Saturday 17/03/2022 St Georges Head – Steamers Track (Booderee Circuit Access Trail) – Steamers Beach Lookout – Brooks Track – Brooks Lookout – St Georges Head Track – Corangamite Track – St Georges Head – Kitty’s Beach – Blacks Harbour Foot Track – Blacks Harbour – Blacks Waterhole – Blacks Waterhole Track
Booderee National Park, NSW
Yuin Country
Participants: Beth Davies, Lauren Davies, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies, Pablo Ureña Vega, Sam Solt, Bec
After five of us had completed our 8:00am Huskisson parkrun in 25 minutes or better we returned to our AirBNB for breakfast. From there we headed out to Steamers Beach carpark in Booderee National Park where we waited just 5 minutes for Bec to join us from Canberra. Although Steamers Beach itself was closed due to the building of a new staircase down to the beach, we headed along the track to Steamers Beach Lookout to catch some views of it from above.
Max elevation: 151 m
Total climbing: 840 m
Total descent: -839 m
Average speed: 4.64 km/h
Total time: 06:15:52
The track to the lookout is open, wide and sandy in patches and easily four-wheel drivable for park staff. There are plenty of signs along the track and cover all intersections, they provide the names of the destinations and the distance to them. There are plenty of trees along the route although from past experience they provide little shade when the sun is high in the sky. It can seem a long way when the weather is hot, so we were all happy that today was very cool for this time of year, after all, there had been snow falling over the last couple of days further south.
Along this section there were some great banksias (Coastal, Banksia integrifolia; and old man, Banksia serrata) and a very determined Red Bull Ant (Myrmecia gulosa) dragging a deceased cicada across the track, we were unable to work out where the ant was trying to take its prize. From Brooks Lookout, we got great views across Steamers Beach to the headland just to its north.
Red Bull Ant (Myrmecia gulosa) dragging dead cicarda
By the time we had reached the St George Head (Corangamite) Trail turnoff, Beth and Pablo had decided not to continue to St Georges Head. They were exhausted from their wedding on Monday and 27km trail race on Thursday, so decided to skip that section. Sue headed back with them. The rest of us headed off along the track to a small headland, here we had good views across Wreck Bay and found a nice grassy patch to use for lunch. Here, I was lucky to make a quick lens change and get one shot off of a pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster) at their closest approach, away from obscuring trees. They were actually quite distant and the photo I took is cropped heavily to make them appear much closer.
Next, we walked around to Kitty’s Beach, a tiny, west-facing beach nestled in amongst the surrounding forest. On the side track to Black Harbour Sam spotted a Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). As we were only a couple of metres away from it I was surprised to observe it kept moving around and foraging for food, not the usual curling ups into a defensive ball. By the time another group of people had arrived it had moved further up the hill, but they seemed pretty happy to still be able to catch a glimpse.
Black Harbour consists of a sandy-bottomed channel in front of a tiny, very low island. There are some wonderfully colourful lichen-covered rocks here and potentially great swimming for those interested. So, it was here I said see you later to Lauren, Sam and Bec as they planned on taking a dip whilst I thought I might head off looking for my next photo. Just after reaching Blacks Harbour Foot Track from Blacks Point Track there is a section of forest with a great fern understory, here I headed off the track a little to show it at its best.
Black Harbour
Next came Whiting Beach, a very sheltered cove providing fantastic swimming opportunities. Sue and I have had a great time here in the past but I wasn’t inclined to today. A great cool day for walking, not so much for swimming. Whiting Beach is a brilliant fine, sandy beach with a sandy base extending far beyond standing height. It is, however, a little difficult to reach along the very narrow rock platform shoreline from the approach track, it’s a lot easier to swim!
The next stop was Blacks Waterhole, the water here is very dark, shallow and full of organic debris, no wonder the sign says “No Swimming”. Near the waterhole, I observed some flowering swamp lilies (Genus Crinum) but no birds which I had been hoping for. As it was getting relatively late in the afternoon I was only to pause briefly on the remaining 3km back to the carpark.
Between the morning parkrun and this 20km hike I had racked up about 25km for the day, so I was now looking forward to a relaxing evening.
Our 2018 Steamers Beach – Kittys Beach – Whiting Beach Hike
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