Date: 1/10/2024
Trip leader: Bruce Stafford
Party: Hazel, Lichun, Ruiqi(Rickie), Shaoyang, Synne Flatheim, Mabel (Ting Ting), Yozhou.
Coalcliff-Stanwell Park Beach-Otford, Tuesday 1st October
You might notice that the heading of this trip report is not the same as what was originally planned. That’s because a track closure required a change of destination. And the heading pic doesn’t exactly look like a beach. Read on.
On this walk, one person called in sick, one person missed the train due to a complication, but there were two “no shows” who have made no contact with me. I remind members that if you are a “no show”, especially a serial offender, it is likely that you may not get priority for a place on popular walks, or not be accepted at all.
Six of us met up at Central Station with Mabel and Rickie getting on at other stations. Because t was a weekday walk, we had to change trains at Helensburgh and wait 7 minutes for a suburban Tangara train to Coalcliff. On arrival at Coalcliff Station we set off north along Lawrence Hargrave Drive to the start of the Wodi Wodi Track. We were dismayed to find that the track entrance not only had a fence across it, but a man was also there to give advice that the track was closed due to helicopter operations which were dropping loads of stone weighing 150kg along the track. The work was to replace old wooden steps with stone steps. Now, I am aware that there are no steps, wooden or stone, on the Wodi Wodi Track to where the Forest Walk starts (apart for a few near the railway line).There are, however, wooden steps where it joins up with the Wodi Wodi Track coming from Stanwell Park Station, which is undergoing repair work as part of the plan to have a complete walking track from Bundeena to Austinmer. These would be the ones being replaced. Although there was no work being done on the actual Forest Walk. its close proximity to the helicopter operation that day made it unsafe to use the track that starts near the railway at Coalcliff. National Parks could not risk an accidental drop of 150kg of stone on walkers! Unfortunately there was no notice on the NPWS website of the Forest Walk about closure at the Coalcliff end, only at the Austinmer end.
So, with that walk not available, we continued walking along Lawrence Hargrave Drive towords Stanwell Park, turning off at Lower Coast Road to head for the south end of the beach. We came to an open area but couldn’t work out if it was public or private land; no signs or fences anywhere. I took a look at its lower end at the beach and found a series of old concrete steps leading down to the beach. (It turns out that just two houses further on is Baird Park; at this park and also at the concrete steps we used, Stanwell Creek Lagoon can block an easy path to the beach at high tide, needing a longer detour – it was low tide when we were there, luckily for us).
We walked along the beach, which despite the weather being perfect, had few people in swimming. The flags were up showing the safe place to swim and lifeguards were on duty, as they will be here until the end of Summer next year. We continued along, and reached a rough track that climbs up a short distance to reach The Drive, than another 250 metres along this road to reach another bush track, easier this time, to take us to Chellow Dene Avenue, which at this point is a dirt track. It is also the start of the new track which goes up bald hill, our next destination. Having got here, we couldn’t pass up a chance to look at the nearby Otford Tunnel, 1.5km long and abandoned in 1920 when the South Coast railway was diverted to its present track. We went inside for about 100 metres to the point where we could see the other end 1.5km away as a bright dot (see photo). The floor of the tunnel here is mostly level and usually dry as the tunnel’s drainage system still works. The only trip hazard in this part is the old iron grille lying on the ground near the entrance. Further along, however, the floor becomes quite uneven and rough in places, with an open drain. There are also many trip hazards such as old cables on the floor to be avoided. As we did not come with torches for everyone, I did not plan to walk the whole tunnel which takes about 35 minutes (mobile phone torches by the way are not strong enough and risk running down the phone battery when used for 35 minutes). I would never start a walk through this tunnel at this end anyway, as you never know if the exit at the other end might be closed.
After inspecting the tunnel, we returned back along Chellow Dene Avenue to the start of the track up Bald Hill, It is quite a climb but thankfully it is almost all in shade, and there’s a couple of rest spots along the way. Indeed we considered using on as a lunch spot, but decided to push on instead. We actually did good time up this steep track. At the top of Bald Hill there is a wonderful view down the South Coast as far as Wollongong. We had a rest here and some took advantage of an ice cream van to buy cool refreshments.
Then we continued along up the hill past some people setting up a hang-glider, to reach the track which continues along the cliff top as far as Otford Lookout, although we only went as far as the Otford Pantry shop. It was closed today, but also noted that it is getting some extensions built on at the back. The picnic tables and seats were available however and we used those for lunch.
By then most people decided that they had done enough walking for the day (and the day was getting quite warm now anyway), so we decided to finish up and headed down steep Beaumont Road to Otford Railway Station, which we got to 5 minutes before the next train to Helensburgh. Another 12 minute wait at Helensburgh was needed before the next Sydney train came in.
The walk was interesting despite the change, and members still got the scenic sites along the coast thanks to us stopping at Bald Hill. They did miss out on experiencing some of the rougher bush tracks, but that can come later, on other walks. All seemed to have a good time.
Incidentally, this was the first time I have been on the Metro, as Tripview advised me to change trains at Chatswood to get a Metro train which would get to Central 9 minutes earlier than the Newcastle train. There’s something about these Metro trains that remind me of the Moscow Metro: highly powered lightweight tin cans with rapid acceleration.
As last year, I want to organise a Halloween Walk on 31st October, so look out for it. A bonus will be an opportunity to see the planet Mercury in the western sky shortly after sunset. Mercury can be very difficult or impossible to ever see in the Northerm Hemisphere, so if you are from there, this may be a once in a lifetime chance to see Mercury. Mercury will be at its best in mid to late November, which is uni exam period, but an additional viewing trip might be possible then.
And small bananas? My red Dacca bananas are STILL not ripening, but they are just starting to change colour so it might no be far off when I can bring some on a walk.
Late final extra!! Look out for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the western sky shortly after sunset from today (October 10) for a few days. Hope it’s not cloudy! (Tsuchinshan means “purple mountain” in Mandarin, the name of the observatory that first spotted it).
Cheers, Bruce Stafford.
