Hiking With Friends

5 April 2010

The friends I went to Europe with, S, A and L, decided to go on a 10-14km walk from Wattamolla to Otford in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney.

It was an early start, when we met at S's home and were driven to the Wattamolla start. The previous day had been wet and as we started out, the weather was cool, overcast and quite humid.

It's always interesting to meet familiar people in remote places, demonstrating that the old adage 'it's a small world after all' does hold true. We ran into a few of L's friends as we were taking a short break on a rocky area near the river.

As we proceeded, there were areas of mud and places where the track was unclear and we had to double back to find it again under some low-lying plants.

Rated as a medium difficulty walk, there were parts that were easy and others that were quite difficult to slog through. Mid-way we took lunch at Garie Beach, where there was a kiosk and YHA (although it seemed like a very remote place for a youth hostel. Considering that there were residential properties around Garie Beach and the terrain, I couldn't help but wonder how supplies were got in and people got out.

We also met a middle-aged man who told us he was training on the walk to take on Kokoda, carrying quite a large pack.

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived in Otford and were too tired to go searching for the famous pie shop there, but we ended up having to wait a good part of an hour for the train back to Sutherland.

An enjoyable walk, which was mainly coastal but became challenging especially in many of the inland areas.