Start:  Stanwell Park Train Station

Finish:  Sutherland Train Station

Distance:  21

Total:  610

I went out the door today thinking I was walking 18 miles. After going off my planned route into the bush it turned into a 21 mile day in 90 degree heat. 

After a good night’s rest I caught the train back out to the coastal village of Stanwell Park. I got off the train and walked down a steep hill, the same one I was complaining about walking up at the end of the day yesterday, and went to the General Store for some breakfast. 

Then it was on the road, climbing up over the coastal mountain ridge that runs along this part of the coastline. The road had no shoulder, with sharp switchback curves. I was switching sides of the road frequently so cars could see me coming around the curves. After about three miles of climbing I made it to the top and the road leveled off and straightened. 

Everything was going good until about the 10 mile mark. Then there was a road sign that indicated the freeway was about to begin. Funny; I don’t recall seeing this when I was studying my route. So I sat down on a guardrail and studied Google maps to see what I missed. As a matter of fact, the road I was on did become freeway for about five miles, then turn back into non-freeway again. So I needed to find an alternate route. Just ahead there was a power transmission line going in my general direction that had what looked like a winding road running under it. It eventually wound up passing close to my route past where the freeway ended. So I turned on the power line road, which turned out to be gravel. It took me through the boonies where the snakes that everyone talks about live. There were very steep inclines and declines, and creek beds, some dry and some with water. I eventually got to a point where I turned off the power line road and onto a very unprepared and seldom used unmarked trail that had a 300’ vertical climb up to a small village where I got back on my route. Thankfully, I avoided the snakes, but was soaking with sweat and completely drained of energy after my little off-road detour.  

The rest of the day went fine and I made it to Sutherland Train Station about an hour later than I planned. Sutherland is a suburb of Sidney, about 18 miles from city center. That’s my destination tomorrow. I’ll walk from Sutherland Station to downtown Sydney, then take a day off Wednesday. 

That’s all for Day 37. Thanks for reading and also thanks to all of you who make comments on the website and Facebook. I read and enjoy them all. JB. 

Start:  Wollongong 

Finish:  Stanwell Park Train Station

Distance:  16

Total:  589

Another good day of walking in picture perfect weather is what I had along the rugged coastline just south of Sydney today. 

I got out the door early this morning because I knew I had to ride the train for about an hour into Sydney to my new hotel after I finished my walk. There was a train I wanted to try and catch that left my destination at 13:11 so I started walking at 7:00. There was hardly anyone out that early on a Sunday morning and I was walking once again on sidewalks through towns. 

Everything went very smoothly until I got about halfway to my destination. At that point I had made my way directly against the coastline and the walking got harder as the road got very hilly.  Also there were little beach towns, one after another, with amazingly expensive homes built on the cliffs looking down on the ocean (imagine Monterey, Ca).  I’m sure some of these homes are vacation/weekend getaways for people in Sydney which is only an hour’s drive away. So the walking got pretty tough with the hills, winding roads, traffic, 10,000 Harley’s with no mufflers, and just chaos in general. 

But then came the most amazing sight. I knew there was a landmark later in my route today I had read about and was looking forward to seeing and it did not disappoint. The Sea Cliff Bridge juts out of the mountainside along Prince’s Highway for almost a mile and it’s really something to see. Of course there’s a pedestrian lane so I took my time and enjoyed the view. 

With all that viewing I didn’t give myself time to stop for lunch. Just before I got to the train station in the little seaside village of Stanwell Park, there was a coffee shop so I ordered a milkshake to go and started the inevitable climb for the last half mile up the cliff to the station. I made it with 10 minutes to spare. 

The train took me to a neighborhood in Sydney called Sydenham. This will be my base for the next four nights as I actually walk the remaining three days to Sydney. Confusing I know but it works. Hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for following along. JB. 

** I posted a new video. You can watch it by clicking on the video tab on the top of the page or go to “the walking aggie” on YouTube. The latest video is the larger image. 

Start:  Shellharbour Junction Train Station

Finish:  Wollongong 

Distance:  15

Total:  573

I had a good Saturday walking into Wollongong from the coastal village of Shellharbour. The weather was overcast and very muggy but not at all hot. 

