20. While I carry a small inflatable pack raft, I take the easy way out. It's a relatively short crossing and looks perfectly fine to do by raft with an incoming tide – possibly even swimmable – but then again, with plenty of shark sightings in the area, a $20 ‘tinny’ ride seems like a bargain to me.
Once across the Sandon it's another 12kms or so to Minnie Water along Sandon and Illaroo beaches – more postcard perfect walking with only the gulls, shorebirds and occasional eagle for company. Beaches are always easier when the tide is low, but I had to do a bit of soft sand trudging on an incoming high tide for this section of the walk. Once 'the tide turned' the going was much easier, and I was happy to have lived through an idiom so to speak.
Minnie Water is another pleasant settlement with a sophisticated General Store (note that it closes at 4 pm). There are a range of provisions available here, including fine coffee and some gourmet food options. I stay in a cabin in the caravan park – possible to book one-night stays on week nights, although you might have to call direct as web bookings usually state a two-night minimum.
There’s not much in Minnie Water other than exquisite natural beauty and wonderful people... can't complain!