Spring is definitely here. With temperatures hitting about 23 degrees yesterday we went for a drive to a remote beach. Wattamolla Beach inside Australia’s first ever national park, the  Royal National Park.

Getting there

It was about one and half hours drive to get there. Mostly getting out of the city of course. It is only about 29 kilometres (18 miles) south of Sydney centre but it really is a hard slog getting around and in and out of this city. Once in the extreme south limit of Sydney you can enter the Royal National Park. This was Australia’s first ever designated national park as far back as 1879. It was originally called just ‘National Park’ but was renamed in 1955 after Queen Elizabeth II visited during her 1954 tour of Australia.

Another fantastic park. It is 151 square kilometres in size (that’s 58 square miles for people like me). And so many trees – again!!! Amazing dense vegetation. it never ceases to amaze me. Not only is it the oldest national park in Australia it is the second oldest in the world – only Yellowstone is older. Hey, go Yogi!!. Oh no, wait. That was Jellystone wasn’t it? Anyway… It as national parks go, this one is old.

Wattamolla Beach

There are several beaches in this park and as you tend to enter the park area from the main road to the west you need to drive a fairly long way to his the sea to the east. But when you get there it’s all worth it. This is a beautiful secluded spot. The beach is in a sheltered natural bay with a creek, river and waterfall set way back up the sand. But of course that makes it very popular – hence the large car park areas. It costs $12 to get in with a car (if not a member) so our National parks membership has now almost paid for itself after several uses.

It soon got crowded after we arrived but it is still a place I would go back to. Anyway, if you haven’t been here then please judge for yourselves.

We did go in the sea, which was cold but just about acceptable. Only just though. It will get warmer soon. Dani had to be thrown in however. But he enjoyed it.

Clifftop Walk

There are man walking tracks and trails inside all national parks but perhaps the most spectacular one here is the coastal track that runs along the clifftops. We only did a short part of it but you could easily spend a full day exploring this route.

Incidentally this park was added to the Australian National Heritage List in December 2006.