I caught the train out to my starting point about 8:00 without any breakfast. I noticed on my route study last night there was a 7-11 store a short distance down the road from my starting point so I decided to try my luck there. It worked out OK.  

The road I followed almost the entire distance today had a sidewalk so I stayed out of the traffic. I passed through several small towns along my route, though they were so close together it was unnoticeable when one ended and another began. I passed several golf courses and noticed the majority of the golfers were walking, not riding in a cart. You don’t see that in the U.S..  By lunch I found a Subway sandwich shop and stopped there for a bite to eat and a  break. It’s funny; the Subway’s here do not have any kind of potato chips. Zero.  Just sandwiches, drinks and cookies. If you buy a meal deal, you get a sandwich, drink and cookie. 

I had planned to walk 13 miles today, ending at the hotel I’ve been staying in for the last three nights. However, with tomorrow being an 18 mile day, and I’m checking out of this hotel and carrying all my things in my backpack tomorrow, I decided to walk a couple of extra miles today and take the train back to the hotel. That will make tomorrow’s walk a little shorter. 

So I’ve made it to Wollongong, a city of about 300,000 just south of Sydney. Tomorrow I’ll walk right along the coastline to a train station and ride the train into Sydney where I’ll be staying four nights while shuttling out to finish the last three days it takes to walk from here to the center of Sydney. On the fourth day, next Wednesday, I’ll have a day off to see the sites in Sydney. 

That’s all for my Saturday. I hope you have a good Saturday as well. JB. 

Start:  Gerringong Train Station

Finish:  Shellharbour Train Station

Distance:  13

Total:  559

Last night and even this morning I thought I was going to need to delete a few miles of my route today because of the recurring freeway problem, but I discovered a trail through the woods that allowed me to stick with the planned beginning and ending points for the day. 

I started the day with a visit to the bakery across from my hotel, then took a train ride south to the town of Gerringong where I stopped yesterday. Shortly after I started walking I picked up a very wooded trail through a nature preserve that kept me off the freeway. The terrain along the shoreline where I’m now walking is very hilly and unless you’re driving on the freeway, all the roads go to the top and bottom of the hills.  The roads also snake their way along the coastline so around every corner there’s another view of the beach. 

It only took me a little over four hours to finish my 13 miles and I was back on the train and back at my hotel in time to hit the bakery for lunch before they closed. Spinach and feta pies are yummy. 

Tomorrow it’s back on the train one more time from this location with a 15 mile walk to Wollongong. JB. 

Start:  Nowra

Finish:  Gerringong

Distance:  21

Total:  546

Today’s walk was a total change from the route I planned to walk. As I explained earlier, I always do a review of my planned route the night before I walk. Last night I discovered I had missed the fact that my plan had me walking about 7-8 miles on the freeway; something I might get away with in an emergency but I’m not going to do it if I have another option. So I revised my route to walk down backroads to a completely different destination, which added 8 miles to my day, but now I’m 8 miles farther along than I had planned at this point and will have a couple of shorter days coming up to show for my effort. 

I left my motel at 9:00 with a 4:30 ETA to my new destination, the Gerringong train station 21 miles up the coast. Part of the day I was walking through Seven Mile Beach National Park.  While this sound really interesting, in reality I spent half the day walking through a dense forest, probably a quarter mile at most from a seven mile long beach, and never once saw the water. However, after getting past the park, I made a steep climb into a small town just outside the park and got an amazing view back at the shoreline and the forested National Park I had just passed through. 

I made it to the Gerringong train station with 30 minutes to spare and caught the train to Wollongong, which was an hour ride, where I’ll spend the next three nights at the Coniston Hotel (pub).  The accommodations here are super nice; probably the best I’ve had so far on this trip. 

Tomorrow I’ll catch the train back south to Gerringong and continue walking toward my hotel room here in Wollongong which will take two days to walk. 

That puts a wrap on Day 33. Thanks for reading. JB. 

