Killalea wetland

The sun emerged from the clouds and the surf was running high as we crossed Killalea Beach and climbed up a ridge overlooking Minnamurra Beach and the river mouth at its far end. The verdant green rolling headlands, characteristic of this coastal region, stretched out before us with the lighthouse-topped Blowhole Point at Kiama, our destination for the night, in the distance.

In the Casuarina swamp

Mangroves of the Minnamurra River

With a high tide and strong seas, we chose to head inland to bypass the casuarina and mangrove swamps of the Minnamurra River to the north, rather than swim our packs across it on an air mattress, as originally planned. Wrong decision! At the end of the 3 km detour we reached the south side of the river, where a swim in the clear green inlet waters on the river side of the sand bar refreshed us from the hard detour and reminded us that the river crossing would have been definitely feasible. Such adventures will have to wait until the next water barrier.

Cathedral Rocks

The coastline from Minnamurra to Kiama was exceptionally beautiful, with dark brooding skies forming a backdrop to the sunlit headlands and rock formations.

Bombo Headland

Rain was not far behind us as we crossed Bombo Beach to finally reach the Blowhole Point Holiday Park, 23 km from our start, where a van and our base supply kit awaited us.

The rain arrived in earnest the next day, but not before we had stocked up with supplies (fresh fish and oysters from the port below us, fresh fruit, beer and a bottle of red). We were ready to hunker down over the next few rainy days.

The small village of Jamberoo, settled by the original European settlers in the mid-19th century, proved a good choice for our lunch stop.

Jamberoo Hotel

Lyrebird scratching for food on the forest floor

Most of the bird life of the rainforest can be heard but not seen, but if you are very patient sometimes you may be rewarded.

After a week of R & R, canoeing and conventional tourism, it was finally time to put our boots back on and resume the walk south along the green pasture covered headlands and basalt cliffs of the Kiama Coast.

A last farewell to Kendall's Beach .......

Climbing over a dry stone wall, built by the early settlers, we left Kiama town and began our crossing of a series of magnificent green pasture headlands on dairy farms between Kiama and Gerroa. The black volcanic basalt cliffs of Kiama changed to a redder hue, as the iron content of the rock increased toward the south, and the Nowra railway line appeared and disappeared on our right in a series of tunnels and cuttings. The fine sand beaches of Kiama were replaced by rocky inlets and boulder strewn shorelines.

This coastline reminded us of western Ireland, but with sunshine. It also must contain some of the few remaining vestiges of privately-owned absolute sea frontage in Australia. Most farmers did not seem to worry about walkers crossing their land, though we had to develop a unique low side roll to cross the many four-stranded barbed wire / double-stranded electric wire fences, which ran right down to the cliff face (N.B. I strongly recommend against any attempt to straddle over such barriers). Only one property, just before Gerroa, showed a distinctly unfriendly attitude toward walkers (= trespassers); a shame as the view from “their” headland over Werri Beach and Lagoon was magnificent.