Goin' Feral One Day At A Time: Cape Woolamai, Cape Woolamai State Faunal Reserve

I had big plans for today, I’d decided that straight after finishing off a couple of hours at work this morning I was heading up to the High Country to do a walk and visit an old hut. Everything was going to plan as I motored out of the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne sipping my traditional Macca’s coffee, it was about then that my plans took a bit of a turn though. Mentally going through my gear I suddenly realised that I hadn’t thrown my pack in the ute at 4:30am that morning, fuck! Stopping on the side of the road a quick search only confirmed what I’d thought, my pack was still sitting on a chair back at home about an hour away in the wrong direction. I could give you a heap of excuses why this happened but let’s just say early onset dementia is a bitch! Seriously my short term memory is absolute crap now days, although it’s never been great.

After a lot of mucking around today I eventually found my way down to Woolamai and headed off though the dunes.

Returning home with my tail between my legs the thought of sitting on the couch watching the F1 did have a certain appeal now. Fighting off apathy I decided that I’d revisit an old favourite down on Phillip Island, the Cape Woolamai Walk. The advantage of this walk is that it’s only an hour from home and also on this warm day I would have a chance for a swim, the disadvantage was that the tides were all wrong for the beach sections meaning I’d have to reverse the normal direction that I walk the circuit. It turns out that the change of direction didn’t matter that much when it came to my notes, as around half an hour after leaving home for the journey down I realised that I’d left my walking notes and map at home, for fucks sake!

The track across the isthmus to Cleeland Bight is soft and sandy but thankfully only pretty short.

Arriving at the Surf Club at Woolamai just after 2pm the tide was already halfway to full. The really critical section of this walk when it comes to tides is the stroll along Cleeland Bight Beach, so after pulling on the boots and re-setting the GPS I set off to find the sandy track that would take me across the isthmus to Cleeland Bight. After slogging across the soft sand dunes for 15 minutes I was happy to emerge from the bush onto the Cleeland Bight Beach, although a quick glance to the south east confirmed that I wouldn’t of wanted to be any later. The high water here laps at the base of eroding sandy cliffs with the occasional tree in the process of being claimed by the water littering the beach it doesn’t leave much margin for error, well unless you want to wade.

The tracks around Cape Woolamai are very well sign posted for the most part.

My plan this afternoon was to reasonably quickly get past this dodgy section before finding somewhere to have a swim a bit later. Trudging along the very soft sandy beach, avoiding the obstacles by judiciously timing the waves coming in and then sprinting (actually that may be another Feral embellishment?) around them to safety. Thankfully for my calfs the dodgy bit didn’t last long and once around a small point I found myself on nice firm sand on a reasonable width beach. I was now heading for an the old Granite Quarry and hopefully after checking that out, for a swim. Passing the route up to Woolamai Hill I continued along the now rocky coastline passed the remains of the old jetty which once serviced the quarry.

The Cleeland Bight section of a walk is a low to mid tide walk I think.

The dunes go right down to the waterline.

Looking across Cleeland Bight towards Kilcunda and the George Bass Coastal Walk.

The San Remo Bridge isn't far away.

I got past the dunes and then had to negotiate the smelly seaweed, I think I preferred the dunes!

My walking map calls this Safety Beach, whatever the name of the beach it looks like a good swimming spot.

Mr Chapman, Ms Ball, Mr Tempest and Mr Thomas have all written up pretty much the same version of this walk in various walking guide books over the years (it makes you wonder how I managed to leave them all in my bookcase at home, doesn’t it?) but they all seem to miss the one of the best features of the stroll. So here is a Feral tip, when you arrive at the steps leaving the beach and heading up to Woolamai Hill which are near the information board and jetty for the old Granite Quarry, avoid the steps and start rock hoping along the coast line. After crossing one little 'Robinson Caruso' style white sand beach framed by pink granite, continue rock hoping your way south east along the rugged coast.

If you are feeling up for a bit of adventure keep going along the coast when you hit the rocks.

It's fairly rough, slow going.

This little bolt hole of a beach would make an even nicer swimming spot.

After rock hoping another headland there is another little cove, this one full of pink granite boulders with beautiful turquoise water lapping at the shore. Don’t stop here though, continue across this little cove to climb another slightly higher headland on jagged rocks, the occasional grooves in the rock signalling that these rocks have been quarried. From the top of this headland you are looking out at the open water in Bass Strait, but below you right on the water line there is the remains of the quarry chiselled out of the pink granite, even better the old quarry now fills with water at high tide each day and then heats up during the day.

I'm looking out into Bass Strait now.

Eventually I arrived at my own private plunge pool....with Bass Strait views!

Down at pool level.

Dropping down to my private plunge pool I did what I always do, I stripped off and jumped in. This swimming hole isn’t one you’ll be doing laps in, its only about a metre deep at the deepest spot, but with a nice sandy bottom and a flat chiselled platform to sit on just under the water level it’s a magic spot. Sitting on the platform in the water It’s slightly surreal to see the surging water of Bass Strait on the other side of the rock wall, I’m not sure if its an optical illusion but the sea level appeared higher than where I was sitting. Every now and again a bigger set would roll ashore and a few little rivulets of fresh sea water would run into the pool.

The waters not very deep but that means that it's relatively warm.

There was even a nice flat submerged rock shelf to sit on.

