Mallacoota to Merrica River, Nadgee - January 2004

Somewhat incongruously seeing that its about half way between our two most populous cities, the south eastern corner of Australia is home to some stunning wilderness parks, you can basically walk from Lakes Entrance to Eden along the coast and only pass through one town in Mallacoota, a walk that would take the best part of two solid weeks. We'd done the Thurra River to Mallacoota section in Croajingalong National Park in Victoria a few years previously, so on this walk we decided to walk from Mallacoota to Merrica River predominantly through the Nadgee Wilderness Area in New South Wales. I say we as on this trip Sam and I would be accompanied by my friends Dave, Skip and Janty. So after leaving a car at the ranger station at Merrica River we were ready to start walking.

There was plenty of beach walking on the first two days.

Lake Barracoota.

Day 1                            18 kilometres                   Lake Wau Wauka

Normally to start this walk entails organising a boat ride across Mallacoota Inlet however our visit coincided with the entrance to the inlet being closed to the sea, so we just had to amble across the sandbar. Once across the entrance the surf beach stretched beyond our vision and we would spend the best part of the next day and half trudging along it. Walking a beach like this can be a bit like meditating, you just find a comfortable rhythm and plug along in a bit of a trance. After a couple of hours we got to the marker that signalled the spot to leave the beach and strike out inland across the dunes to Lake Barracoota, this would be a great spot to camp if we'd left later in the day but today it provided a spot for a swim and to fill the water bottles up. 

Sam. Janty and Skip wait on top of the dune while I go for a swim at Lake Barracoota.

The large freshwater Lake Barracoota.

Tullaberga Island

Leaving Lake Barracoota after our swim we headed back to the beach and once again headed east on the seemingly endless beach. Walking such a long expanse of beach any little change added interest to the walk, the next thing to break us out of our trance was the ship wreck of the Riverina which ran aground in 1927. The wreck is actually very close to the beach and is easily visible at low tide, a perfect spot for another break. Gabo Island was in view now and as we passed Telegraph Point we were as close as we would get to the island, the lighthouse on the low island was clearly in view. With Gabo Island now receding from view we now set off towards Lake Wau Wauka, the inlet to the lake was closed to the sea but the opening in the constant dunes made it obvious where the lake was. We followed the western shore of the lake around to a copse of tea trees and set up camp in the shelter of the trees, I was pretty happy to find the lake water drinkable as its sometimes too brackish to drink due to the salt spray blowing in from the beach.

Having a break on the seemingly endless beach walk.

Gabo Island.

Lake Wau Wauka.

Day 2                           6 kilometres                         Bunyip Hole

After an early swim we walked back to the beach and continued our journey east passing the wreck of the Iron Prince which was shipwrecked in 1923, and a little later we finally reached the rocks that marked the end of the beach that we'd been following since leaving Mallacoota. We now followed the  a bit of a pad above the rocks until we got to the obelisk marking Conference Point, the spot where we crossed from Victoria into New South Wales, interestingly the obelisk doesn't mark Cape Howe, that is marked by a bare dune a little further on. Cape Howe marks the spot where geographically the south coast of Australia meets the east coast. 

We've finally arrived at the end of the beach after a day and a half.

Dunes near Cape Howe.

From Cape Howe we carefully walked another 600 or so metres into New South Wales to a small sandy cove, I say carefully as the wind had blown sand over the rocks which had built fragile sand bridges over the rocks underneath, and from above it was impossible to tell if we would fall through or not, after falling through once we kept a fair distance from the rocks lining the shore as this was no place to have an injury. With the coast now officially heading north it changed instantaneously, instead of the dunes and open beaches that we had followed so far we would now cross heathlands, small coves and bays for the rest of the walk. After having a swim at the first small cove we followed the beach to its northern end and located the rough track that led us to Bunyip Hole, on finding fresh water here we decided on an early day, pitching the tents in the tea trees lining the small water hole. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out the rock ledges north of the small beach as well as taking the odd swim.

Sam looks happy to finally be into New South Wales.

The first sandy beach that we got to once entering New South Wales.

