Elizabeth Beach to Seal Rocks
18 km (794 km) | 7 hr
Today was an unusual traverse from Elizabeth Beach to Submarine Beach and included a planned bus ride cheat and an unplanned NP 4wd interlude. It was a day of mighty fortune, wind and sun and rain and remote trails and formidable dunes and unadulterated wonder. Hard to find the words to best describe such a day of ‘miracles and wonder’.
The golden rule of any kind of travel is expecting the unexpected – with a corollary that you must also 'go with the flow'. I started out according to plan with a first light saunter along wonderful Elizabeth Beach and then an out and back track to perfect little Shelly Beach. It would be even more perfect with a more original name - I vote that every Shelly or Pebbly Beach on the coast gets an immediate, preferably Indigenous, name change! Anyway, then it was round Charlotte Head to Boomerang Beach, which even in the cloudy gloom was another 'supermodel beach' on this part of the coast.
Next up was Boomerang Point Lookout and around to Blueys Beach and its imposing headland. A steep uphill section and some private land block the coast here. Given that Smiths Lake entrance was open to the sea at that time, and the range of almost trackless land between there and Seal Rocks Beaches 2,3,4,5 and 6. So I cheated a little and caught the 151 bus from Blueys to Bungwahl.
And then, well, unfortunately, into each life some (bucketing) rain must fall. Fortunately, it only started pouring while I was waiting in a little bus shelter and it was a short ride to Bungwahl with a stop at the Bungwahl 'Fuel and Liquor', the Aussie equivalent of 'Gas n Guns'. Unfortunately, it's a 13 km road walk from there to Seal Rocks and Treachery so I rugged up in my rain gear and walked a few km down the Seal Rocks Road. Fortunately, I saw a National Park vehicle drive past. Unfortunately, I didn’t think quickly enough to do more than wave as the ranger drove past. Fortunately, just as I was thinking to myself, "I wish I'd asked her to stop", the ranger 'chucked a u-ey', came back and then after a short chat about my journey, offered me a lift down the gated Old Gibber Trail in her 4WD to Middle Camp Trail. This was the area I had been planning to do the following day as a back up to the headland nemesis of the northern way – BIG GIBBER. This was the only headland that had caused me some grief in the trip planning. Only minimal information available, almost all of it indicating that it was difficult to impossible to get around.
Katrina, the NP ranger, gave me plenty of information along the way. Wonderful to chat with someone who lived to share her love of our wild places who was such an amazing ambassador for her organisation - a true Tolkienesque 'ranger of the north'. She had worked on the Booti Walking Track so I was able to convey my thanks and appreciation, and she also let me know me that planning was underway for a through trail from Cape Hawke to Janies Corner – five stars to the NP planning department who are far, far ahead of me.
I was dropped part way down Middle Camp Trail (this is about as NSW coastal middle of nowhere as it gets) with some clear instructions for getting to Submarine Beach (turn right at the T intersection at the end of Middle Camp Trail, walk about a km to a turning circle in front of a swamp and then climb over the back dunes from where you can see the ocean). For those interested and coming from the beachside, the trail is exactly (and a little surprisingly) where Google maps says it is. In between two vegetated dune hillocks, about 3 km south of Yagon Gibber. You have to traverse about 500m westward of a huge area of undulating dunes, but you can then see the Middle Camp trail before you descend the (steep) back side of the dune array. I won't bore you all with further details, but happy to share more precise info with anyone planning this route.
Anyway... and so... there I was, in the 'dunes complex' in the middle of probably the most remote beach I've visited on my journey so far. I've had many, many magic moments in my life but in terms of sheer, unadulterated transcendental bliss this was right up there. Don't know if it was the tinge of nervousness about the unknown, the unexpectedness of suddenly being there, my readings of mishaps getting around Big Gibber (a drowning, hours lost in the scrub, dehydration from over-exertion, etc), the kindness and kindred spirit of the ranger, or the many days of beach wandering that had brought me to this magical place; probably all that and more combined. Even the windy, squally weather only added to the sublime perfection of the experience - a 'realm of pure blessedness'. Some days you just feel so alive, so fully and gratefully alive... Magnificent!
Submarine/Fiona Beach and the back dunes and swales are a national treasure... hats off to the folk (Don Brown and others) that preserved it from the potential ravages of sand mining. Just incredibly, incredibly incredible!
So, unusually for my walk, and not since Stage 1 Day 1 up the Tweed spit to Dreamtime, I then headed north to Yagon Gibber and around to Treachery Head and Seal Rocks.
I stayed the night at Treachery Camp which is itself a coastal gem in the lee of Treachery Head. It’s a place full of quirky history and plenty of local knowledge. I drifted off to sleep wondering about the walk to Mungo Brush the following day.