When a 'Coast walk' is not what it says on the tin...

Last week we decided to do a 26km walk along the coast from Bundeena to Otford, which we’d heard was supposed to be beautiful.  We read beforehand that you have to be 'very fit' or 'very stupid' to do the whole thing in one day but we ‘very stupidly’ didn’t let that warning deter us.

We got up early, then had to get a train followed by a tiny ferry to the start of the walk in Bundeena and arrived just in time for torrential rain. Hmm.

Me in the pouring rain at 8.30am; small ferry which
 looked more like an old steam boat, in the background

We then had a few issues locating the start of the walk and Tourist Information was conveniently closed but we we pointed in the right direction with thanks to a friendly woman in the newsagents.

The first 8km were well marked, very coastal and picturesque (despite the rain!).  The next leg was slightly more problematic.  Problem 1= no signposts which resulted in us getting lost.  Problem 2= a very overgrown path; we literally had to wade through bushes which, in this deadly country, terrified me.

We made it to Gari beach and stopped for lunch, with 18km under our belts and feeling very happy.

The next and final leg however, turned into a NON-COASTAL nightmare, through ‘Palm Jungle’ – a heavily over grown jungle area, which was also one huge hill.  I was so terrified I refused to stop or take my jumper off through fear that a red back spider might land on my back. This made for a very hot, stressful and torturous 60 minutes! The view at the top was pretty impressive...

...but I was very relieved that the final 4kms was on a ‘normal’ open path, and happier still when we completed the walk and hopped back on a train to civilization for sushi and a few well earned beers.