STAGE THREE (12 NOVEMBER, 2008)

Maroubra - La Perouse

Our day started with an interesting meeting for myself. As we left the train at Central I spotted a chap that I had known from my Air Force days. Frank Burt had retired as a senior officer but we had first met in 1981 at Wagga Wagga where we were on an IT course together.

Our bus from Eddy Ave was almost 20 minutes late and 12 of us had gathered here to commence this stage of the journey. On arrival at Maroubra we were met by another three trekkers which made the numbers up to fifteen for the day. We left Maroubra at 0945hrs, heading south along the beach and then cutting in to walk along the perimeter of the ANZAC Rifle Range. There was some activity on the range as recognized by the sounds of small bore weapons being fired.

The walk along the “cliff” tops gave us excellent views of the shore-line stretching back towards Coogee, Bondi area and the Sydney sky-line. Along this area we passed over Magic Point with some incredible rock shapes and colours. We tracked through some fairly heavy coastal scrub and observed a number of WW11 gun emplacements and observations bunkers and where we stopped for morning tea. After a short rest we then followed the rail line out through the scrub and headed across Boora Pt to the coast line of Long Bay. The rail lines were used to transport ammunition and gun parts to each of the gun emplacements during WW11.

As we approached Malabar Beach (Long Bay) Wilf provided us with some very interesting information in regards to the naming of Malabar. In short Malabar was named after a Sea freighter which had come to grief in that area and on which Wilf’s father had been a junior seaman.
Again we followed the coast line around, heading towards Little Bay and in doing so transgressed several golf courses. What a wonderful location these golfers have for their sport. After reaching Little Bay a couple of our colleagues had a swim to cool off and lunch was enjoyed at this spot; a lovely cool over-hang of rock on the southern side of the Bay and looking out over it.

After lunch, of which I broke my tradition of hot salami and tomato sandwiches, we headed to La Perouse via Cape Banks and into the south eastern extremities of Botany Bay. Along this area we transgressed some very interesting rock areas and another golf course. Around the area of Cruwee Cove we spotted some interesting “boxes” and “collection trays”. These appeared to have been set there as some sort of survey for marine life and vegetation along this rock area.

As we reached La Perouse we passed by the tracks leading onto Little Congwong and Congwong Bay beaches. Unfortunately because of the late bus back at Eddy Ave and taking a little longer than anticipated we weren’t able to partake of a refreshing swim. Not to worry though as there will be plenty of other opportunities for a swim as we head further on in our adventure to Melbourne.

On reaching La Perouse some of our colleagues chose to catch a bus back to Sydney while David, Maureen, Jan, Garry, Wilf and myself chose to have a drink and discuss some of the future legs of our adventure. It must be stated here that the size of the scones and cream that Maureen, Jan and Wilf had to eat they will need plenty of challenging walks to compensate for the intake of calories consumed for afternoon tea!! What a delightful area of our journey, wonderful scenery and great company to share in the experience. Many thanks to Maureen for her research and kindness in leading us along “the track” Also much appreciation to Wilf and Bob for their inputs to local history and geographical points.

At this stage we headed back towards Sydney where Garry and I left the remainder of todays group and caught our train back to Emu Plains and my bike ride home from Garry’s place; arriving home full of excitement and anticipation for the next couple of “legs” but especially looking forward to our trip from Malacoota to Eden.