Royal National Park 2 day Coastal Walk

[Smarteee]

Hi Philipsart,

I live in Helensburgh (South of the National Park) and I'd been meaning to walk the Coastal track for a few years since moving from the UK, I finally did it last October, 2010. Solo. North to South (Bundeena to Otford). My first ever proper overnight hike. It was fantastic.

A few things worth noting though....

If you're planning on doing it overnight & North to South, you'll be getting to Garie beach after 15k's and a few hours of walking, so you might be getting tired. The part of the track that drops down to Garie isn't so much of a track, but rather a very steep climb. Not what you need when your legs are beginning to ache. Take it steady on that section.

As previous replies have already posted, North Era camp site is very exposed (It's just a patch of heath grass, set back from the beach). Make sure you've got a sturdy shelter in case it gets blowy/wet.

Beware the Snakes - I bumped into two red-bellied blacks in the first couple of hours!

Ticks - Check yourself thoroughly when you get home. I wore repellant and I still found a couple of ticks feasting in my nether regions when I got home and took a bath, nasty buggers!

An overnighter will give you ample time to complete it. I left Bundeena at 8am and arrived at the campsite @ 3.30pm on the first day. Left North Era at 8am on the second day and arrived at Otford Pie shop at @ 2pm. I walked at an average comfortable pace.

I took a couple of (Shakey) videos along the way, and posted them on Youtube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKeSqM2e4-M

I enjoyed the walk and scenery so much I'm going to do it again in a few weeks time.

Have fun! You'll love it!

[ULWalkingPhil]

Hi Smarteee, Thanks for the advice and links to your video's on Youtube. I watched all the videos you posted on the Coastal Walk, enjoyed them. I can't wait till it's my turn to enjoy the walk. Wish I was there now. Less than two weeks time, I'll be on the walk. I might just take a leap out of your book, and do the walk Solo a couple weeks after my first walk with my nephew. You never know, I might see you on the track.

I'm like you, I to will be taking my time. It's not going to be a rush trip for me. I want to take my time and enjoy the views and take lots of photos.

So we can get a early start on day one from Bundeena, where going to camp at the CampGround near Bundeena the night before the walk.

[ninjapuppet]

Just did this trip twice over this weekend. And thought i'd post this up for visitors who dont have a car and interested in doing this fantastic walk.

I usually drive or at least car shuffle so I dont take notice about the trains timing and ferry logistics. However, yesterday I took a group of 8 international students (newbies) to do the daywalk. Here is a break down of the planning logistics:

So we planned to meet up at Cronulla train station before 8:15am because the first ferry leaves cronulla at 8:30.
Everyone in the group came without lunch!?!?! I was quite shocked because i told them to bring lunch, but I guess they are newbies afterall. Luckily the takeaway at the trainstation was already open and had sandwiches for everyone. We crossed under the train station to the ferry terminal in time for the 8:30 ferry.
The train ticket for me to cronulla was $2.00 (I am a full time student).
The cronulla-Bundeena ferry ticket is $5.80 and the trip takes half an hour, arriving at Bundeena at 9:00

Train timetables are available here: http://www.cityrail.info/
The ferry time table is available here:http://bundeenainfo.com/bundeena-ferry-timetable-2.html

From the ferry terminal we walked to the coast track at the end of scarborough street, which took a painfully 30 minutes because the group had to take photos of every little house on the way. I understand that they were from overseas and Aussie houses might look a little different but we couldnt afford to take so many long stops every 2 minutes. Understood. so off we went.

Bundeena-Wattamolla took:..............3 hours
wattamolla-Garie beach:..................2 hours
Garrie beach- North Era campsite:.......30 mins
North Era campsite- track splits off......30 mins
track splits off - end of track:............2 hours

At the end of the track, walk south on the main road to the first right (Fanshawe road) and follow signs to the Otford station which is 500m away. train ticket for student was $2.30 to Sutherland station. Unfortunately we just missed the 5.15pm train so had to wait till 7:15 because they only leave every 2 hours.

Stats:
Total walk time was 8 hours, even for people completely new to bushwalking.
Total rest time: 2 hours.
Distance from Bundeena ferry-Otford station: 26.5km
Total elevation: 1600m
Total transport cost: $10.10 for students.

===========================================
After I felt it wasnt enough to get me fit for the upcomming Easter's mountaineering, I decided to do the same in reverse this morning.
Distance is just over half a marathon and by going with fitter partner than myself, I broke my old time by jogging it in 3hrs 46 mins. i think its a good and easy track to train for cross country running.

[Lindsay]

Sounds like a great days walking ninjapuppet. How did the students enjoy it? I don't think I would be up for it 2 days in a row though.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Time has come, finally the day has come, I'm heading of to walk the coastal track,

Spoke to the parks service, they told me there is drinking water at the North Era Camp.

