# 75 North Narrabeen to Manly

Even as a bushwalking club, it’s nice to occasionally take a break from the bush and head to the coast for a refreshing change. We couldn’t have asked for a better day, with perfect, warm weather providing ideal conditions for our coastal adventure.

We began the walk on the beach near North Narrabeen SLSC, where we were fortunate to find a stretch of firm sand near the outgoing tide. We followed the beach for approximately 3.8 km until reaching Collaroy. There were major works happening here including reconstructing 70 metres of damaged seawall, upgrading stormwater drainage and rebuilding beach access stairs.

We then joined the Dee Why to Curl Curl coastal walk. The weathered and rocky track slowed our progress a little over approximately 1.5 km, but the section offered some marvellous coastal lookouts along the way.

A previously undiscovered exit, at least by the leader, took us out to the aptly named ‘Don’t Jump Rock’, where we stopped for lunch and enjoyed the views. In bushwalking, this is known as either excellent route-finding or getting lucky. It certainly appeared to live up to its rather dramatic name!

From Collaroy, we made our way up to Long Reef Headland for morning tea, enjoying sweeping views both up and down the coastline. There were plenty of fishermen out on the water, as well as several anglers making use of the rocks below the headland.

After morning tea, we continued past the stunning Long Reef Golf Course and down onto Long Reef Beach. Here we received an unexpected surprise – Dee Why Lagoon was open!

Fortunately, the tide was going out, so we took advantage of the opportunity to remove our shoes and socks and wade across.

Naturally, once we had gone that far, someone decided walking barefoot was now a perfectly legitimate hiking technique so we continued barefoot along Dee Why Beach until reaching the Dee Why Concourse, where footwear was put firmly back on.

At North Curl Curl 2 walkers took their pre-arranged exit, demonstrating the highly advanced bushwalking skill of knowing when to leave before the leader finds another obstacle, while the remainder of the group continued along the full length of Curl Curl Beach. We then followed the boardwalk around the Freshwater/Harbord Headland before enjoying more sand walking along Freshwater Beach.

The final challenge was a steep climb over Queenscliff, followed by the descent to the Manly Concourse and The Corso, marking the end of our 15.5 km coastal walk. The leader had promised there wouldn’t be much sand walking. In hindsight, this may have been an overly optimistic assessment of the route, as the group did spend a considerable portion of the day becoming very familiar with the beach.

By Manly, the group had well and truly earned a gelato. Unfortunately, half of Sydney appeared to have had exactly the same idea, so we decided to head straight to the bus for the journey back to our cars. Half way into our journey the bus driver gave a standing oration of the reasons behind industrial action being taken by the RTBU in the Northern Beaches and lower North Shore. The union argues that the privatisation of public transport networks has forced drivers to “do more with less” to protect corporate profits at the expense of employee welfare. He did seem very frustrated and we gave him a hearty applause.

The day was then rounded off with drinks and a relaxing catch-up at the Narrabeen Sands Hotel – the traditional and scientifically proven treatment for 15+ km of walking.

Overall, it was an enjoyable and varied coastal walk, combining beaches, headlands, rocky tracks, lookouts and a few unexpected adventures along the way. The excellent weather and good company made it a particularly enjoyable day out.

Walkers: Wendy LR, Loic, Jas, Pauline, Pragati, Fernando, Effie, Chris, Iren, David and Val. Distance: 15.5 km. Walking time: 4 hours 40 minutes. Total time: 5 hours 30 minutes.