27k Royal National Park Coastal Walk: Bundeena/Otford 1 Day

When my friend asked me if wanted to go on a 27-kilometer Royal National Park coastal walk with her in 1 day through a beautiful national park in Sydney, I thought she was crazy. But, apparently, I’m crazy too, because I said yes. This coastal track bush walk goes through amazing views, cliffs, jungles, and beaches from Bundeena to Otford, and somehow we made it happen in 1 day.

You can’t do it all in one day, they said. You have to do the Royal National Park coastal walk in two, they said. But we didn’t listen. Should we have? Probably, but I’ll get to that later. The main thing is that we survived. Whether or not we could move our legs by the end (we couldn’t), it was way worth it. However, I would still definitely recommend two days….

Starting the Royal National Park Coastal Walk in Bundeena

To get to the Royal National Park Coastal Walk’s start in Bundeena, you have to take the ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena and start from there (you can reach Cronulla easily via public transport). At the time we were visiting, the ferries were once an hour.

We got to the park around noon, and ended up being 10 minutes late for an earlier ferry… so we ended up waiting another 50 minutes. But we were confident. We were fit and motivated, we had plenty of water and packed lunch, and we had plenty of energy.

The Bundeena to Otford Coastal Track

We did the coastal walk from Bundeena to Otford, so from north to south. The coastal track runs all along the coast, with slight detours for big destinations like Wedding Cake Rock (pictured) and the Figure 8 Pools (also pictured).

It runs inland at times, across beaches, up and down headlands, and through a random jungle at the end that I will get to later. It is absolutely one of the most scenic coastal hikes I have ever done, and definitely one of the best coastal walks in sydney! But, it is also definitely the longest.

The good thing is that Otford has a train station, so you can easily take the train back to the city. The entire Royal National Park coastal track is possible to do via public transport. My BEST advice for doing the whole thing in one day is getting to Bundeena EARLY!

Starting the Royal National Park Coastal Walk

After arriving to Bundeena on the ferry, we found the trailhead and set out on our bush walk. It’s quite an obvious start pas the main town of Bundeena (visible on Google Maps). It was after noon and we had 27k to go. The sunset was at 7:30ish, so we had our work cut out for us.

Wedding Cake Rock

About 3k in, we went on a small detour to check out the amazing, fake-looking ‘wedding cake rock,’ which really is a cliff that somehow came out to look like a wedding cake (pictured). It’s pretty spectacular and if you have time, you should definitely check it out (it might be closed these days). But we detoured almost a kilometer, and still had SO far to go.

Most of the Royal National Park (One of the most amazing National Parks in Australia) coastal walk follows a similar pattern – a bit of bushwalking, up a headland, along the headland, down onto the beach, and then up again into the headland and bush area.

We were walking very fast, but enjoying the scenery and taking photos as we went. It really is BREATHTAKING. This scenery here is unbelievable, and every time we would come up onto the top of one headland and get a view of the next beach, our breath was taken away all over again.

There are a few populated places with bathrooms and water – places that are accessible by vehicle from the National Park (there’s one road going through with some trails to certain beaches). But they are honestly pretty few and far between, so we were happy we came prepared with water and food!

The trail is very well-maintained and varies between bush trails, plastic tracks over foliage, beach, and rock. If you’re doing it yourself, the signs are pretty well-marked (pictured) and always go with your gut. When you cross a beach, it’s pretty easy to find the trail again at the other end.

Royal National Park Coastal Walk: Half Way

We stopped for lunch about 13k in – about halfway. We rested our tired legs and had some snacks overlooking the waves, feeling slightly ancious. We knew we wanted to visit the figure 8 pools, which are really amazing, fake-looking perfect circular pools that are also a slight detour (about 1k each way) off the track at about 21k, so, with about 5 or 6k to go.

We wanted to see if we could (basically be superhuman and) reach the pools too while still being able to reach the end before dark. So we pressed on.

When we arrived at Burning Palms beach, where the figure 8 pools are around the corner, the sun was already well behind the mountains that towered over the Royal National Park coastal walk track. The fact that the sun set behind the hills didn’t help us at all… it was already much darker without sunlight on us and it was only just before 6!

The Figure 8 Pools by Burning Palms Beach

This was slightly worrying. When we got to where we would have to detour to the pools, I was really skeptical. My trekking buddy was only in Sydney for a few days and she really wanted to see the pools, so I didn’t blame her for wanting to risk it to see them. But then again, we had just walked 20 kilometers, it was getting dark already… and we still had over 5k to go.

Shhheeeeit. What had we gotten ourselves into?!