Swimming at the first cove into New South Wales near Bunyip Hole.

Sam on the cliffs near Bunyip Hole.

Janty and Skip on the rocks near our Bunyip Hole camp.

Day 3                            20 kilometres                     Newtons Beach

About 30 seconds after leaving Bunyip Hole we were already missing the wide open beaches that had characterised the walk so far, we were in a claustrophobic tunnel of tea trees, the pad became so overgrown that we had to resort to taking our packs off and pushing them through in front of us as we crawled through on all fours. Once out of the band of tea tree we struck out across the low scrub covered Endeavour Moor, the pad across here was over grown but not to bad, although it would be hard on your shins if you weren't wearing gaiters. Crossing the moor we dropped down to Nadgee Lake Beach, Nadgee Lake backs the beach and is a bit brackish but it made a good spot for us to have a bit of a swim. From here we climbed up onto Nadgee Moor and walked along old overgrown fire trails most of the way to Nadgee Beach, on the way we saw the biggest fattest Red Belly Black Snake that I've ever seen, luckily the snake was keen to get away from us and it didn't worry us. 

Endeavour Moor.

Nadgee Lake from Endeavour Moor.

The inlet at Nadgee Beach.

Nadgee Beach.

Our lunch spot in the tea tree at Nadgee Beach.

After wading the creek at the northern end of Nadgee Beach we stopped again for another swim and a bit of a lunch break. From Nadgee Beach we climbed up onto Impressa Moor again following a series of old over grown fire trails, reaching the turn off to Harrys Hut we left our packs and headed down to the Nadgee River with our water bottles, this being the most reliable water that we thought we would find today. After filling up our water bottles at the river we checked out the rustic Harrys Hut before retracing our route back to our packs, battling the huge numbers of ferocious mosquitos. Anxious not to get eaten by the mosquitoes we didn't linger and quickly threw our packs on and headed off towards Little Creek Beach. Little Creek provided another opportunity for a swim before our last push for the day over to Newtons Beach. We arrived at the large grassy camping spot at Newtons Beach late in the day to find all the creeks bone dry, luckily there was an old tank that had a few inches of very dodgy water in it which after filtering we would survive on for the rest of the walk. After setting up camp we headed to the beach for another swim before settling in for the night.

Little Creek Beach.

Little Creek.

The Nadgee River near Harrys Hut.

Skip crossing the Nadgee River.

The rustic Harrys Hut.

Camp at Newtons Beach.

There was a large grassy area to camp behind Newtons Beach, it was a pity that there was no water in the vicinity.

Day 4                          10 kilometres                    Merrica River Ranger Station

After a somewhat oppressive night we woke to very overcast and threatening skies, being the middle of summer though there was no danger of us getting to cold, so as the rain started as we climbed away from Newtons Beach we didn't even bother to put on our rain jackets. As the track climbed the old fire track away from the coast we entered eucalyptus forests for the first time in four days of walking climbing fairly easily to a track junction on the crest of the Table Ridge. Once on the crest Skip, Janty and I took as side trip to look for a lookout marked on our maps, we only managed to add a few kilometres to our days walk however and didn't actually find the lookout, hmmm. When the track started descending we figured that we would cut our losses and head back to the others at the track junction on the top of the ridge. Reunited with Sam and Dave we continued our walk down the fire track towards Merrica River, the track from the ridge descends fairly gently and made for pleasant walking even in the light rain and we arrived back at the car by mid morning. All that was left to do now was to head back to Mallacoota to pick up the other cars and then complete the six hour drive home, no worries!

We've just topped out on Table Ridge.

The Dirt.

We walked about 56 kilometres on this walk. I'd rate this a medium walk, the beach sections are generally pretty good at low to middling tides, the heathland sections were fairly over grown back when we did the walk but that may have changed by now. Don't do this walk expecting a well signposted and manicured track, the walk passes through a wilderness area and apart from being a bit overgrown some of the tracks were badly eroded. The biggest issue on our walk was finding water however, and camps should be planned around its availability. The other issues in bush walking in that part of the country are the ticks, mosquitoes, and snakes, there are plenty of all of them, although the mosquitoes pissed me off the most. You need to organise a permit to walk the coast from the National Parks people and they had an office in Mallacoota back when we did the walk. I used the notes out of the Tyrone Thomas book 120 Walks in New South Wales First Edition from 2000, although its long since out of print I think.

