Royal National Park: Bushwalking From Wattamolla To Curracurrong

One advantage of having a cousin living in Sydney is having a tour guide that won’t direct us to the usual attractions like Sydney Opera House, Luna Park, Taronga Zoo and the Blue Mountains. Instead, he drove us to somewhere that is almost unreachable by tourist and somewhere that is only known by the locals. Besides, hiking isn’t something you would do on your first visit in Australia.

My cousin led us to one of his favorite hiking spot in Royal National Park. The Royal National Park is a protected national park that is located in Sutherland Shire local government area in the southern portion of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. As a virgin park, Royal National Park is the perfect place for picnic, fishing, biking, riding, camping, bushwalking, birdwatching, whale watching and other recreational and sports activities. I also saw some people bringing paddle boards at kayaks at a lake we passed by. The vast land is a mixture of terrain, coastal cliffs broken by beaches and small inlets and high plateau broken by extensive and deep river valleys.

Curracurrong Falls in Royal National Park is a rare waterfall that sometimes looks like it’s flowing upwards. It can happen when the wind is strong enough to blow the water droplets back up before disappearing as mist. The waterfall is impressive, making it an interesting destination for hikers.

There are three different trails in Royal National Park that lead to Curracurrong Falls: Wattamolla to Curracurrong Falls,  Garie Beach to  Curracurrong Falls and Curra Moors Trail. We traverse the coastal path from Wattamolla Beach. However, we didn’t reach Curracurrong Falls because we weren’t aware that time that there’s still a wonder to see after Eagle Rock. Our target destination was the Eagle Rock without knowing the presence of Curracurrong Falls just a few meters after it! I just learned about the falls when we went home already. Ugh! I’m still regretting it until now.

Moving on, I can’t deny that we still had a memorable trek from Wattamolla to Eagle Rock, especially that it is my first time to hike at this length. This trail has given us different amazing sights from beaches, clifftops, rock formations and creeks to flora and fauna.

We started, returned and ended our climb at Wattamolla, one of the most famous picnic spots in Royal National Park because it blessed with not just one but four bodies of water. The popularity is justified as it’s absolutely gorgeous, with great views of the blue sea in one direction and a waterfall and lagoon in the other. A walk further to the north will lead you to Wattamolla dam. The shore is so big that it didn’t overly crowded on a weekend.

From Wattamolla, we found ourselves at Providential Point Lookout, a deck on a cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and the coastline of Royal National Park. This lookout indicated that we’re at the beginning of the trip. On the other hand, the Curracurrang Gully signaled that we’re halfway while the Curracurrong Creek, with stepping stones across it, meant that we’re near our destinations, Curracurrong Falls and Eagle Rock.

As what its name suggests, Eagle Rock is a unique rock formation that strongly resembles an eagle’s beak. This area is the usual stopover, picnic station and camping spot of the backpackers here. I can’t blame them. The scene of a giant rock overhang that is shaped awesomely with the backdrop of the relaxing blue ocean is a sight to behold. It seemed like all my problems just washed away that time.

One of the best thing about hiking not just in this specific spot, but in the whole New South Wales, is the fact that they created pathwalks along the trail by using plastic paletts. Therefore, the journey isn’t just helpful for grouped hikers, but, also, for self-guided hikers. There are even waiting areas and lay-bys for those who want to rest for a while. This just shows how the government supports and encourages bushwalking and related sports acitivities to locals and tourists alike. I could feel how they value the quality of life here. The compassion of the government has for backpackers is just incredible. Damn! We don’t have this in mountain trails in the Philippines so accidents are frequent.

The Royal Coast Track is a mix of paved walkway, boardwalk, maintained bush walk, carved rocks into stairs, sandy path through big rocks and stepping stones across creeks. It has easy to moderate slopes.

We first stopped by at the Providential Point Lookout. I can’t believe that I witnessed the great Pacific Ocean with my naked eye!

We were about to continue our travel when Humpback whales leaping out of water caught our attention at this clifftop. I remember that this is the location of the Great Reef Barrier so marine animals can easily be spotted here.

The rock formations along the way are striking, too. The photos can’t do justice on how beautiful they are.

The rocks are immediately replaced by bushes. We’ve seen unique kinds of shrubs and trees.

Look how beautiful the Curracurrang Gully is!

We visited the trail at spring season. The fact it looks different as seasons change excites hikers. It’s a reason for tourists to keep coming back.

We passed through this Halloween-looking twigs in the middle of spring season. My cousin said that these plants are victim of forest fire due to the heat of the recent summer season.

The Curracurrong Creek is the waterway at the bottom of Curracurrong Falls. It’s a great place to dip for a while.

We were finally across the Eagle Rock. Sitting at this mountainside and relaxing with the view of the Eagle Rock is honestly one of the most productive things I’ve done in our Sydney trip.

Can you see the beak of the eagle?

Aside from the bird-shaped cliff, we also met real birds here! It looked like the raven is enjoying the panorama, too.

Actually, we also caught sight of echidna. I was just too late to capture it with my camera. It isn’t rare to notice some animals here, regardless if they are wild or not, but they won’t do any harm to humans as long as the human won’t bother them also.

After Curracurrong Falls, you can still follow the path down south to visit Garie Beach. But we decided to go back to Wattamolla since our car was parked there.

I couldn’t wait to submerge my body into water after the long sweating walk. But I was surprised at how cold the water was!

Therefore, it was just a quick dip. I thought of sunbathing like what most people here do.

The Wattamolla Falls was easy to spot. But it was just a normal drop of water to me. There’s nothing fancy.

There are wooden tables, benches and BBQ facilities at Wattamolla but we knew it’ll get crowded so we brought our own camping tents and set them up at a shaded area of the seashore.

Of course, the excursion was tiring so we ordered food from Opporto before getting here. We also bought some beers and vodkas to chill. Aussies love to drink so we should keep up with them.

Imagine. Simple infrastructures like parking slots and public toilets are built for the comfort of the tourists. I mean this is far from the town proper already and yet, calls for support in this area can still be heard by the council.