Start:  Wandandian

Finish:  Nowra

Distance:  18

Total:  525

I walked six hours today in a light drizzle. It was just heavy enough for the roads to be damp, but not heavy enough to need my parka. I try to avoid putting the parka on as much as possible because it’s a steam bath wearing it.  So instead of being wet from wearing the hot rubber parka, I stayed damp from the drizzle. 

I got started after breakfast by getting a ride by the nice folks here at my motel out to my drop off point at 9:00. The traffic wasn’t too heavy at first and there was a really nice, wide shoulder all day. I had made it back to the south side of Nowra by 2:00 and stopped into a Subway shop for some lunch. From there I had another 2.5 miles to get to my motel and by now it was 2:30 and the traffic situation had drastically changed. I forgot to mention in an earlier post that school started back up after the summer break this week. So when I got back out on the road after my lunch break, school was just letting out and traffic was bumper-to-bumper through town. And at least in this town they don’t have your standard yellow school busses.  The busses look more like those used for city transit or even charter coach busses. You can tell they’re running a school route by the lighted sign above the front windshield. 

Tomorrow is an easy 13 mile day to the little town of Berry. After I get there, I’ll catch the train into Wollongong where I’ll be walking in and out of for three days using the train to shuttle around. 

That’s all for today from Norwa. Have a great day. JB. 

Start:  Milton

Finish:  Wandandian

Distance:  18

Total:  507

I had a good, energetic day out on the road today after recharging on my day off yesterday. The timing was good because it was much cooler today and there was some cloud cover to help also. 

I got on the road at 9:00 so as to walk my scheduled 18 miles and arrive in Wandandian in time to catch a 3:57 bus on down the road to Nowra where I’m staying the next two nights. The road was very hilly and wound through the forested countryside with no place to stop for lunch along the way. I found a good guardrail at about 1:00 and had my lunch and changed socks as traffic whizzed by. 

I made it to my destination at 3:00 and went into the Shell station which is also the bus stop. I didn’t see a bus stop sign anywhere as I was scoping out the parking lot so when I went in to the station I asked the attendant and she said the bus stops “somewhere out there.”  OK.  It’s a big parking lot with two entrances spread far apart. I don’t think the bus pulls up to the gas pumps. And if the bus doesn’t see you standing, clearly waiting for the bus, they don’t stop. Lucky for me it became a non-issue. I still had almost an hour to wait for the bus to come so I decided to go out by the road and see if I could hitch a ride while waiting for the bus. That’s when retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Brett Kennedy came out of the Shell station, walked over and asked if I would like a ride. 

Chief Kennedy was driving an old Range Rover that was right out of the movie studio back lot. No radio, no air conditioning, I doubt it had power steering; I couldn’t even figure out how to open the door. We threw my pack in the back and away we went, talking kinda loud over the road noise. The retired Chief served 24 years in the Australian Navy as a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief. We had a great time talking about our careers as we made our way into Nowra. 

When I checked in to my motel, the Parkhavn, they had upgraded me to a suite.  I had a fruit basket, some snacks, and they even anticipated that I would have laundry to do so they had put a bag of coins in my room to use in their guest laundry. These folks are really nice!  

Tomorrow I need to get back down to Wandandian and walk the rest of the way here to Nowra. That will be another 18 mile day. Meanwhile, it’s time to do laundry and think about walking somewhere to get dinner. 

That’s it for Day 31. One month down; 1 1/2 more to go. JB. 

Start:  Milton

Finish:  Milton

Distance:  0

Total:  489

Today I had a scheduled day off and I made the best of it. I got some much needed rest. 

My day off is in the neat little town of Milton, pop. 1,663. I’m staying in a B&B called Mrs. Top.  The host is the most amazing gentleman, 85 year old Anatolij Slabaspyckyj, a former soldier in the Russian Army. His establishment is spotless and the breakfast was amazing. Last night all four rooms were booked but tonight I will be the only guest here. 

Last night I had the opportunity to meet three nice couples who were staying here at Mrs. Top for the weekend.  Ian and Linda Smith, Jan and Sandra Wesseling, and Steven and Heidi Crandell were fun to talk to and we shared some pizza for dinner last night as well as Anatolij’s breakfast feast this morning. They all live west of Sydney and showed great patience with all my questions about Australian culture and customs.  They left mid-morning today and Anatolij and I had the house to ourselves the rest of the day. 