Nadgee Inlet day 3.

A ship rounding Cape Howe.

Port Louis, Mauritius - December 2011

Port Louis in Mauritius doesn't feature on a lot of tourist brochures for the tiny island nation, its a somewhat gritty city. A lot of the workers commute down to the city from up on the cooler Central Plateau meaning that the large city only has a resident population of 155,700 people. The picture postcard beaches that you see in the glossy brochures about Mauritius seem to be almost everywhere else on the island but near Port Louis. We were staying at a small beach side town to the south of the city called Flic en Flac but wanted to have a bit of a poke around the capital to see what it had to offer, so after arranging for a driver I shoehorned myself into the car next to the somewhat surprised driver and we headed off early on another balmy morning into the traffic. Australia's fairly egalitarian ways aren't always practised in a lot of countries and I quite often get surprised looks when wanting to jump in the front seat with the driver (or maybe they're thinking 'I hope this fat bastard doesn't want to sit beside me') or have a chat with the workers at the hotel.

Port Louis traffic.

Our first stop in Port Louis was the old citadel of Fort Adelaide which was actually built by the British, it sits high on a the crest of a hill and gave us a panoramic view over down town Port Louis and its harbour. With the reasonably humid weather I was happy enough to have driven up here and not walked from town as once out of the car we were already sweating up a storm. Apart from the CBD and the port the other site that stood out was the Hippodrome or as its known by its official name, the Champ de Mars Racecourse. The racecourse dates back to 1812 which apparently makes it the second oldest racecourse in the world, the Mauritian's apparently don't mind a punt.

Sam at Fort Adelaide.

The view from the citadel back towards the CBD and the harbour.

The Hippodrome, the second oldest racecourse in the world.

Next up we headed slightly north of the city to the extensive Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden in Pamplemousses, I think my spell check has gone into meltdown mode after typing that sentence! The botanical gardens are named after the first prime minister of Mauritius and was constructed in the 1770's by Pierre Poiure which makes them the oldest botanical gardens in the Southern Hemisphere. After arranging to be picked up in a couple of hours we were left to wander around the large mainly tropical gardens, apart from the typical tropical palms and other trees the gardens are famous for their great water lilies. We eventually made our way to the large ponds swatting away the squadrons of ferocious mosquitoes on the way, where Sam took some nice photos of the huge water lilies while I kept a watchful eye on a the local dogs that seemed to have free range of the gardens. 

An old building in the botanical gardens.

The botanical gardens in Port Louis are famous for there water lilies.

After making our way back to the entrance gate we jumped back into the air-conditioned car and headed back into town to the Caudan Waterfront precinct. The waterfront has a bit of a 'Disney Land' feel to it with its shiny boutiques, cafes, casino and cinemas, after having a bit of a look around we found a nice spot to have some lunch while taking in the passing parade of people. The waterfront appears to be the place that the tourists visit the most in town and feels very safe but also a bit to sanitised for my tastes, unfortunately on this visit we didn't get a chance to check to some of the less polished parts of town. Next time we come back I'll try and get away from the crowds of European tourists and check out a bit more of how the locals live.

The Caudan Waterfront.

On of the many restaurants in the waterfront precinct.

The Dirt.

We enjoyed our day in Port Louis but in hindsight would have liked to check out a few of the less polished (touristy) area's. The city has a bit of a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges but we never felt unsafe, although that may have been due to the area's we visited. We organised a driver for the day and while I can't remember the exact cost it was not overly expensive (remember the blog was years away). We stayed in the whimsically named Flic en Flac, a small town to the south of Port Louis on a typical picture postcard white sand beach.

Despite the overcast looking conditions it was quite a warm day.

The beach in front of our hotel at Flic en Flac.

The overcast skies cleared in time for another stunning sunset from our room.