Bob had been keen to explore the coast near Cave Beach for a while. This time, the tide was going to be low, so we set off up to the Central Coast.
When we arrived at the carpark at Caves Beach, I noticed a Black-shouldered Kite sitting at the to of a nearby tree, so out came the camera.
We then walked down to the beach. The sea caves are quite close, just south of the beach. Some of the best ones are in a small cove a little further to the south.
After inspecting the caves, we then continued along the coast – scrambling on the top of the cliffs. We could see a walkway higher up, but while the coast was nice, we decided to walk closer to the water and use the path for the return.
We continued to another beach and then past Stinky Point. A small cove here was filled with sea weed – perhaps the rotting sea weed gives the point its name? Then to Spoon Rocks. This was the site of an old coal loader, and there is an artificial breakwater going out to the rocks. At that point we climbed up a track the walkway.
We continued south to Quarries Head and from there could look down to Pinney Beach.
We returned via the walkway with a few sections of street walking to get back to the carpark. There we had lunch before driving south to a new development above Moonie Beach.
We followed a track that led down to a fire road. One branch praised access to Moonie Beach. That was the way we hoped to head back. We followed the other branch that went south. The heath nearby was full of birds – lots of honeyeaters and other small birds. But the thick heath also meant that we could not easily access any of the beaches.
We walked south to a communications tower and a better road. Just to the south was Frazer Beach with its camping area.
We walked a short way along the road to a turn around. We then followed a steep track down to Timber Beach.
Here there were some interesting sea caves, but our low tide level was not low enough to explore them without getting quite wet.
Between us and Ghosties Beach, the next beach to the north was a small rocky headland. We found a way of scrambling over it.
Ghosties Beach was very beautiful. Behind the beach was another sea cave which was well worth exploring. Further north is a headland (Flat Rock Point) and just before that is a petrified forest. But it seems to be only visible in very low tides.
We concluded our walk by walking then to Moonie Beach and then back to the car just before rain hit.
This was a very interesting day out to a beautiful part of the coast. However some parts are in need of a lot of bush regeneration. More photos are online here on my website.