With late morning starts each day, Great Walks finds the revamped Light to Light Walk the perfect walking holiday.
It seems odd to drive for 6.5 hours to a significant landmark (say, the 29m tall Green Cape Lighthouse) and not take a good poke around. If this were a typical day, I’d kick myself for not reading every interpretive sign I could, pausing to ponder life here as a lighthouse keeper or gaze out at the yawning meld of blue, where the ocean meets the sky. But today isn’t a typical day.
Today is the start (here at the end) of my north-to-south journey, along the 32km, $14.9 million new-look Light to Light (L2L) walk. Over the next three days, I will walk back to this spot having experienced one of the great coastal walks of Australia, satisfy my curiosity about the recent changes and what makes it one of the NSW Government’s seven ‘Great Walks’.
Smart & seamless transfer
For now, I’m locking my car in the revamped carpark and hiding my keys deep inside my pack. Our scheduled transfer pickup is waiting, and I’m a little embarrassed as driver Jess lifts my heavier-than-usual pack into the back of her Navigate Expeditions van.
The descriptions and topographic maps make the L2L sound more like a walking holiday than a challenging sufferfest, so it is only right that my friend Jon and I loaded up our folding chairs, wine, some fresh food and even the down booties! My reputation as an off-track scrub-lover might be at risk, but I’m nothing if not adaptable.
The hour-long transfer, along well-graded, eucalypt-framed fire trails, allows Jess to share some of her immense knowledge of the area and the L2L – her local interp was an unexpected bonus! Encouraged by her endorsement of walking north to south (as recommended by NPWS), we would soon learn why as the low winter sun warmed our backs. Jess explains, ‘You can walk it in any direction, but if you go south-to-north, you’re walking into the sun - it’s constantly in your eyes.’
This wasn’t the first time compass points and direction would surprise us. But more on that later…
Two Fold Bay
Boyd’s Tower, the start of the Light to Light Walk, stands proud at the southern entrance to Two Fold Bay, near Eden on the NSW South Coast, also known as The Sapphire Coast. There’s nothing subtle about it - much like its original owner and namesake, wealthy Scottish-born entrepreneur Ben (Benjamin) Boyd.
Like a foreboding, abandoned medieval parapet, the 23m sandstone tower speaks of bankruptcy, human folly and greed. Built in 1847 as a lighthouse, it was neither completed nor approved by the government for that purpose and reverted to a whale-watching tower to aid Boyd’s whaling business at nearby Boyd Town. Not one for humility, his name is inscribed at the top on three sides in large letters designed to be seen by approaching vessels, proclaiming his position.
The same year the tower was built, Boyd’s tireless pursuit of commercial success saw him be the first colonist to lure cheap, naive, indentured labour from New Caledonia and Vanuatu—a type of slavery that would become known as Blackbirding. Before we set off, Jess continues the story by explaining how this area (named Ben Boyd National Park in 1971) gained a new name in 2022 - Beowa National Park - the local Thaua name for orcas (killer whales).
‘The local tribes had a symbiotic relationship with the orca and would practice cooperative hunting together.’
Orca’s hold a deep significance for the Thaua people. They saw themselves as not only friends with the giant apex predator, but dreamtime stories speak of their ancestors reincarnated as these intelligent, beautiful creatures—the largest of the dolphin species. On the L2L walk, their image helps show the way on the subtle wayfinding totems.
Day 1 - Boyd Tower to Mowarry Campground
Shouldering our generous packs, we step away from the first of the Two Towers, like Frodo and Sam from Tolkien’s tale of the same name. Instantly, we are transported into a tunnel of tea tree (bracelet honey myrtle), the most dominant of the coastal heath vegetation we encountered. Gangly, wiry-like branches bowed overhead, creating eerie moments as we passed. It felt like faeries or even Tolkien’s Ents or Treebeard were quietly watching us.
These TTT’s (tea tree tunnels) form a rhythm all along the Light to Light Walk. They signal just one of the diverse habitats we pass through as it weaves in and out of coastal scrub before delivering us, birth-like, out onto lonely beaches, platforms strewn with rock pools or elevated cliff top balconies. In and out, and ever-so-gently, up and down, the rich earthen single-track draws us around bays and headlands as the size of Boyd’s Tower shrinks back into the sea mist.
Leather Jacket Bay’s smooth, rounded rocks, just 5km from the start, are perfect perches for lunch. A lone abalone shell, the first of many, glowed under the dormant sky as nearby NPWS field staff enjoyed a break from the final touches of the upgrades. With only 8 km on day 1 until the finish at the walk-in Mowarry Campground, perched high above a pristine beach, we made good time to enjoy a sunset that didn’t require filters.
