Sunday 16 April 2017
Photos by Karen M, Karen C and Mary T
Twenty Nine Batemans Bay Bushwalkers chose to spend their Easter Sunday outdoors, enjoying the glories of a perfect Autumn day. Easter celebrations mean different things to different people, but to bushwalkers there’s nothing better than surrounding themselves with the wonders of Nature.
Leaving Pebbly Beach the group trekked north along the coast through spotted gum forest, stopping to admire the small deserted North Pebbly Beach. The track ascends over headlands with views along the coast and descends through creeks and cabbage palm gullies. There is a fine viewpoint at Clear Point, a favourite stop for morning tea.
Then on to Snake Bay for lunch on the rocky steps watching the surf break over the headland. Half of the group then explored a rainforest gully inland from the track before rejoining the rest of the group for the return journey.
Back at Pebbly Beach which is now a busy National Park tourist mecca with its accommodation facilities full for Easter, we tried to imagine how it used to look. Most of the forest was cleared and there was a sawmill behind the beach. Horse drawn trams took the logs across the dunes on wooden tram tracks to the loading facility on the northern rock platform. There a flying fox was used to load timber onto the waiting steamers. The large pole that supported this flying fox is still on the rock platform.
Karen M