Tomaree Coastal Walk

Apparently, the 20 minute walk to the top of Tomaree Summit Head is a Grade 5 walking track. That’s right, a paved trail with handrails and stairs, excessive signage and which takes about 20 minutes to walk comfortably is Grade5, or, descriptively “very experienced bushwalkers with specialised skills, including navigation and emergency first aid. Tracks are likely to be very rough, very steep and unmarked.”

Here’s what you should do if you are walking in the area, ignore the rating and stroll to the top. I walked up twice, once in teeming rain with no views and once the day after Doug and I walked the full Tomaree Coastal walk. On a very windy and rainy day, I walked from Fingal Bay north to Tomaree Head. The trail is a mix of beach and bush track and passes by Box, Wreck and Zenith Beaches, all little beaches tucked under short steep hills. Tomaree Head has a series of short trails, one to the top, and another that wraps around the north side. These can be linked together via rough bush tracks.

One day later, the weather was a lot better with only sporadic brief showers but gusty winds and large swell. I walked south from Fingal Bay while Doug drove to Birubi Point and walked north. The track is well marked and there are lots of side tracks to different rock platforms and lookouts: Fingal Head, Fingal Point, Snapper Point and Big Rocky. It’s worth walking out to all of these if you have the time and energy.

After Big Rocky there are two longer beaches, Samurai and One Mile Beach. Both were pounding with big surf as I walked along them. South of One Mile Beach is Morna Point with a very scenic slot that was awash with massive waves. A further half kilometre south is Boat Harbour which reminded me of paddling south west Tasmania: big swell and scary looking but also reasonably safe if you paddled out right through the middle. The coastline runs due west from Boat Harbour to Birubi Point. This is another interesting section of coast with rocky bays and headlands. The rocky coast abruptly comes to an end at Birubi Point and long Stockton Beach runs all the way to Newcastle.