Date: 2/3/2025
Trip leader: Bruce Stafford
Party: Glenn, Jiwoo, Jonathan, Leesa, Louise, Léna, Marion, Mengdi, Mu-Wei, Tianyi, Xinyi (Emma), Xinyue, Yiran, Yuning
Helensburgh-Burning Palms-Figure 8-Otford Walk 2/3/2025
This walk had some interesting turnarounds: weather being the opposite of what was forecast, a previously easy track now getting overgrown, leeches spooking some people, and myself forgetting to bring something important. Read on.
The previous night I had assembled carefully everything I needed for the walk, remembering this time to include my camera, and also the snake-bite kit recently obtained for trip leaders by Vyom. In the morning everything appeared to work like clockwork. But when I turned on the TV at 7am (which had been tuned to SBS the previous evening), on came a news item (on Polish TV no less) of the Orange Toddler’s tantrum in the Oval Office; that’s not a good omen for the day, I thought.
Even so, everything seemed to be going well – until I got to my railway station and found that I had left my Opal Card at home! So I had to swipe on with a credit card thus losing the discount benefits of the Opal Card. The train trip was also interesting, noting a lot of fog of the trip down, and then I had to change at Epping for a Metro service due to trackwork at Strathfield. Even then the Metro terminated at Martin Place, needing a change to a shuttle Metro on to Central Station.
At Central I realised that the entry to the escalators to Platform 25 at the Devonshire Street end is not easy to find and also having met up with Yiwen at the concourse we simply went down the stars instead. Before long others caught up with me s we waited for the train to Helensburgh. Anyway we got on board for the hour long ride to Helnsburgh. 10.29am was an unusually late start for a walk (which can often start hours earlier) but the start time of the walk was dictated by the time of low tide at Burning Palms, which was 5pm that day.
Passing through Waterfall we passed a steam train on one side and some “new” “D” Intercity trains parked on the other side. Jonathan from the Netherlands remarked that “they are not very nice looking”, something which a lot of us locals agree with. Inevitably the discussion turned to the lack of reversible seats in these new trains, and the flip down plastic tables on the seat backs. When Jonathan first saw the reversible seats on these and the suburban trains, he thought they are “brilliant”. He also said that flip-down plastic tables will see little use, and they have been removed from Dutch trains for that reason. English trains have them because even on fairly short trips they have on-board catering (which brings in extra revenue for the train operator). In New South Wales, passengers don’t expect catering on longer train trips, and don’t care either.
On arrival at Helensburgh we arrived into a very light and very brief rain shower, rain so fine it was more like wet fog. It was the only “rain” we had on the whole walk, despite the forecast of late showers.
We had the toilet stop as i had promised and then a passenger waiting for the next train kindly agreed to take a group photo of all of us. Meanwhile the steam train we had seen at Waterfall passed through. I reminded people about never approaching snakes if ever they see one. I also found out that most of them had heard about the nonsense of “drop bears” which of course don’t exist. Then it was off to the start of the walk, which is a short but quite steep track from Wilson’s Creek Road which is used by local school students as a short cut to the railway station. Once that was out of the way we continued on a mostly gentle gradient to the gates of the old Helensburgh Tip. From there the track follows the fence of the tip until Hacking River Fire Trail. This track beside the fence has become noticably overgrown since I was last on it back in October 2023. We had to continually duck under or over fallen branches, avoid Lantana vines and their thorns and also some blackberry vines (no fruit on them). I got the impression that it is seeing less use lately and I wondered why. (There is an alternate clear track which passes around the horse yards next to the Tip, but it adds 20 minutes to the walk. The area is controlled by Wollongong City Council, not National Parks).
We had a break when we reached Hacking River Fire Trail, and I explained why that is called a “trail” and not a “track”; it’s because it is wide enough for 4 wheeled vechiles, unlike a track which is just a narrow path. I also said that “Alltrails” website is called that because it is a U.S.-based website; if it was called “Alltracks”, Americans would think it was a website about railroads!
Speaking of “Alltrails”, shortly after we passed through the gates that mark the boundary of the Naional Park I noticed a track going downhill to the left fairly close to where the railway line passes beneath us in the present Helensburgh Tunnel. I was curious about that, and a check of descriptions of a similar walk on “Alltrails” shows that some people have blazed a track which for some reason drops down from Halls Road, crosses the Helensburgh Tunnel much lower down than where we were, and then climbs up again. I can’t see the sense of that since it requires climbing the same hill twice. It also breaks a bushwalking rule of not making new tracks when there is already one present.
The Fire Trail goes level for some distance before starting to drop down into the valley of the Hacking River. It passes through a wooded area with several stands of young Cabbage Tree Palms, and then a side brach comes off it which is the start of the Burgh Track; here the fun started. Before starting off on the Burgh track I advsed people not to stop until reaching the Hacking River, as that made it easier for leeches to hop on. I asked for a very short pause to get a photo but as you can see in the pic, it was already too late for some people! And what’s more, some others had then stopped to look at the others who had got a couple of leeches, and thus they got leeches too!
We continued on to the ford over Hacking River, and pleased to see that the water lavel was quite low, making it easy to cross without getting feet wet. Then we went stright up to the nearby road (Lady Wakehurst Drive) and then continued along the Burgh Track as it climbed to the top of Garawarra Ridge. A water stop was required on this rather steep climb. Eventually we reached Garawarra Farm Car Park, and then continued along the Burgh track down the slope to Burning Palms Beach. On the way we had a photostop to look at the rock platform on which Figure 8 Pool is located. The sea did look rather choppy but not enough to make it unsafe to proceed to the Pool.
