CENTRAL COAST - Little Bay - HIKE - 19 August 2009

I parked near Little Bay at the entrance to the National Park track. A small sign indicates the start or there is more parking and another entrance at the end of the road.

The easy track passes through rainforest with the calls of many birds echoing from the bush. Large trees and ferns dominate the vegetation. The track joins with a small fire trail that leads to Little Bay. There are toilets, buns and BBQ available. Camping is also permitted.

Little bay is a long narrow cove with a pretty white sand beach surrounded on the northern and southern sides by high sandstone cliffs. The water is shallow with good surfing waves under the right conditions. A small creek empties into the sea in the centre of the beach.

I followed the base of the northern cliffs along small rocks and tessellating sandstone. After about 20 minutes walk becomes impassable. The views are excellent on the point and the cliffs are awesome. The possibility of a rock fall is evident with the large amount of fallen rocks that litter the base.

There is a track leading upwards from the centre of the beach towards the towering cliffs on the northern side. The path is reasonably steep. Once at the top there are some reasonable views over the ocean. The track at this point becomes a sandy fire trail. It is not an exciting walk though there were a lot of flowers in bloom on the trail edge. I followed the trail and along track 72. The view at the track 72 was obscured by high and thick vegetation.

Time: 1 hour return to northern base of cliff and 1 hour return to track 72.

Warnings:

Best at low tide
Beware of falling rocks