[ULWalkingPhil]

I might do this walk twice in the next week. I've got another person joining me, I wouldnt mind doing the walk again in a weeks time, maybe from the other direction, south to north.

[ninjapuppet]

Ran by yesterday, and ran by this evening.

sorry..., but i didnt see no hilleberg tent. Was hoping to see an awesome looking hilleberg while jogging over that hill.
Not trying to spy or anything mate. I just live close by and use the 26km as my training grounds.

[Chief]

Time has come, finally the day has come, I'm heading of to walk the coastal track,

Spoke to the parks service, they told me there is drinking water at the North Era Camp.

Don't know who you spoke to, but there's no water for drinking at Era.(Only water there is the sewer outlets)
Closet you get to drinking water is out of the taps at Garie, even then you'll still have to boil it..

[ULWalkingPhil]

Ninjapuppet, I did the walk leaving Bundeena Bonnie Vale camp on the 4th April, I spent overnight at Bonnie Vale camp before leaving for the walk at 9am. Arrived at the start of the Coastel walk at about 9.45am, someone ran by us and said a quick hello and "a great day for it". I arrived at the north era hikers camp with about half hour of daylight left, total walk for the day, apx 23km. Felt great when I arrived to camp, stopped and took photos on the way. The walk was not to difficult, the hardest part I found was walking on the sandy beach. It was a very windy day, at times the wind almost blew as over with our packs on. Not long after setting up camp, it started to rain with lots of wind, North Era is a very exposed camp to the elements, it was a great test for my Hilleberg tent, rained all night long, at times very heavy, we remained dry and warm, whereby a school group with 3 larger tents all got wet and cold, laying on my downmat dry and warm listening to all the moaning and complaints from the youngsters next to us how wet and cold they are, early that morning, Apart from walking on the sandy beach with our packs on, this was also one of the worst part of our trip, on the Sunday night at Bonnie Vale camp, parks had as camping at sight 7 next to two families in large tents and lots of small kids and babies, as you could imagine this kept us up for a good part of the night with babies crying, we ended up getting a good sleep, hence why we left so late for the walk on the following day, I don't know why parks put as so close to two families with kids and babies, whereby on the walk into the camp ground I could see lots of perfect empty sites along the way, with no one nearby. Also yes parks told as that there was town drinking water at North Era Camp, which we found was not true when we arrived at camp, I will be lodging a complaint to the parks service today.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Woke up early the next morning, from the groans and complaints and swearing from the youngsters nearby, I felt sorry for the single adult leader. But she could have said something to them when they sweared, in no time did I hear a word from her as they sweared.

We packed up early to head of for our final 7km into Otford, making sure we gave the group at least half hour head start on us, so we don't have to hear there moaning and groaning again, luckily we never did again, probably because we took a wrong turn at one of the intersections on the walk, which took our planned 7pm walk into apx 8 to 9km walk. We planned to catch the 1:15pm train out of Otford, but we missed it by a few minutes, next train out was at 3:15pm. we was both a bit fatigued from the walk yesterday, but I thought the walk was going to be tougher than it was, we was waiting for this steep climb I heard about, not realising that we where actually walking up the steep climb at the time, I was walking up dreading the steep walk that I was expecting into Otford, when all of a sudden we where on the road, with a sign saying Otford Railway Station 550 meters away, what a relief that was. As my legs where beginning to tire from the past two days and dreading this last big climb I read about into Otford.

Leeches everywhere today on this last day, I never had so many leeches on me in my whole life. Many stops just to remove the leeches on our clothing, not one got me apart from my little finger on my right hand that managed to get a grip on my finger before I managed to remove it.

I think next time I would do this walk in the opposite direction, I think the walk would be easier in the opposite direction.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Highlights: are the scenery and the walk.

Lowlight: are the people, particularly the parks service for putting us next to a two family groups with young kids and babies, where there was lots of camps available that was empty, with no one nearby and them informing us that there was town drinking water at North Era camp. My walking partner, expecting drinking water at Era camp only had enough drinking water to reach the camp, he did not trust my Lifesaver water filter, so he had no water on the last day, I treated the water coming down the creek near the toilets and drank that, so far I feel fine.

[Pteropus]

Hi Phillip

Thanks for sharing the tale of your walk. The Royal used to be my old playground. Any photos? Sounds like you had some bad luck with sharing camp sites with noisy campers...there are a number of fantastic alternative "camp sites" on the Coast Track, but National Parks only allows camping at North Era. I imagine this is to limit the impact of campers. They used to allow camping in a clearing at Wattamolla, though I don’t think used anymore. I personally think that Garie Beech would be a perfect spot for a camp site, and probably easier for NPs to maintain too...

