Evans Head to Ten Mile Beach

14 km (196 km) | 4 hr

Walking takes longer... than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus, it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed ~Edward Abbey

Today was a saunter and then a meander (from the Greek Maindros the former name of a winding river which is now called the Menderes). It provided a dramatic change in scenery after the long, flat, sweeping beaches of the previous two days.

South of Evans Head is a fantastic array of rocky headlands and perfect little coves. Lots of kangaroos and sea eagles around (as well as a brown snake - the land snake with the world's second most deadly toxin - who thankfully didn't seem interested in a harmless saunterer). Once again plenty of whales and dolphins offshore and, despite the short distance today, it was one of the finest stretches of walking so far on my trip. There was just enough trackwork to help traverse the tricky bits, but otherwise landscape and walking paths felt completely unspoilt.

I crossed the Evans River at the Elm St Bridge (only a few hundred metres inland from the break walls at the mouth of the river) and walked to the southern breakwater. I strode up to Razorback Lookout and enjoyed viewing Ballina and the Richmond from whence I had come 2 days walk earlier. From Razorback I walked to Half-Tide Beach which is lined with pandanus palms. I continued on the rock shelf past a few other small patches of sand and then followed the track to Connor Hurley Point. There are several jagged inlets and fingers of rock in this area which make for dramatic views of the incoming waves crashing against the rocks.

Next was the delightfully named Joggly Point – my internet searches haven’t been able to find the origin of the name, but for some reason it perfectly suits the place. Red Hill Beach, Chinaman’s Beach and New Zealand Beach came next and then the perfectly-named and sensationally unspoilt Goanna Headland– if you squint, you really can see a great rocky goanna peering out to sea. Far more poetic than its other name - ‘Tick Fence Headland’ - although I was intrigued to find out more about the 100-year history of the NSW cattle tick program!

Ten-mile beach stretched southwards from Goanna Headland. I was prepared for the fact that the north end of this strip of sand is one of the very few restricted bits of sand on our coast. There is an RAAF air base in Evans Head and stern signage announced the restricted air force bombing range on the beach south of Goanna Head - who knew?

As I approached the restricted area it felt a little like an episode of those old road-runner and coyote cartoons, with the warning signs getting ever sterner the closer I got to the beach. For CoastQuest purity’s sake, I took a chance on the laser hazards and live bombs not being absolutely everywhere and did scramble down onto the sand, where I could just make out Jerusalem Creek and Black Rock about 10 km away.

I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour and retraced my steps back to Evans Head. My brother Graham and I then had an afternoon drive along the Evans and Richmond Rivers to Casino, reminiscing on holidays long past and the ‘exciting’ time as kids when we crashed into a cow on a family holiday that led to a forced stay in that town.