We were awaken once again by the calls exotic birds. At around 7am, I peeked in the patio above the car port to see if our host was out hand feeding the parrots and macaws, but unfortunately they weren’t out that morning. I went back into the apartment and made sure that we were packed up, before we spent the day hiking. We had planned to go to the Brisbane Water National Park to see if the waterfalls that we saw on google were as good in person as they were when the professional photographer took them.
As we started packing up the car, we saw our host Frank and his wife getting in the car to get ready for their trip. We again thanked them for giving us a great stay and told them that we hoped that they had a great time in Sydney. They told us that sadly only one of them going and that Frank would be staying home with the dog. They said that the dog had really gone down hill over the past two days and that they would have to put him down soon. He said that his wife was going to go to Sydney by herself. He asked me what our plans were for the rest of the day and I told him that we planned on going to to the Brisbane Water National Park. “Oh, there’s nothing to see there, if you want to go for a hike, you should go up to the end of Hawkes Head Drive and walk to Lobster Beach. It’s right up the hill and to the right.”
It sounded like a great idea and since he was local he was probably letting us in on a little secret. When we got the last of the bags into the car, we drove down the hill to where the Hardy’s Bistro and Killcare Pub were located. We parked across the street from the Bay and walked to the corner, where the bistro was located. We walked in and were quickly seated and handed some breakfast menus. The restaurant wasn’t incredibly busy, but there were a few other vacationing couples through out the dining room and patio. We ordered a large plate of breakfast food that we ended up splitting and we had a few coffees.
Elizabeth wasn’t feeling well, so it was sort of souring her attitude. She wanted to go on a hike on some level, but on another level she was acting reluctant. After we took a few wrong turns back up the hill towards Frank, we made it to the correct turn and took the road that Frank suggested to the end of Hawke Head Road. When I told him that we were going to drive up there instead of just walk, he said, “Well, it’s a rental car.” I would soon know what he meant and why to get insurance for rental cars.
What looked like it was going to be a nicely paved road, quickly turned into what was look like an off-road race course. There were rocks that jumped up into the wheel wells, and tall, steep speed bumps that scraped the bottom of the car, and made you feel like you might actually get stuck and be driving in a see-saw. During some of the bumps, I would try to get it “at the right angle”, but no matter what I did, “SCRAPPPPEEE!” About a quarter mile in, we saw a pull out with a car parked in it and Elizabeth thought it would be a good idea to just walk the rest of the way.
We got together our water bottles and camera and started heading down the road, after a little while, Elizabeth noticed that we were actually quite a distance away from the walking trail head and that maybe it was worth risking driving the rest of the way. We walked back to the car and then drove to end of the road and parked at the trailhead. Behind where we parked we could walk to a lookout and see Tallow Beach below. We walked through the gate and walked along the sandy trail, having the occasional flies land on us and make us itch a little. The terrain reminded me a lot of the trails in coastal San Diego, with a mixture of solid sandstone, covered by sand, and lined with shrubbery. While it felt a little like a desert, because much like Southern California, the Central Coast of New South Wales was in a severe drought. But it was pretty humid, in spite of the fact that it was about 22°C (72°F).
We came to a fork in the trail. If we went to the left that would take us to Tallow Beach below or if we went straight we would go to the box head. The box head trail seemed flat and easy, while the elevation down to the beach seemed a little too extreme to expect to go down and up then go out to the Box Head. There were further trails that could take us to Lobster Beach and Pretty Beach, but we decided that after we went out to Little Box Head we would go to the completely secluded Tallow Beach and go for a dip.
We actually saw two people on our way out on the trail, but we had it otherwise to ourselves. There is something really freeing and a bit dangerous about walking in isolation through nature. Along the way we saw some lizards and wild turkeys making their way around. Apparently, there were also snakes that we should have looked out for, but luckily we didn’t encounter any. When we made our way to the lookout, we could see Tallow Beach below and it did little, but insight anticipation as we looked below to our own personal beach.
After taking in the view for a few minutes we headed back to the fork and started walking down the trail to the beach. Looking down we started to see gigantic ants marching all over the trail. Elizabeth said that they would “get me” if I stopped long enough to take a photo, but I stopped to take one anyway and I was just fine. The further we went down the steeper the trail was and the more Elizabeth seemed to dwell on the hike back up, above the experience of being the only ones on the beach.
As we walked on the trail out towards the fence that was holding back the sand drifting up the side of the cliff, it was as if paradise was revealing itself. Stepping in the sand and having our running shoes sink into perfect waves of untouched sand, it felt like we were destroying, yet embracing a magical place. We stripped down to our bathing suits and headed for the water. We got about waist deep before we decided that the reality of how cold the water was, was far more chilling than the concept. The waves coming in were a little chopping, as the tide was out, so we sort of limited our time in the water.
We hung out on the beach together for a little while, before heading back up the trail. Elizabeth didn’t enjoy the hike back up as was anticipated, but it actually wasn’t that back. We walked back to the car and then set the GPS to Bondi Beach. The GPS found our location and immediate displayed a warning saying, “4×4 vehicles only” on the road that we were on. We didn’t bother typing in that we were in a Yaris and just continued back the way we came as we saw multiple SUV’s and lifted trucks among the on-coming traffic. There were a few instances were it was an one lane road, and I was fearful of getting stuck as monster truck sized wheels sped passed our sub-compact car.
Once we got out to the paved road, it was going to be about a 2-hour drive until we arrived at Bondi Beach. We had the directions set for avoid tolls, so near the end of our drive, we started going through the city in what felt like the most inefficient way we possibly could’ve gone.