There is a thread in the gallery on for the nasho, you should check it out -> viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3769

Cheers
Andrew

[Lindsay]

Glad you enjoyed it Phillipsart. It is a great walk and well worth the effort. A bit of a pain just missing the train though and having an extra 2 hour wait, and having annoying groups near you both nights. Did NPWS actually tell you to set up right next to these groups? I think you would have has some leeway about where you placed your camp given that it was not crowded.

regards

Lindsay

[ULWalkingPhil]

Yes, we were informed to camp at site 7 next to the family group. And yes same person told us that there are drinking water at north era camp. I did not get a chance to call parks back today, I will be first thing tomorrow morning, I think that's ridiculous telling us that there was town drinking water at North Era. I asked her twice, " there is town drinking water at north Era and she said yes on both occasions.

Sorry to say it, but I think your method up here in NSW with the bookings are inferior compared to DERM in QLD. You should at least have people that know what there talking about instead of giving false info to people in environments such as this. Pathetic,,,,,,,,,

[Pteropus]

...Sorry to say it, but I think your method up here in NSW with the bookings are inferior compared to DERM in QLD. You should at least have people that know what there talking about instead of giving false info to people in environments such as this. Pathetic,,,,,,,,,

It might only get worse for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service too, as the department they belong to, the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) are going to be dissolved by the brand new NSW state government and the various components of DECCW are to be moved to other departments that are not focused so much on the conservation side of things, as far as the environment is concerned...I dont know what this will mean for NPWS, but I know that they are stretched as is and I imagine there will be budget cuts and shifts in priorities elsewhere...

[ULWalkingPhil]

Few images from my hike.

[ULWalkingPhil]

More images

[Smarteee]

Great photos Philipsart,

They bring back fabulous memories of my own hike on the Coastal track. Glad you enjoyed it.

Smarteee

[Royal NP]

Yes, we were informed to camp at site 7 next to the family group. And yes same person told us that there are drinking water at north era camp. I did not get a chance to call parks back today, I will be first thing tomorrow morning, I think that's ridiculous telling us that there was town drinking water at North Era. I asked her twice, " there is town drinking water at north Era and she said yes on both occasions.

Sorry to say it, but I think your method up here in NSW with the bookings are inferior compared to DERM in QLD. You should at least have people that know what there talking about instead of giving false info to people in environments such as this. Pathetic,,,,,,,,,

Dear Phillipsart,

I'm sorry to hear that your stay was not as enjoyable as you had expected. Our experienced staff try their hardest to accommodate all visitors and provide them with the most accurate and up-to-date information. For future visits to NSW National Parks you may like to visit our website which has all necessary information relating to campgrounds summarised (this includes North Era) http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au The site also has up-to-date information about park closures due to fire, flood and management works.

If you would still like to contact us about the above, please do so on 9542 0648.

Regards,
Josh Madden - Ranger Royal Area

[ning 1]

Re North Era Campsite

we are planning this walk for the end of may, we will be starting at bundeena and are expecting to set off around 11am , i expect we will need to be setting up camp by 5pm, we are in no hurry and would like to have a contingency in case we dont make it to north era before dark. can anyone advise me of any areas around wattamolla or garie suitable for a few tents if we fall short of daylight hours.

[ULWalkingPhil]

I would think you would have to walk at a brisk pace to make camp before 5.00pm. You would want to take your time on this walk. I would start walking the opposite direction, Otford to Bundeena. It's only a 7km walk from Otford to North Era Camp and a lot easier.

[ninjapuppet]

sounds like a great place to do some wind tunnel testing today close to sydney.

"This morning the bureau said gusts of 109 km/h were recorded at Wattamolla in the Royal National Park,..."
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/wild-weather-rips-through-sydney-20110525-1f2y7.html

Wish I took today off work. If I have time, might pop down there and do some test setups of the new Nammatj during high winds. Its not often we get this sort of great weather in sydney. Though 100kph gusts is no where near as bad as 100kph sustained winds

[north-north-west]

Gusts put a different strain on a tent but can be just as destructive: tension, release, tension, release . . . sometimes that can tear a tent that would stand a steady blow.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Did you end up doing those wind tunnel tests?

[ninjapuppet]

Not at RNP but I set the nammatj up near the blue lake (guthega) and recorded winds in excess of 120kph before my wind meter clogged up with spindrift and froze. Handled it with ease with no pole flex. Not a budge, but it certainly was very noisy and frightening! Sounded like a freight train was roaring past me all night.

Makes me think the jannu snapped in winds much in excess of 150kph back at Easter