By the time we reached the beach it was 2.30pm so time for a late lunch. No one went in for a swim as the sea was rather choppy, and the Lifesavers had a sign up warning of marine stingers (and we did see some on the sand, “Portuguese Man’O’War”). They were a deterrent for some, and they can give quite painful stings to children and young adults. So we had lunch, and set off around 3.15pm to go to Figure 8 Pool. I estimated the return walk to it would take 90 minutes and it turned out to be accurate. We had two time constraints: the low tide would turn and start to rise quickly at 5pm, and the need to get to Otford Station for the 7.15pm train.
So off we went along the rocky shoreline and on to the first rock platform before the first point. It was fairly easy going here thanks to the alling tide, which was going to be a very low tide. The challange comes at the first headland, as the “track”, such as it is, is rather exposed for about 20 metres. Fortunately thanks to the very low tide it was dry to walk on, but the occasional wave would almost reach it. This is the section which makes it dangerous to proceed in high tide, or a rough sea. I didn’t take a photo of it on this walk, but I added in a photo of this location on a past walk on a VERY good day, showing how narrow the “path” is.
After that there is another challenging section across a boulder field which made it slow going for some. Then along another easy rock platform to reach Figure 8 Pool itself. Some were expecting somethung much larger instead the small pool that it actually is. That’s why locals are not really that impressed by it, regarding it as a curiosity. At least we did see a pair of Sea Eagles circling high overhead. Louise asked how high the tide could get here, so I showed her some tiny blue periwinkles (a marine snail) on rocks above her head.
Because we didn’t have a lot of time left, we had to start our walk back to the beach after about 10 minutes. Fortunately I noticed that the tide was now low enough to walk safely on a rock shelf just at the waters edge below the boulder firld. That way, we were able to bypass 3/4 of this slow difficult section. Then back around that risky first headland (with the tide about to reach its lowest level) and then back to the beach. From there was up a rough track which follows Robin Rill to the “Royal Coast Track” where we had a water break in preparation for the climbs to come. (A “rill” is a temporary watercourse which runs only in rainy weather, otherwise it’s normally dry).
So on we went along the “Royal Coast Track”, to give its official name, with a photostop of the view south in the Lomandra (the view was rather misty so not the best). Then through Palm Jungle where the track is still bare dirt, but equipment lying nearby suggests that this is soon to be fitted with an elevated walk, like most of the track through the Lomandra. After Palm Jungle the first of many steps starts, requiring another water break, and also time for me to catch my breath and I let the others continue ahead (they stopped much further up at Werrong Lookout). I then noticed that one of the girls as slowing down behind me, and she said she was not feeling that well. So I continued on, checking regularly that she was not too far behind me. We all eventually met up at Werrong Lookout, and then continued along the walkway to the junction with th Garawarra Ridge Fire Trail (called “Squeezeway” on “Wildwalks” website for some reason). Then on to Otford Lookout. Before getting there I got a mild cramp for a couple of minutes where the fire trail becomes an elevated path, and one of the guys also got a cramp there. but apparently somewhat worse than mine. I went ahead of these two, but still keeping an eye on theirr progress, and I stopped at Otford Lookout a few minutes later to ensure they were all OK (a bushwalking rule is not to leave members of a group to fend for theselves). Emma contacted me on my mobile phone and told me she was just a short distance down the street with a few others, and that most of the group had gone down to the station. I told her to just go down there herself now and myself and the other two “casualties” would hopefully catch up shortly.
There was no more climbing required from here on, which made it easier for us now, so we continued along Lady Wakehurst Drive and then down Beaumont Road which is quite steep. Otford Station is at the bottom of Beaumont Road. (The rest of the group had followed Google’s directions to go down adjacent Fanshawe Road which is actually the same distnce (~570m).
We arrived at Otford Station just under 10 minutes before the train was due. On the train I handed around that Aussie “delicacy”, “Lamingtons”.
We went our own ways and everyone seemed to have a good time on the walk. Several were first-time bushwalkers and it was a good learning experience for them. It’s a way of testing your capabilities in a safe environment, and learning about the rules that you need to follow on bushwalks. And I did not pick up any leeches; it seemed that the leeches really liked a couple of people who got several.
Strangely, we saw no wild animals of any sort (apart from the Sea Eagles and some seagulls). No dragons, no skinks, nothing. And the snake-bite kit was not needed.
A couple of other points:LEECHES are not something to be afraid of; they look unsightly and most people don’t like the idea of a creature sucking your blood, that’s understandable. They will not really harm you apart from giving you a wound that might be itchy and ooze for a while (put a band-aid on it). They drop off by themselves after 30 minutes, which is why when you get home from a bushwalk you might find a leech or two trapped inside your socks but not attached to you. They do not transmit disease as far as is known (not in Australia anyway; in Africa they can transmit “Sleeping Sickness”). And they don’t drill into your brain (or anywhere else)..Medicinal leeches are still used in hospitals to treat some difficult haematomas. So don’t freak out when you get one; just stay calm and remove it by hand, sliding a thumbnail under their attachment point.. Stopping to check for leeches ensures you will get more of them! Don’t do it. You are extremely unlikely to pick up leeches by walking on grass lawns (as one overseas student thought; she refused to wear open footwear on a lawn on a walk). Birds don’t get leeches because they eat them.
TICKS are creatures that CAN cause problems, although they seem much less common than leeches. Seek medical advice if you find one after a walk.Never try to just pull one off, as the Tick’s head can remain attached to you and cause an infection.
There were THREE “no-shows” on this walk, and they have yet to contact me about this. A reminder that being a “no-show” on walks can result in you missing out on a place on future walks.
Hope to see people of future walks after the Cyclone blows over, and if the never-ending trackwork on the Blue Mountains eventually finishes!
Bruce Stafford
