[SUBW-A] Trip Report - Royal National Park - 22nd September

[Marcelle Gannon]

Party: Mingya, JJ, Tina, Swetlana, Mal, Royce, Stella, Catherine, Yiota,
Peter, Marcelle.

The trip didn't start too well with Royce receiving incorrect directions at
Central and getting on the train to Waterfall instead of the one to Otford.
We weren't sure if he was going to make it at all, seeing as the next train
to Otford was in 2 hours time, and the next one to Helensburgh didn't stop
at Waterfall ...

The rest of us arrived at Otford at 10am at began a pleasant stroll along
the coast track through beautiful rainforest.  The ocean was a brilliant
blue colour thanks to the cloudless sky.  The wildflowers, especially the
wattles, were in bloom and very spectacular.  We encountered our first bit
of wildlife not far along - a reasonably small diamond python, which I'd
stepped straight over apparently.  After making certain it was a harmless
diamond python we admired it for several minutes as it lay sunning itself in
the bushes.

We managed not to get lost in the palm jungle and, after admiring some
rosellas, arrived at Burning Palms beach to find Royce relaxing, having
hitched a lift into the park and strolling down to the beach.  He assured us
the water was warm and so his fellow Melbournians (Mal and myself) had to go
in too and prove that we also thought it was warm ... well it wasn't!

After a pleasant lunch we strolled around to South Era (encountering the
wombat-sized resident echidna) and wandered around the rocks there for a
while.  Stella and Catherine headed up to the ridge track to walk back to
Otford.  At Era, Tina and Swetlana were most impressed with the small clear
green and brown pebbles which turned out to be water-worn pieces of beer
bottles!

We walked up the Burgh track towards Helensburgh.  This was easy going for a
while until we crossed a creek and headed up the last footpad section before
the fire trail.  We lost the track in the scrub (there were many tracks, and
unfortunately we got one of the ones that didn't go anywhere) but that was
ok because the fire trail was only about 200m away, and the scrub wasn't too
bad.  After reaching the road it was an easy stroll around the back of the
scenic Helensburgh tip and down to the station for the 5:30pm train.

Thanks to everyone who came along and especially to Mal for helping out with
the directions.

See you all at the next walk!

Marcelle.