WINNIE BAY HIKE - 8 FEBRUARY 2017

Yesterday, I had an a ocean swim at Terrigal Haven wearing goggles and snorkel.

The water looked clear but there was a lot of small plankton in the water which made it difficult for the camera to focus. There were a lot of fish about, the highlight being a large groper.

Today, it was still raining lightly at dawn but looked like it was a going to clear soon.


I drove to Captain Lookout at Copacabana and followed the track to Winnie Bay.

It was a very wet hike as the vegetation was thick along the track and dripping with raindrops. My shoes and pants were drenched by the time I got to the open area of Winnie Bay.

The walk was great as it followed the cliff edge until it dropped towards the bay below. There were lots of short turnoffs that lead to the cliff edge with expansive ocean views and dizzying drops to the ocean and rocks below.

It was a slow hike going down as there was an abundance of Golden Orb Weaver spiders along the side of the track and a number of times across thee track. I had to carefully remove an edge of the web so that the web was moved to side of the track. I watched one of thee orb weavers deal with a prey that had entangled itself in its sticky web.

Winnie Bay was a light pebbly beach with rock platforms stretching out from the base of the cliffs. The waves were crashing in a rough and random manner on the shore edge. I enjoyed walking on the flat rocks and watching the crabs scuttle away on my approach.

A wet but good 2.87 km hike.

I met two police officers at the lookout at the end. There was no problems but they part of there run was to check lookouts and large water storage tanks for vandalism and other indiscretions.

I had a short ocean swim at Terrigal haven before heading home.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the movies to see 'Resident Evil'. It was non stop action all the way. :)

CENTRAL COAST - Captain Cook Lookout to Winnie Bay - HIKE - 9 August 2009

There is car parking at Captain Cook Lookout at Copacabana. The lookout isn't very impressive as trees and bushes obscure most of the view.

Walking from the carpark to the lookout there is a small track near the end of the wire fence. This track leads to Winnie Bay. It is heavily overgrown with bitou, which tends to make the track more like walking through a maze. The vegetation changes towards the bottom of the hill to native trees and bushes and eventually to cleared land dominated by grasses. While walking down the hill there are some fantastic views overlooking the ocean with shear drops to the water below and unobstructed views north to Winnie Bay, Avoca and the Skillion. The views alone are worth the walk.

Winnie Bay is a sewerage outfall, which is indicated by the sign saying don't swim and don't eat the crustaceans and don't eat the fish. I got the message. Once on the rocky beach there are headlands to the north and south. The north is an easy rock walk that can be traverse nearly as far as Avoca. The south walk only goes only a little further than the headland. The wave action here sends up plumes of whitewater and the backdrop of cliffs is very steep. A rock landing on your head is possible at a number of spots.

There are two other entry points for this walk. One is a fire trail and the other is a better maintained walking track that leads through the bush straight up the hill behind Winnie Bay. The track I followed though poorly maintained is more breathtaking.

journey time: 3 hours return

good points: views north, standing on the edge of sheer drops, isolation

worse points: lack of native vegetation.