Ten Mile Beach to Yamba
28 km (224 km) | 8 hr
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom ~Marcel Proust
Today commenced from the Mibanbah - Black Rocks campground in Bundjalung National Park. Appreciated my brother getting up well and truly before the sparrows stir to drive me there. If you were doing the coast hike solo, the walk through the National Park would still make for a pleasant journey as most of the trip is ‘inside’ the bushland, but a lift back to the beach was much appreciated. Black Rocks campground is stunning, and there are lots of fine paddling possibilities on nearby Jerusalem Creek.
From Black Rock. It was 20 km or so to Woody Head and then a few more to Iluka to take a ferry across the Clarence River to Yamba and Palmer Island for the night. It was a misty morning, so Woody Head could not be seen when I set out. It had that lovely, mysterious feeling of wandering into the fog and the great unknown – not quite Ludwig Leichhardt wandering off into the vast reaches of the Great Sandy Desert, but an uplifting and yet eerie feeling all the same.
After a few hours of walking, I reached Shark Bay and its delightfully sheltered beach – a perfect spot for a swim. Then it was around Woody Bay - which absolutely deserves its name. I don’t think I have ever seen so many trees, branches, sticks and rotting timber on any beach ever, before or since. I suppose that most of the logs are trapped on the sand in the sheltered bay, but it is a sight to behold. Walking along Woody Bay feels like traversing those TV ninja courses – there is so much wood that it is hard to find the sand to walk on. For me, it became a game that was sort of the opposite of ‘the floor is lava’ – a perfect challenge on a beautifully sunny day!
Woody Head has a campground on the actual headland, and it would be an incredible place to pitch a tent if you love a campsite with a view. I rounded Woody Head to Back Beach and then around Middle Bluff and Bluff Beach before enjoying a long rest and lunch at Iluka Bluff lookout.
There's a world heritage-listed stretch of rainforest at Iluka, which made a pleasant change from the open beaches. It was a bit of a diversion, so I then had to double back to Iluka Beach and Anderson's Beach and then… drumroll… the mighty Clarence River. It was a few more clicks to Iluka Wharf where I was rewarded with a wonderful ferry across to Yamba. The ferry travelled a fair way downriver and was almost as good as a pleasure cruise. Highly recommended. What a superb way to end a frabjous day!
More than 40 years ago (in 1982, to be exact), I hitchhiked around the Egyptian part of the Sahara Desert. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers there and remember one old ‘haji’ explaining to me, in halting English, that in Islamic tradition (as in many others) one feels blessed to assist wayfarers and pilgrims. The thought has stayed with me ever since, and I've always tried to reciprocate the kindness of those desert dwellers in Mut, Abu Minqar, Faraffra, and Bawiti. And although I am now far, far away in time, distance, and culture, I remain impressed by how fantastically hospitable most folk are to 'saunterers'. Every interaction I enjoyed on this part of the journey, from the Ballina taxi driver, to the Burns Point ferry master, to the top bloke in Patchs beach sharing a few cold beers and a chat to speed me along my way, to the Aussie/Filipina couple fishing near the Richmond Bridge in Wardell at sunset sharing their life tales with me, to the Sandalwood van park manager, to the farming couple enjoying their breakfast and inviting me to shorten my walk to the beach by going through their land, to the many and various 'strangers' I chatted with along the way, all have been great reminders that the world is full of kind, gentle, friendly, amazing people - whatever the doom-mongers would have us believe!
In the end, we are all just simply wayfarers still journeying or wanderers at rest – and the more we all remind ourselves of that the better off we all are...
In Bahasa, the national language of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, there is a lovely way to say 'farewell.’ Instead of just goodbye as in English, there is selamat jalan - 'safe travels' to the wayfarer and selamat tinggal - 'safe remaining' to the wanderer at rest... Nice...!
Selamat jalan or selamat tinggal for now...