To Little Marley Beach, Royal National Park

We just can't stay away from the Royal National Park. For the third time in 6 weeks we set off for a trek, or bush walk you could say. The weather cleared up beautifully after a solid 14 days of rain, which is largely unheard of. The news claimed it was not since the early 90s that there had been so many consecutive days of rain. The bad weather records just keep falling this year! To be fair though we've had so much sun that we haven't gotten too bitter when it's rained.

We'd learned that the coastal walks in the national park offered some spectacular views and we weren't to be disappointed. We took a pleasant ferry ride from Cronulla in Sydneys south to Bundeena in the north of the national park. Bundeena is a quaint little town, Chris' boss is of the opinion that all the residents have six toes. Regardless it'd be a beautiful place to live, isolated enough from the city in a spectacular natural setting but also on a short drive away from civilisation. And they didn't look all that inbred.

There were a few disagreements over navigation including Chris chucking a tantie when we went 100m up the wrong street and Dave refused to consult a map more closely or ask for directions. We got onto the coastal path and got hiking without too much delay. The views were beautiful, dramatic cliff faces and rock formations with the vastness of the Pacific on one side and the dense bush of the other. A pleasing lack of bothersome wildlife, no flies or mozzies or spiders and only a few lizards. There was a curiously large birds nest and some pretty butterflies.

We reached our destination Marley Beach in about an hour and half and sat down for a spot of lunch. The waves were huge, violently crashing against the rocks making bathing extremely dangerous. It's prohibited on Marley Beach actually and although you can on Little Marley we gave it a miss as it was really mucky(poor attempt to use surfing terminology, feel free to correct!)

There is a youth hostel in the park around 10kms further down the coast. It's basically just a few cabins with no facilities so you need to bring your own camp gear. We'd love to do that but don't have the resources or time at the minute as the trek there and out the other side of the park you really need 2 days.

Take a look a the photos, some of our best in ages.

To Marley Beach Gallery