The Light-To-Light Walk: Hiking & Survival Fishing
Just a few days prior to Christmas, 2018, my daughter Amy and I undertook the iconic Light-To-Light Walk on the far south coast of NSW. This bush and coastal hiking trail extends from Ben Boyd Tower near Red Point, south of Eden, to Green Cape Lighthouse, overlooking Disaster Bay and Wonboyn.
Mowarry Beach on Green Cape was the site of our camp for the first night. What a wonderful spot!
The Light-To-Light walk lies within Ben Boyd National Park. It’s listed at being just over 30 km in length and carries a Grade 4 rating (grades run from 1 for the easiest to 5 for the hardest.) Grade 4 is defined thus: “Bushwalking experience recommended. Tracks may be long, rough and very steep. Directional signage may be limited.”
Starlo clocks up some kilometres.
Amy and I began our journey by driving a vehicle each to Green Cape Lighthouse, where I left my old HiLux in the car park and loaded my gear into Amy’s car. We then drove the 40-odd kilometres of mixed dirt and sealed roads back to the car park near Boyds Tower, at the southern entrance of Twofold Bay. Both parking areas lie within the National Park and a day visitation fee is payable. This involves self-registering using the envelopes provided at pay stations to deposit the correct amount of cash into a locked metal container, with a tear-off receipt being displayed on your vehicle’s dash. At the time of our visit, the fee was $8 per night, per vehicle. I have no issue with paying this fee, although I wasn’t especially comfortable with the idea of leaving written notification in plain sight that our vehicles would be unattended for several days. To me this seems like an open invitation to thieves! It might actually make more sense to buy a yearly pass, and I’ll be investigating that option in future.
Sunset at our first night’s campsite behind Mowarry Beach on Green Cape… Absolutely magnificent!
ON THE TRACK
Hefting our backpacks onto our shoulders, we finally struck out onto the walking track just after 2PM. This seems like a very late start (and it was!), but thankfully we were there on the longest days of the year and knew we had a good six hours of walking before we needed to be setting up camp in time for darkness.
Cunjevoi or cunje is prolific in some areas.
The weather was just about perfect for walking. Showers during the morning had all but passed (we experienced one brief patch of very light drizzle a few hours in) and the temperature was in the mid-20s, with a light southerly breeze.
Our original intention was to reach the Saltwater Creek area for our first night’s camp, but a break to collect some cunjevoi for bait on the low tide (around 4PM) and several photographic stops meant that we fell well behind schedule. As a result, we changed our plans and decided to camp on a beautiful, grassy bench behind Mowarry Beach instead. This is a truly delightful spot, with a north-facing aspect. We arrive there about 6PM and erected our very basic sleeping set-ups, consisting of small tarps to deflect any rain and dew over thin sleeping mats and lightweight sleeping bags.
FISH FOR DINNER!
With “camp” erected I left Amy to explore the beach and gather some firewood while I made a quick foray out to the end of Mowarry Point in an effort to obtain dinner. While this area was largely protected from the metre-plus southerly swell, there was just enough wave action to create small areas of wash and break up the crystal clear water. I was reasonably confident, especially when I spotted several good-sized fish cruising deep over the kelp beds.
This stretch of coastline is strikingly beautiful. Rock and beach fishing opportunities abound.
NOTE: To read the rest of this blog in full, you need to be a member of Starlo’s Inner Circle on Fishotopia.com To find out about all the benefits of belonging, click here.) Meanwhile, if you’ve ever thought about tackling a trek like this one, stop thinking and just DO it! Remember, life is short…
Amy bringing home the bacon… or in this case, the fish! We had no trouble feeding ourselves.
The sense of achievement on reaching our final goal was palpable. A real father/daughter bonding experience!
Green Cape Lighthouse: the end of our three day journey.
Textures and memories…
Disaster Bay, south of Green Cape… our next trek?
