Knocking heads along the coast

The only head that needed sense knocking in to it today was mine. Anyone with half a brain would have looked at the map and said “You see all those names including heads, plateaus and heights? That’s because they are high up. And the ones in between named beach, well they are low down.” Well, yeah, obvious in hindsight.

So I started the day in Palm Beach before the Sun rose and headed North to the lighthouse. That may have been another error, because it meant that I spent the first couple of hours walking today going round in a big circle. On the other hand I got to see the sunrise from the lighthouse, which was very special. And once the sun was up I could start heading South down the coast.

Walking down the coast literally involves walking up one side of a headland, down the other, along a beach and then do it all again. It is very beautiful on a clear winter’s day; but so we’re clear, I found it increasingly exhausting.

The first half of my walk was amongst amazing houses that are a testament to modern engineering overcoming pesky gravity. I have to say they are quite generous about not blocking views so there were continuous expansive vistas up and down the coast.

Much of today’s walk is on what is ,or will be, a fabulous path all the way down to Manly. There are some amazing parts that seem like bush a million miles from Sydney and really stunning views. But then there are bits where you have to walk on the verge of the highway only centimeters from passing trucks. If, when, they fix those gaps this will be a world-class walk.

In any case, the beaches are beautiful and, it being winter, they were remarkably deserted. I looked out for whales from the headlands but saw only yachts braving the wind and waves.

It took me eight hours elapsed to get to Narrabeen. That was almost exactly six hours actually walking with the rest of the time taking breaks including a leisurely lunch. It was almost 26km and a great deal of up and down. By the end I could feel my legs and after sitting and having a beer for an hour I found I couldn’t move my legs. Part of the purpose of this little outing was to do two long days walking in a row – so the real question remains whether I can wake up tomorrow and finish the walk down to Manly.