Archives July 2026

By Jas Gill / Last Walk Report

We had 16 walkers turn up for a great walk, meeting at Garrawarra Farm Car Park. 

It was a great Winter morning, starting exactly on time. The walk started as normal with bushrocks and platforms making the walk alot more enjoyable. 

We made our way down to the Burning Palms beach, at the end of the beach, some of the walkers continued to the Figure 8 Pools. Whilst other walkers awaited our return. The walkers that remained had an early and longer morning tea. 

In the end 7 of us, made it to the Figure 8 pools, the swell was well and truly up — big sets were exploding over the platform near Figure 8 Pools, throwing spray metres into the air, so the pools themselves were putting on more of a show than a swim-through today. 

We rejoined the coast track by going up Robin Rill, and made our way up the many many steps. 

We pushed on south to Werrong Lookout for an early lunch, perched with sweeping views back up the coastline.  two of the walkers claimed a rock ledge with legs dangling over the edge and simply sat with it for a while. Whales had been flagged as a possibility for the day with no fins or blows to report. 

From Werrong we picked up the fire trail for the return leg back to Garrawarra Farm, a gentler, more sociable stretch after the morning’s scrambling. 

Day ended with a well-earned drink at the Heathcote Hotel. 

Thanks all for a great day

For the four (4) walkers, they day started with some concern that we would only see a blanket of white fog for the day. We shouldn’t have worried, as the sky started to open and the views appeared before us.

We started our day walking along Narrow Neck to the top of the Golden Stairs and along the way we saw a lot of bird life. This was the story for the first part of the day – from Lyrebirds through to LBB’s (little brown birds).

We arrived at Ruined Castle in time for morning tea with a view as the fog started to lift and saw glimpses of the end of Narrow Neck and Mt Solitary. Our merry band then started to climb down to the main track. The walk back to the bottom of the Golden Stairs entailed dodging lots of walkers going the other way and skipping over the muddy track.

The track after the Golden Stair turn-off and through to the Scenic Railway was a path less well used. By this time the fog was gone, fewer walkers, the sky a brilliant blue and lovely views appearing in the openings of vegetation. We lunched near the land slip and had great views up the Kadumba Valley, the Three Sisters and Mt Solitary.

Our day finished climbing up the Furber Steps and visiting every lookout on the way to the top. The day finished at the Scenic Railway café with a beverage, several satisfied laughs and a great view.

After a solid day’s walk, I thank our small but merry band for the wonderful company, views, laughs, birdlife, and satisfying weariness.

Ten walkers met up near Central to take a bus to the Randwick main gates of Centennial Park, where we picked up our eleventh member.

The plan was to walk the main inner loop of the park, and then take a more ad hoc perimeter loop in the reverse direction. The inner loop was heaving with runners, walkers, dogs, bikes and at least one horse. By Busby’s Pond, we moved in to the pond, where we started to see lots of birds and it was much quieter. We mostly stayed inward from the main loop from there. The views were better, too.

We had a pause while we reported an injured goose to rangers, and then tracked around the ponds. The ranger later caught up with us to let us know WIRES had taken the goose into care, and also to tell us we were walking too fast lol.

Taking the reverse direction, as close to the perimeter as possible, gave a quieter experience, with some beautiful old trees. Despite the heavy use, there are some beautiful views through different areas of the park. We had lunch back at the cafe and Fearnley Grounds picnic area.

We finished by walking around the Kensington Pond to the bus stop. We saw quite a few birds around the water: Eurasian coot. purple swamphen, whitefaced heron, Pacific Black duck, black swan (nesting) crested pigeon, dusky moorhen, pied cormorant willy wagtail, bin chickens and a very big gaggle of domestic geese.