L2L’s two new campgrounds each feature 10 tent platforms, a toilet, a small water tank and a short stroll to spectacular views for sunrise and sunset.
The nearby headland provided an excellent viewpoint for both, although its orientation left us bewildered as the sun appeared to set in the north and rise in the south!
Day 2 - Mowarry Campground to Hegartys Campground
Turquoise waters greeted us on Morwarry Beach, starkly contrasting the dramatic Devonian red rocks, laid down 360 million years ago. Sea cliffs betrayed the uplifted folds of geological time, as layers rolled in on themselves, like a sea serpent trapped inside. Grassy headlands, tightly mown by the mouths of red-necked wallabies, carried us on to another standout habitat of coastal ecological communities, dotted with native grass and hakea meadows.
Onwards, the beach at Saltwater Creek proved the perfect spot for lunch, after a wet-foot crossing on the northern end. Hidden behind the trees is one of the old (car) campgrounds of the walk. It’s popular with visitors and often books out in the warmer holiday months. It’s ongoing access to sites like this that increases flexibility in how you walk the L2L, by adding external support or the ability to meet up with friends along the way.
Straining my eyes as we cross another highland heath, I squint to see if I can see our final destination, the Green Cape Lighthouse, about 9 km as the crow flies. There’s been a lot of this: straining to see. Each time we are faced with the ocean and the hope of seeing Beowa (orca) or one of the seven other whale species spotted off the coastline in recent years, we are disappointed. So far…
Buoyed by the approach of an early golden hour, we arrive at the thickly forested tea tree glade of Hegartys Campground, the second of the new walk-in sites. The familiar tent platforms feel like they’re being hugged by encroaching melaleuca and she-oak on all sides. Here, it is only the gentle, ever-present waves lapping on the rocky shore that hint at how close we are to the coast.
DAY 3 - Hegartys Campground to Green Cape Lighthouse
The lazy holiday rhythm of the track saw us take supplies down to the shoreline for a late breakfast and coffee by the rock pools. Morning light caught sapphire hues through the spray of the waves, making it difficult to peel ourselves away to pack up camp and start walking at a (very) leisurely 11am. Don’t tell anyone, but this could be the ultimate chilled multi-day walk. Throw in your cossie (especially in warmer months) and you’ll quickly lose time with the swimming spots.
Today unveils the biggest change made to the Light to Light track, shifting the last section away from the viewless heath to closely hug the clifftops and low-level rock platforms, where it holds fast to where the water meets the land.
This day is also the most diverse for changes in plant communities as we descend shallow gullies around Bittangabee Bay, where the second original car campground remains. Here, mountain grey gums and coast grey box give way to red bloodwood and silvertop ash in pockets of dry sclerophyll forests.
Given the numerous shades of green and presence of birdlife throughout the walk and campgrounds, it is hard to believe that the entire region (except the Green Cape Lighthouse precinct) was heavily damaged in the 2019-2020 bushfires.
Lunchtime finds us once again at the water’s edge, sheltering from the wind beside a natural rock wall. We’re halfway along another football field-sized rock platform, suspended high above the crashing waves below. As I take a bite of my wrap, I strain my eyes once again, scanning the blue for any sign of a distant splash.
‘Phfwale!’ I exclaim, mouth full of tomato/cheese/green beans and jerky.
My friend missed it, like the flying jerky. Slightly unconvinced, we both wait for another tell-tale sign. Before our lunch had finished, we spotted another two crashes, miles offshore, each one a bit further to the north than the last. Alas, my companion and I must be away to the south!
The weather gods have been generous with us, but we spy moody clouds and the unmistakable misty signs of distant rain, both behind us and before. If we push on, we might beat it to the lighthouse.
The longest of the three days, my quads are starting to feel it as Greencape Lighthouse, the 2nd of our Two Towers, comes into view. The greater elevation change (approximately 480m ascent over the day) is thanks to the commitment of keeping the track to the edge of Australia. NPWS achieved this with a series of new steel staircases that yo-yo us down to rockpools and back up to each headland above. (TIP: If you leave some fuel in the tanks for the last 3 km, you’ll thank me.)
A vibrant rainbow streaks across the path, connecting the lighthouse with the horizon, as a sun shower surrounds us with tiny dancing crystal orbs. Such joy in the moment as we climb the last staircase to Green Cape.
Walking the well-trod tourist path beside the lighthouse, the sky erupts with pink, blue, crimson and grey; from the horizon and south over Nadgee Wilderness — A boundless golden pot at the end of the Light to Light rainbow.
Words and photos_Caro Ryan (lotsafreshair.com)