I was experimenting with combining two of my favourite hobbies, spearfishing with hiking, because that wasn’t challenging enough I set out the task of trying to be entirely self sufficient for food whilst on the trip. This itself was a huge learning curve for me as I had never attempted this type of challenge with sea foraging before.
The track itself was supposed to be 26km but in total I hiked 29km over 3 days, my backpack weighed in at a whopping 26kg this was mainly due to carrying a lot of video equipment and of course spearfishing gear. I only had two or three days set aside for this hike due to catching a flight to the UK to surprise family so I had a deadline. Spearfishing solo is something that I have grown up doing since I before I was even a teenager. It has its risks and I know it is often frowned upon in the spearfishing community, but I still enjoy it when I am unable to find a suitable dive buddy as the main man Andy was still exploring Canada. I limit my time underwater to avoid shallow water blackouts and avoid strong currents and dangerous looking waters when diving solo. So I started the hike near Bundeena ferry. I then hiked into the Royal National Park and begun the Coastal Track.
The sea was pretty blue but lack of safe entry and exit point put me off getting in until I found somewhere good to dive. I managed to bag a Cray and Trevally on my first dive. A great success. Day 2 involved more hiking and spearfishing. My dive was very unproductive leaving the water with some turban snails and rock Cale… Never eating Rock Cale again.
I had always intended on a second dive that day, if I couldn’t find any more fish I would have harvested some sea urchins and sea weeds which I love. Sadly this was not the case, when I finally thought I had found a good spot to enter as I was taking my boots off and stashed my bag up high away from any rising tide. A huge set rolled in.
I got soaked whilst climbing around the coast which was annoying at the time but now I look back and laugh. On this I decided to make a bolt for the finish line.
The hike was beautiful full of life and its just a shame that a storm from the south was pushing its way up the coast it’s lucky I got out when I did.
I will defiantly do this hike again, hopefully next time with some company, better water conditions and more productive dives.