We generally celebrate birthdays with some outdoor adventure, but, for various reasons, Doug’s birthday came and went without us doing anything significant. It was two weeks after that Doug suggested we walk from Depot Beach to Maloneys Beach along the Murramarang Coastal Walk. In May, we walked the full length of the trail in a day, which, despite what you read on-line, isn’t really a feat of great endurance. My tracked distance that day was somewhere between 39 and 42 kilometres (tracking on my Garmin Instinct can be 10% off), a distance which anyone who’s even marginally functional should be able to do in a day on a good track.
Depot Beach to Maloneys Beach is possible with a pretty short car shuttle for a good amount of walking, and, as we would be only doing about 24 kilometres, we would not have to hustle as much as walking the full distance in a short winter day. I dropped Doug at Maloneys Beach and drove up to the trail head for the Point Upright track in Depot Beach and parked.
For the first time in quite a few trips along the track, I managed to follow the exact route the entire way. Doug, coming from the south, missed a few track junctions and had to do some off-track walking at times to intercept the track. I think the track is slightly harder to follow from the south than the north.
Tricky points for finding the “proper” track are at the sandstone headland between Cookies Beach and the main Durras Beach. The route heads up the good steps north of the headland, along the road allowance a short distance and then down the first set of steps, or bush track back (either works) onto the beach. I think a lot of people walk this section on the road as they are weary of soft sand walking – Durras Beach always seem pretty soft – and coming from the south, the bush track/steps are hard to see from the beach. If you go right to the end of Mill Beach – more soft sand but think of it as mental toughness training – a good set of stone steps leads up to the Wasp Head track and, if you follow this somewhat meandering track through forest, a track sign is reached at the Wasp Head lookout.
The other spot where it is easy to get slightly off-route is the rock headland between the north and south Emily Miller Beaches. The actual signed track heads uphill and west from the rock buttress that separates these two beaches. It’s easy to miss the trail head sign which is up on top of the rock buttress and it doesn’t really matter as it’s also possible to just walk over the rock buttress to the north end of Emily Miller Beach.
Doug missed the track from Richmond Beach which is also easy to do. Coming from the south, once up to the Richmond Beach parking area, the route goes up the road for about 150 metres before a trail sign on the north side of the road gets the walker back onto bush tracks and off the road. A sign would be good at the car park here. My Garmin watch had the distance at roughly 24 kilometres and 700 metres gain for the Depot Beach to Maloneys Beach section, which tallies with the distances on the NPWS site.
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