A beautiful walk

Last week after weeks and weeks of very hot and humid weather and bushfire smoke it was just about cool enough to go for a bushwalk. I am so fortunate live within 15 minutes drive of the Coast Walk through the Wyrrabalong National Park so on Thursday morning I headed north to the park .
See The Coast walk
The walk starts at the Cromarty Hill transmission tower. Just around the corner from the tower is the launch site for local hang gliders and from which there is a glorious vista along the beaches to Terrigal and beyond to Avoca in the distance.

Beyond the launch site is a trig point plinth once used the government cartographers but now rendered redundant by aerial mapping. Until two years ago this trig point and others locally were sadly neglected but they have been cleaned up and the rusty metal vanes and poles used for sighting when taking measurements have been taken away. Now they are just relics of an era when maps were really interesting and when looking at a topgraphical map, particularly a UK Ordinance Survey map, was as good as looking at a good book. Google maps on an iPhone are a very poor substitute.

Beyond the plinth the track goes along the clifftop for a short distance. This is a great location for whale watching in the season. There used to be just a broken down chicken wire fence here until a few years ago and you could walk right to the edge of a very big cliff. Now there is a sturdy metal fence although the previous look out point-for the brave-is visible in the photo below.

From the cliff top its steeply down hill through a section of red gums before you reach the metal staircase with its 75 steps.

 The bottom photo taken from the top of the steps shows the Cromarty Hill tower start point in the distance.
On last Thurday morning the walk was busy in both directions. A few years ago I could have done the walk mid week and only seen a couple of walkers but now we must all be trying to be fitter. I even met a former work colleague who I had not seen for 25 years on the walk last week.
After the steps the walk crosses sandy heathland with plenty of birds and little skinks scurrying around. There are tiny wrens which fly around just above the ground. In September the wildflowers on this section are glorious.
You can, apparently, see deadly Eastern Brown snakes on this section but with the number of walkers last week I am sure they were well away from the track. I have seen snake trails in the sand here but never a snake.

From the heathland it is up to the Crackneck Lookout through more red gums. The prevailing wind and the salt air have caused the gums to become deformed and to develop a lean. After the recent rain the ferns have revived and are now bright green. A few weeks ago they were withered and brown.

At Crackneck Lookout you can see over Bateau Bay and Shelly Beach to The Entrance, Tuggerah Lake and Norah Head.

The photos were taken with my Leica X1 about as big a camera as I want to carry when bushwalking nowadays. The camera, a recycleable water bottle and my car keys and wallet in a small backpack are a comfortable load.