2/05/1987 – 3/05/1987 Otford – Bundeena
Royal National Park, NSW
Tharawal country
Distance: 27km Total Ascent: 950m Total Descent: 1140m
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Farrell
Day 1: Saturday 2/05/1987 Otford Gap – Curracurrong
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 255 m
Total climbing: 540 m
Total descent: -694 m
Average speed: nan km/h
We set a good early pace, down through Palm Jungle and were out onto Burning Palms after 90 minutes. I had forgotten how good the scenery was around here! We had lunch in front of the Surf Club at Garie beach. There were still lots of board riders doing their thing on pretty good 2m waves.
Palm Jungle 2/5/1987
A large excursion group was also on the beach, not to mention copious quantities of litter all along it, a real shame as it certainly detracted from the views.
We got the good oil from another hiker that Curracurrong was the best spot to camp for the night. The days biggest disappointment was all the smog being brought on shore by the north-easterly.
We arrived at Curracurrong at 3:00pm after an easy day’s walking and set up camp in a secluded spot about 100m upstream from where the track crossed the creek. It started sprinkling soon after, so we settled down to a great meal of vegetables, pasta and lentil burgers prepared by Sue.
It settled into a night of fairly solid rain and the old tent we had brought along and us didn’t fare too well. It sprinkled inside the tent and a good sized puddle formed in the lower corner, so we ended up pretty wet. My bag was really wet on the lower side and about double its normal dry weight.
Day 2: Sunday 3/05/1987 Curracurrong – Bundeena
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 80 m
Total climbing: 408 m
Total descent: -444 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Good fortune smiled on us again as it had stopped raining overnight and was clearing by the morning. We were ready to go by 10:00am. In another stroke of luck the wind was now blowing from the west and had cleared all of yesterday’s smog. We walked about 15 minutes back along the track for some great cliff photos of Eagle Rock, Curracurrong Falls and shots of Curracurrong itself.
Curracurrong Falls 3/5/1987
We were finally back on the track again at 11:40am. Curracurrang was very popular and had lots of people around but we didn’t think it was as nice as Curracurrong. We stopped at the kiosk for a paddle pop and had an early lunch in civilization near the waterfall at Wattamolla. This is a top place to take novices for short walks to the north or south. We were off again by 1:00pm for the last 8km into Bundeena. Marley was nice, so it was a pity they have a camping ban. We arrived in Bundeena at 4:30pm.
The last few kilometres were not as interesting or varied as the earlier stages.
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