I visited ‘The Balconies’ so you don’t have to!

Welcome to my very first ‘places’ post! I’m pretty excited about this new addition. It means I get to highlight some of the beautiful places we wander in search of teeny weeny adventures with a sprinkling of wildlife thrown in for good measure. And this way, I can do all the ‘hard’ work and you guys can just sit back and enjoy. In the spirit of taking one for the team, we headed up to the Royal National Park yesterday, on what turned out to be a delicious, just warm enough, Autumn day.

Firstly, parking can be an issue if you plan to start in Bundeena and walk to The Balconies or the VERY popular Wedding Cake Rock several kilometres further along. So much so that there are only about 8 actual designated car spots at the entrance to the park. We ended up parking along Beachcomber Ave and walked the extra distance but you can also park down in Bundeena centre itself, again parking can be tough especially on the weekends. Consider getting the ferry to Bundeena Wharf and walking up the hill (it’s a big hill – or rather, several hills) or even better, National Parks run a bus service from $10, running Thursday to Sunday currently. https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/guided-tours/royal-national-park-bus-service

The Balconies is an absolutely beautiful stop along the Royal Coastal Walk, also known as the Coast Track, which stretches from Bundeena down to Otford. Apparently you can complete the walk in one long day if you’re a seasoned walker though most people walk the length over a couple of days. But if you think I was planning on walking the 26km, one way I might add, you don’t know me at all! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good smattering of fitspo, but it’s not coming from this potato on legs. Not yet, at least!

The walk

The section of the walk to The Balconies really is pretty easy. Think, fairly flat dirt track, with a few rocks thrown in for good measure, bordered on both sides with coastal scrub and banksia trees. We found a couple of gorgeous Jacky Dragons along this section, loads of New Holland Honeyeaters flying straight up and then diving back down, beak first in pursuit of bugs and Matt saw the tail end of a brown-coloured snake as it slithered back into the shrubbery. The rest of the walk is on raised boardwalk which personally I love – less time constantly watching my feet so that I don’t trip over and more time practicing my insta modelling 😉

The destination

Once you hit The Balconies and the sandstone cliffs stretch out in front of you, it’s pretty damn impressive and trust me, you’ll feel small. We went on a Saturday which is usually pretty busy but there was also a massive group lining up for the toilets at the walk’s start. Let me tell you, I have never walked so fast trying to get in front of them. No need in the end, we just headed down onto the sandstone expanse and explored while they walked on behind us. And if you don’t want to go any further, there’s still plenty to see at The Balconies: a White-Bellied Sea Eagle soaring past, loads of Honeyeaters and Copper-Tailed Skinks skittering out from under bushes, grabbing at insects. But what I was really hoping to see was my first Humpback of the season. Whale season runs from early May – early Nov. I stood and scanned the surprisingly busy horizon (boats and jumbos flying low into Sydney) but no luck. I did hear a couple clearly on their first date behind me, so that grabbed my attention for a bit and happy to report, things sounded to be going extremely well. We were tempted to keep walking but it was clear it was time to call it a day and so we headed back the way that we came.

So, I did The Balconies so you don’t have to, but I kind of think you should put it on your bucket list. Less than hour drive from Wollongong and from Sydney.