Merimbula to Lennards Island
22 km (1601 km) 8 hr
'Almost done' is not done! ~ Israelmore Ayivor
What a day! The northern section of Beowa is a National Park of many, many unexpected treaures and a great way to kick off the final stage of my NSW coastal camino.
Checked off Merimbula to the Pambula River yesterday afternoon, before an early start at Barmouth Beach on the south side of the river this morning.
Cloudy start giving way to a sunny late winter day. Some powerful swells, coastal erosion, and a midday day high tide complicated what I thought would be a relatively easy beach saunter - but nothing could take away from the majesty of this little bit of the coast just north of Eden.
From Barmouth there is a superbly maintained track up to outstanding Haycock Point, via Ioala and Toallo Points. Haycock Point is unbelievable - why isn't this place better known - get yourself there before it becomes inst-famous - wattle blooming along the grassy track, a mystical wild rock slab headland, waves crashing over the rock shelf fingers with a great sentinel boulder vainly protecting the rocky infantry from its oceanside redoubt - the eternal dance of ocean and rock humbling you as you kowtow before it's majesty - incredible!
Its only a short track, 2.5 km, up to the point and another click or so to Haycock Beach but a great little appetiser for the many delights further south along the beach.
Next up was magic Quandolo Rocks with
its own little blowhole and Quoraburagun Point. It looked so easy on Google maps with a wide sandy beach, but much of the sand has now washed away; so it was a splashy traverse - don't turn your back on the ocean!
But then it was a joy overload along Quandolo Beach and up to the Pinnacles Lookout. The Pinnacles were formed by water erosion of a series of deep gullies, exposing the bright red and white (now weathered) clays. Geology - totally awesome!
Sadly, there was no easy way around the rocky cliff north of the Pinnacles. There are well-made stairs up to the lookout, but no tracked way over the cliff. I felt I owed it to myself to see the majestic Pinnacles from the beach, and after a bit of exploration, a little waterway below the beach lookout seemed to offer an opportunity.
The man from Snowy River may well have ridden down that hillside with ease, but for me it was a wholly and completely undignified thorny bush bash followed by a 'hands n bottom' slide down 20m of steep, loose gravel and clay. Ker-plonk!
But my reward, oh my reward, one of the sights of the coast, glorious Pinnacles/Long Beach stretching out to Terrace Beach, Terrace Head, and Lennards Island. The awesome rainbow cliffs towering above, the surf thundering beside me, rocky soldiers standing tall and proud, the mighty Pinnacles - oh sheer glory and wonder and all of my dreams have come true (as I think I've semi-lifted from LOTR). Just a beach for the ages...
And then, because pride cometh before a fall, or something like that, I traversed a harmless little rocky interlude and was washed off a rock ledge by a freak cross wave that came out of nowhere - an unceremonious full cold soaking - disorientation, recovery, drip, drip, drop - but not even that could take away from this glorious stretch of the coast.
So, I drippingly made my way to the end of Terrace Beach and then headed up the fire trail to the Prince's Highway (now in our age of apostrophe confusion as often as not called the Princess Highway ) to end the day.
Wow, just wow! A few pics below, more in the reel and photo dump. Eden and its surrounds richly deserve their paradisical name.
Tomorrow is the last phase into Eden via Lennards Island and Worange Point, with Day 80 exploring Eden and surrounds. Who can ask for more...