Last year, Bob and myself had visited some of the beaches and sea caves of the Central Coast. It was a very interesting area, and soon after Bob had suggested that we could do a walk that would link up a number of interesting places along this coast. He looked at maps, timetables and tide charts and soon had a trip worked out.
We finally got to complete the walk – and it turned out to be very worthwhile. We drove up to park just off the Old Pacific Highway at the Kanangra Drive. I think the locality is called Crangan Bay. Just around the corner on the old highway was a bus stop, and we only had to wait about ten minutes for a bus (at 9:47 am) that took us (by a quite circuitous route) to Swansea. We got off at the library, and then walked out to Caves Beach.
On out previous trip, we had explored the sea caves at that beach, so we skipped them this time. We walked south along the coastal track towards Stinky Point, Spoon Rocks and Pinny Beach. This is pleasant and spectacular walking with a lot to see.
Here are two honeyeaters – a New Holland Honeyeater (above) and a White-cheeked Honeyeater.
Here, Bob is looking down at Pinny Beach.
And now we look back at it.
A lot of the coastal heath was made up of flowering Callistemon.
Not far past Pinny Beach there are a number of quite amazing zawns. We headed off the track to explore some of them.
This one if often visited by recreational abseilers. It would only be safe to visit during periods of low tide and low swell.
Here is another zawn –
Then we had a section of rock platform that we could follow. Nice easy walking.
The main rock of the coast here is a rough conglomerate.
We could not walk all the way to the next beach however. There was one last zawn. This one could not be crossed, but we picked up a track that went high around it and then led down to the beach.
We then had our longest section of beach walking – along Middle Camp Beach at Catherine Hill Bay.
At the far end is a settlement with an old coal loader. We stopped at picnic table i the shade a bit back from the beach for our lunch break. Then we continued walking – under the coal loader and past an obvious coal seam.
Then we passed another section of zawns.
The second one, we could easily scramble down and explore.
On the way down, a Sea Eagle flew past.
We continued around the coast and soon reached Moonee Beach. Behind the beach is a recent housing development that seems to be totally bereft of trees.
But the beach is attractive.
We crossed a headland – Flat Rocks Point and the land tied Flat Island to reach Ghosties Beach.
I mentioned above that Bob and consulted tide charts when planning the walk, and this was the section that we needed low tide. But things seem to have changed since our last visit. Looking back at me photos from 2019, it looks like then we walked around the point at low tide on sand. It now seems to have washed away, and appears to be quite deep. But there was a way through. The dark hole you can see in the photo below is a sea cave. Bob waded into and it and shouted back that it was OK. I packed my camera away and followed.
It was quite exiting going through the cave with waves sloshing through. It wa a race to try and get to higher ledges before the waves hit. At the far end of the cave – a second entrance around the point, we could wade a short distance and then, we knew the way from the earlier trip – a scramble over a low rocky point to the next beach – the delightful small Timber Beach.
Before leaving Timber beach, we explored some caves on the south side. They are certainly quite interesting.
At a waterfall at the head of Timber Beach, we scrambled up onto the track and then followed it, steeply, up the a road and turning circle near Bongon Trig.
This photos is taken at the top, looking back down to Flat Island.
Our next destination was another small beach, the one you can see in the next photo – Frazers Beach. It has a picnic area and small campsite. We could go there by road, but it was nicer to walk out along a higher road to Snapper Point and from there we could walk around the coast.
On the way to Snapper Point, we spotted some whale activity –
Frazer Beach looked nice –
And near Snapper Point was another zawn –
A shirt track took us down to the small Bongon Beach and then across a rock platform to Frazer Beach.
At Frazer Beach, we stopped for a short break and then followed a track to Wybung Trig Lookout. Near the road at the top we spotted a nice Flying Duck Orchid.
From Wybung Trig Lookout, we could start straight away along the Geebung Walking Track. This is a pleasant path with nice views to the south of Bird Island and Red Ochre and Birdie Beaches that run towards Budgewoi.
Along this track we found a few more orchids –
For the final part of the walk, we planned to follow the Birdie Creek Fire Trail back to the NPWS depot, close to where Bob and parked his car. But there seems to be a fault with map. We could not find the star too the trail. We looked in the bush a bit, bit in the end decided to walk back along the road (mainly Blue Wren Drive) instead. Later, looking at the air photo view of the online maps, it looks like the fire trail does not quite go all the way.
We reached Bob’s car around 5 pm. It had been a fair walk – I think about 24 km. It had also been a most interesting walk and it was great to link up some places we had been to in the past. I think this is a walk that could begetter developed and marketed and it could then rival the better know Coastal Walk in Royal National Park.
We also decided it was an area that we should return to to further explore some of the sea caves and zawns a bit better.