St Michaels Cave – 22 August 2019

I had been planning to do a walk up the mountains with Bob, but due to an adverse weather forecast (strong winds) we changed plans. The forecast was also for a powerful surf, so I suggested some coastal walking. Bob then suggested visiting St Michaels Cave near Avalon.

In some ways this was a crazy thing to do. To visit a sea cave in a time of high seas was probably madness. But that did not deter us. Bob parked near Avalon Beach and we walked down to the beach and then approached the rock platforms to the north. We were soon stopped by a place where the cliff met the sea. The tide was half way between low and high (and on the way up). Large waves would wash up right to the cliff.

I waited with some trepidation while Bob clambered around to check out conditions. He soon got wet feet, and then even wetter as a wave came in. He returned and said that the wet section was short – around the corner it should be OK – we would be able to climb up on boulders out of the way of waves.

So we both set off. Soon a large wave did come crashing in and we both got rather wet. Almost chest deep and I had to hold onto a bit of the cliff to not get washed away. A wee bit dangerous!

But conditions did improve around the corner. Bob had said that on a previous visit, they had reached the cave and then been stopped from coming back at that point because of the high tide. They had returned to the cave and then a little past it climbed out via a fishermen’s track. We would be able to exit that way.

It was interesting going as we proceeded under the cliffs. We had to clamber over large boulders and watch for any high waves. In a few places we could traverse higher up on ledges.

After about twenty minutes we reached St Michaels Cave. It was quite high up. Way above the level of any high tide. We climbed up the steep slope and found the cave portal closed off by a high fence. There was however a gap where  we could climb in.

Inside was an impressive large chamber. We climbed in over some boulders and then along a passage towards the far end. On the way – a multitude of bats were flying around.

Having explored the far end, we returned to the entrance section and climbed back out through the fence.

We then continued north short way along the base of the cliffs to where we cold climb out very easily via the fishermen’s track. This took us to small clifftop reserve, and there was a park where we could walk to the road, and then back to Bob’s car. This short trip had been quite an adventure.

Our next bit of coast that we wanted to visit was supposed to be The Ovens, more sea caves, a little way further on, and a short way south of Whale Beach. We parked near a lookout, but when we explored past it, we found a fishermen’s track far too dangerous to descend. The top part was badly eroded.

We then headed to Whale Beach, but the sea was far too high to consider walking around on rock platforms and boulders. The high seas were quite a spectacle.

It was too early to head home, so I suggested a trip to Barrenjoey. Not long before I had seen a lot of seals on the Pittwater side of the headland. This sounded like a good plan. Bob drove up to Palm Beach and parked near the golf course. We then walked across the spit to Barrenjoey and followed the track past the climbing area. The seals were still in roughly the same place and we stopped and watched them for a while.

It looked like a storm was approaching, so we headed to the climbing area, which was a bit more sheltered to have lunch. We then slowly headed back to Bob’s car and headed for home. It had been an interesting day.