Royal National Park (coastal trail)

A little while ago, me and my (then) housemate went to the Royal National Park (obvious from the title).  Well, I didn't know what to expect, .. the only other national park I went to was the Blue Mountains, but it was pretty well stocked with tourists and information kiosks, so a total of 10 minutes of research were contributed to transportation for this trip.  Pretty easy directions: take a train south, then a ferry to a town that's right on the edge of the park.   After a couple distractions and timing issues, we finally arrived in the small town and went to find the information center/ ranger station.  Good news: no entrance fee to the park.  Bad news: no information center, just a faded looking map against a wall...  The only thing that pointed us in the right direction was a pamphlet that I happened to snag on the ferry.  WEll, immediately we got lost walking into what we though was the right direction.  wandering through residential neighborhoods and a vague sense of where the ocean was, we were desperate to find a trail head.  With the help of some feral looking natives, we finally got on the right track.. so to speak.

Lucky...

 This is what some of the trail looked like.  yep maintenance was minimal and it had just rained the night prior.  Well, this slowed our progress down quite a bit.  Having to jump over mud puddles and balance on tree roots, it was pretty fun... for the first 5 minutes, then I fell in one of the mud pools.  Completely soaked and cold, I've come face to face against my greatest pet peeve.. wet socks.  Well, thanks to my fantastic preparation skills, my quick-dry socks saved me from misery in a flash.  My partner had other plans.

Not so Lucky

So we wandered along the coast when we stumbled upon a beach.  specifically Marly Beach (I only remember because there was a smaller beach next to it called Little Marly Beach).  Anywho, there was a formidable stream at the edge of the beach and it looked like we had to cross it to make our way to get to the other bit of the trail.  We decided to look for a path around (big mistake).
Well, after a bit of water, we realized how duney (not sure if this is a real word) the beach was.  Dunes + cloudy skies looked pretty apocalyptic.  After an hour of treking in this coastal desert, we eventually made our way to the other side of the beach and continued on to the trail.

sand for DAYS

Further up the trail, there was a sign toward some sort of 'deer pond'.  WEll, why not? I'm down to check out ponds and stuff.. it looked like there was some sort of trail.. kinda

supposed to be a trail... deer pond ahead?

Waterfallin to the ocean

We spent another half hour or so trying to figure out where the hell a pool was supposed to be, but the trail was so overgrown retreat was the only viable option.  With ominous skies looking close, it was getting pretty late in the day.  We decided to head back to the ferry before nightfall.
What was planned to be a peaceful walk along the coast turned into a real adventure full of sidetracking and obstacle... and I wouldn't have it any other way.