We started going around the corner, and I started voicing my concern whether it was worth it. We ran into some girls on their way back from the pools, who told us that the tide was getting high and that it might be too high to safely reach the pools.

This really got us thinking, and we stopped to discuss what to do. We decided that it might have been a sign, like a little omen to us that we should really get the hell going. So, although sad, we decided to be safe and get back on the trail. So we did. If you have time to visit the pools, DEFINITELY go (at low tide). I was lucky enough to get another chance to visit them and they’re incredible and unique.

This turned out to be the best decision we could have made… it WAS a sign. As you have been able to see in the photos, the entire walk was beautiful and open the entire time. The only time we were ever covered was by thin bush, not much higher than our head.

The Palm Jungle

But as soon as we made it over the next headland, we entered what we saw on the map to be ‘Palm Jungle…’ and this was actually a straight-up JUNGLE. The thickest, most unexpected, massive, dense, and nightmarish jungle-y jungle EVER. This is NOT a place you want to be close to dark… I would even go as far as to say it might be better to START your walk in Otford to do this at the beginning!

Remember now that the sun had already dipped behind the mountains to our right with the sea on our left on our Royal National Park coastal walk. When you enter a thick jungle of tall trees and foliage without direct sunlight, even before actual dark, comes… IT IS DARK. Two thoughts came into our minds:

1. Where the HELL did this thick jungle come from in the middle of the dry bushland, beaches, and mellow greenery on the headlands for the past 21 kilometers?
2. We need to get the hell out of here.

So, confused, tired, and in the dark, we tried to do exactly that – get the hell out of there. This was honestly one of the biggest mental and physical challenges, ever. It can’t last too long, we thought. It’s got to be a small jungle area, we thought. So we trudged on, and on, and on.

Struggle on the Home Stretch

Starting to not even care about bugs and spiders, which usually freak me out, we brushed past all sorts of trees, vines, and palms. We got the lights out on our phones to see, and sped along in silence because neither of us wanted to say anything…Until Taina (my trekking friend) did. “Uhh, I’m feeling a little dizzy.”

Oh God.

Pretty honestly terrified but being super supportive and positive on the outside, I chucked her the rest of our water and insisted she have a granola bar. I really wasn’t feeling all that good myself! We sat down for a little while and pep talked each other to push through the end of our Royal National Park coastal walk before it got dark, and well, before she passed out. But we didn’t mention that of course… we didn’t want to think about the possibilities.

We got going again in mostly silence apart from checking that each other was okay and throwing in the occasional words of encouragement. On we went, up and down the hill, over and under fallen trees. The light was even dimmer now, and the jungle showed no signs of letting up. This is the only leg of the journey I don’t have photos from, because, well, it was a little intense and there wasn’t much to photograph!

When we FINALLY got out of the damn surprise jungle, I think both of us felt heaps better. Taina had gotten through her little spell of dizziness, and I was so relieved. I think we both got our second wind (maybe honestly our fifth wind) as we strolled down the much bigger and more open path. As far as we could tell, we would pass by one more lookout point before getting to Otford – the place with the train station to take us back to the city.

Finishing the Royal National Park Coastal Walk in One Day: Arriving to Otford

There was still a hazy light outside, with decent visibility, but the sun was definitely down. We passed by Otford lookout, down a hill, and literally jumped for joy when we came out to see a real ROAD with a sign pointing in the direction of the Otford train station.

Happiness was an understatement here, as we yelped and hugged and must have seemed like idiots to the car that was parked in the lot next to the trailhead.

Without further ado, we ambled to the train station, waited, and put our filthy feet up on the seats because they were in a pretty large amount of pain. We rewarded ourselves with pizza and wine when we got back to the city, and to say the least, slept well that night!!

 

A FEW THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE ROYAL NATIONAL PARK COASTAL WALK EXPERIENCE:

1. You can do anything you put your mind to.
2. But sometimes it’s important to really consider what kinds of things you want to put your mind to.
3. Check the terrain on treks BEFORE you go. Surprise jungles may occur.
4. Leave earlier. Always leave earlier.
5. Split things up so you can enjoy them more. In this situation, it would have been awesome to camp on the beach!
6. Australia is really damn beautiful.
7. We are capable of walking 27k in a single day. Which was also up loads of hills. Actually, we have decided it was more like 32 including walking to the ferry, to the train station in the city, to the trailhead, to the train station in Otford, and to pizza and wine afterwards. So we’re pretty much superhuman trekker extraordinaires.

And that’s all! If you plan on doing this Royal national park coastal walk, let me know if you have any questions. Apart from our funny mishaps, I would recommend this to anyone – it really was fantastic.

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