May 2011
This month we could have been called the On-track squelchers as 13 of us tackled the 11 km Abraham’s Bosom track in rain.
Actually it only showered enough to soak us at the beginning and then held off for our lunch break and most of the significant sightseeing spots, so we were lucky, telling ourselves how brave we were to keep going.
It was nothing compared to the drenching the poor passengers on the SS Merimbula had when their steamboat collapsed in rough seas, exactly 83 years before on 27th March 1928 and they managed to get safely to shore on what is now called Wreck Bay.
There are so many interesting things to see on this walk: including the fast dwindling remains of the passenger ship; an Aboriginal shelter cave complete with midden and floor much higher than the base of the cave, as for thousands of years the ash accumulated from their fires; Mermaid’s Inlet where only the week before a fisherman had been swept off the rock ledge in high seas (luckily later rescued); Gosang’s Tunnel where a crawl through opens out to a brilliant view of the dramatic cliff faces which are lined with strata and huge fallen boulders that have weathered and collapsed; the quite frightening drop from Beecroft Head lookout. The vegetation changes as the walk progresses, passing through lush ferns and grass trees, shrubby banksias and gums, along sandy pathways and across slabs of rock.
There are a number of very pretty beaches with soft Jervis Bay sand and clear water and most have at their edges shady, grassy spots under trees.
We took both the coastal walk and Coomies walk to make this a longer exercise, but it is possible to just do the coastal one, returning by Marion’s Way, for a circuit of only 6 kms.
As we had completed the same walk three years ago this time we went in the reverse direction, turning right at the map sign, thus leaving the most exciting bits till the last third of the walk. And we do feel courageous for finishing, having waded through swampy tea-tree coloured water on part of the track.
Do join us for our next walk, they are not all quite so adventurous.
Lee Sharam