50 In 2

Runners could relate: It was only when I got home that I realized if I had walked an extra kilometre or two, I would have broken 50 kilometres over two days. If I had worked the kilometres out in advance, I probably would have done the little bit extra just for the symmetry of the number, but, I might actually have been inclined to do an extra 7 kilometres, then I would have walked my age over two days. It could all get a little bit silly when the idea was just to go for an overnight training walk.

I walked north from Maloneys Beach through Murramarang National Park, taking a slightly different route in each direction. There is no contiguous track along this section of coast. In line with Australian cultural values, there are instead roads and parking lots with short tracks, under 500 metres in length to each of the small beaches. If people could drive, I have no doubt they would.

A long section of the coast can actually be walked along the shore but you do need dead low tide for some sections and there are a number of points where deep clefts make passage, without swimming, impossible.

Walking north, I had left near low tide, so I followed the shore where I could, walking cross country when I could not make it around the shore. Every so often, I would pick up a bit of track, and from Myrtle Beach north, you can walk track all the way to Durras.

I got water in the toilet block at Durras and brewed up a cup of tea, and then it was straight forward beach walking or track all the way to Pebbly Beach. It is worth mentioning that at Point Upright you can either walk the Burrawang Track up and over the headland, or, if it is low tide, walk around the wonderful rock platform at ocean level, but it must be low tide.

At Pebbly Beach, I got more water, and brewed up again before pushing on to spend the night camped by the ocean. It seemed weird to be camping by myself. Not walking by myself, as I do that all the time, but, amazingly, this is the first time I have carried all the gear and camped by myself. I've never been sure that I could manage all the overnight gear alone, but, we have a new ultra-light weight tent (so light weight I'm sure it will not last long) and my pack was barely heavier than what I have been carrying around on training sessions.

Coming back, I did a little less bush-bashing and a little more road walking, which is why my kilometres were just a tad too low to crack 50. I had a couple of swims as it was pretty hot and humid.

National Parks has plans to join Bawley Point to Maloneys Beach with contiguous track for a multi-day walking experience. It's one of those good/bad developments. It's more development in a park that is small in size and already zig-zagged with roads. If you look at the topographic map of Murramarang Park you can see that there is barely a square kilometre that does not already have a road or a track. Walking is, however, infinitely better than driving, and if development must come, promoting self-powered development is better for all of us.