After half an hour or so, with the tide now getting fairly high I decided that it was time to head off again, I still had around two thirds of the walk to go. After getting dressed I continued on a little further along the rugged coast to the next headland, climbing onto that headland I could see that any further progress along the rocky coast was going to get marginal, safety wise. Now I’m thinking in hind site I should of retraced my route back to the steps but checking out my GPS I could see an old track heading up towards Woolamai Hill in the direction that I needed to go and sure enough glancing in that direction I could see the old wheel tracks, so up it I went. Now the old vehicle track was still easy enough to follow but when I arrived at the other end where it meets the official route there was a closed gate saying that the track was only for management vehicles, I’m thinking that it may of been closed off due to Mutton Bird nests, the whole of the cape is littered with Mutton Bird burrows so maybe Parks don’t want people in that area in case they steep on a Mutton Bird nest?

Leaving my pool I rock hoped a bit further along the coast.

Looking back.

Eventually it was time to leave the coast.

Anyway I was now back on the official route again as I climbed, first to check out a lookout giving me a nice view across to the cliffs that the George Bass Coastal Walk traverse down to Kilcunda and then up to the trig point on Woolamai Hill. At 112 metres Woolamai Hill isn’t the highest hill you’ll ever climb but with Phillip Island and French Islands both being as flat as a pancake generally, then this little hill punches above it’s weight when it comes to views. The views down to the red granite rock lined coastline are now fairly constant for awhile, and peering off the edge at the trig I wasn’t disappointed here. Incidentally if you ever want to bring visitors to a place were you are almost guaranteed to see some native wildlife then this little reserve is worth considering, on most visits I’ve had here I’ve seen Echidnas and Swamp Wallabies, depending on the time of year Short-Tail Shearwaters and a variety of different snakes also make an appearance. While I was resting at the navigational light today I sat quietly as an Echidna foraged around near me.

There is never any shortage of wildlife on this stroll.

Plenty of Swamp Wallabies too.

These views are a constant of the walk from now on.

Unfortunately the land is a little denuded of vegetation in spots.

By the time I staggered off from the navigational light on Woolamai Hill the afternoon was turning into early evening, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though as I was hoping the early evening light would help my photos a little bit as I descended back down to the ute. The wide, obvious track now takes a bit of a meandering route as it follows the cliff tops fairly faithfully down towards the sand. There are numerous official and un-official lookouts from Woolamai Hill until you meet the sand again and I think I checked most of them out today, needless to say progress was slow! You have to be fairly careful here if you even leave the track by a couple of metres, not only do you need to be sure that you aren’t stepping on a shearwater’s burrow but you also have to keep an eye out that you are not stepping on one of the many snakes that also inhabit the burrows, at the same time the scratchy scrub is trying to rip the skin from your shins and the crumbly cliff tops are threatening to break away and deposit you 100 metres below on the rocky shoreline. So all in all it’s pretty good walking!

Looking into the late afternoon sun west towards Pyramid Rock.

The view from the navigational light on Woolamai Hill.

Woolamai Hill navigational light.

It's all down hill from Woolamai Hill....well more or less!

Rounding Cape Woolamai I tracked down the cliff line, the track slowly descending as I passed The Pinnacles and then Pulpit Rock, each of these features looking very nice with the low sun lighting them up. Once I reached Pulpit Rock the sandy track heads north east a little bit further away from the cliff tops for awhile, there are still views along here but they are a little more long reaching. With the sun now very close to dropping down into Bass Strait I arrived at the Magiclands Steps (sounds like somewhere that Dirk Diggler should hang out - what’s that, oh maybe it’s just me!) and descended to the sand for the last 15 minutes or so back up to the surf club.

The clouds reminded me a bit of my afternoons on the AAWT last year.

I'm guessing it's rabbits that are doing this damage, the burrows are Mutton Bird nests though.

Well it should of been a fifteen minute walk, but what I lack in talent I make up with enthusiasm when it comes to photography (actually, there are a few other things that applies to as well;) and I spent probably 45 minutes snapping away on his last little section of today’s stroll. There was plenty to like on this beach walk though as the the crimson light of the setting sun lit up a gaggle of surfers waiting out the back for the right set to come through. Looking back, Pulpit Rock now seeming a long way away, was slowly receding into the darkness. With the tide now being almost at it’s peak I was shuffling along some soft sand high on the beach, so I was happy enough to reach the ramp leading up to the surf club. After one last photo of the setting sun I pulled my boots off and set off on the 60 minute drive back home, it wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined my day turning out but any day out walking is a good day in my books.

Looking down along Woolamai Beach.

A young Mutton Bird.

Looking back towards The Pinnacles.

Woolamai Beach is a world class surfing spot.

The Dirt.
I walked around 10.5 kilometres and climbed about 180 metres on this version of the Cape Woolamai Circuit. I’d rate the walk as I did it as a medium grade walk as there was a lot of rock hoping involved and some of the rocks were a little on the sharp side (no doubt the rocks that had come out of the quarry). Cleeland Bight Beach is a good calm swimming beach but Woolamai is for very experienced and capable swimmers only - people drown here all too regularly (two this summer alone, from memory). Without doubt the safest spot to swim is the old quarry, but you have to work to get there. As I mentioned earlier it seems like all the usual guide book writers have written this walk up so walking notes aren’t hard to come by, I imagine Parks Vic has probably got some free stuff online as well. As far as safety goes you have to walk the Cleeland Bight Beach at low to middle tide, also if the day is warm then there isn’t much shelter on this walk either, while I’m on about safety then you need to be a little cautious of snakes on this walk as well, it’s not exactly ‘Snakes on a Plane’ territory but there are quite a few around.

Relevant Posts.
Cape Woolamai, March 2014.
George Bass Coastal Walk, March 2016.
Kitty Miller Bay to Pyramid Rock, March 2017.