I spent the day just lazing around with my feet propped up. I also did some route study and made a few lodging reservations for a couple of weeks down the road. Late in the afternoon I walked a block to Main Street to see the sites and get some dinner.  However, after sitting around all day I really wasn’t that hungry. So instead of going to a restaurant I went in the local grocery and took some things back to my room. 

Tomorrow it’s back out on the road. The walking distances for the next couple of weeks are not too bad; nothing more than 20 miles per day. 

That’s all for today. I hope everyone’s weekend was good. JB. 

Start:  Brawley Point Road

Finish:  Milton

Distance:  16

Total:  489

Today was a bit of a grind. It was much hotter than it has been and the traffic was very heavy with everyone heading back toward Sydney after the holiday. 

Since the mileage was relatively short at 16 miles, I delayed my start a bit. After breakfast I got out on the side of the road and quickly caught a ride back out to where I stopped walking yesterday. By the time I got to the starting point it was 10:30. Most of the traffic was going north in my direction so it wasn’t too bad on my side of the road. 

It was 12 miles back into Ulladulla where I spent the night last night and I got there at 2:30; just in time to get to the lunch establishments that close at 3:00 on Sundays. After a quick lunch I had four more miles to get to the little town of Milton where I’m staying tonight plus tomorrow night after a day off.

I’m staying at the Mrs. Top B&B, an awesome place that I’ll spend more time describing in tomorrow’s blog. 

That’s all for today. JB. 

Start:  Batemans Bay

Finish:  Brawley Point Road

Distance:  22

Total:  473

After a fantastic night of rest at the Sunseeker Motor Inn in Batemans Bay, I had another good day walking north along Prince’s Highway, getting slowly closer to Sydney. 

The day started off as it always does with a plan developed months ago when I developed the details of this walk. However, every night I review in detail what I’ll be doing the next day.  Then if my day will include catching public transportation like a train or bus at the end of the day, I always check in the morning before I hit the road to ensure there are no changes to the trans schedule. So today I was suppose to walk 22 miles to a bus stop at a road intersection about 12 miles short of the town where I would be spending the night. I had written down during my planning that the bus was scheduled to arrive at 4:22. But when I double checked the bus company app this morning before I started walking there was no bus scheduled anytime this afternoon for that bus stop. That’s when I realized the bus only goes to that location Monday – Friday. Today was Saturday. Oops!  Plan B. Hitch a ride. 

The holiday weekend traffic was especially heavy today. My route parallels the coastline so there are lots of beaches that have access roads off the highway I’m walking. So the beach traffic is heavy plus as I said earlier, these Aussies are crazy about campers, or what they call caravans. And they tow these caravans with vehicles that I would never dream of using to pull a camper. I don’t see how they keep from burning the poor little cars and trucks up pulling these big campers. 

The morning went well and I made it to a neat little roadside cafe called the East Lynne Store that doubles as a motorcycle museum. It was a good lunch stop and the old vintage Indian motorcycles were interesting too. 

I made it to my road intersection finish line at about 4:00, with 22 minutes to spare to catch the bus that wasn’t coming. The crossroads also had a gas station, normally a perfect place to hitch a ride. So I stood out beside the road, doing my best to not look like a threat, with my thumb stuck out in the traditional “please give this poor sole a ride” pose.  After about 20 minutes of waiting, and having seen probably 500 cars and trucks go by, a couple pulled up, jumped out of their car, and invited me to ride with them to my destination of Ulladulla. They introduced themselves as Andrew Burns and Linda Kendall and we had a great conversation during our 30 minutes drive. They had actually seen me standing by the road, passed by, and turned around and came back to pick me up. They were true trail angels and I appreciated their kindness. 

Tomorrow I’ll need to devise a plan to get back out to that intersection where I stopped walking today. Since it’s Sunday there’s no bus service so I may be riding my thumb again. 

That’s it for today. I wish you all a great weekend. JB.