Cruising Ku-ring-gai

Yachting

Story and pictures by Sally Andrew

HOW can one get queasy on an easy daysail?” I demanded. Fix ing lunch in the galley as we rolled north from Sydney on long greasy swells was probably to blame. Broken Bay beckoned, and we couldn't wait for wind. I was anxious to explore Ku-ring gai Chase National Park, in the heart of which lies a fantastic array of quiet inlets and bays with waterfalls, streams and trails.

Entering Broken Bay, one is con fronted with waterways in all directions.

Pittwater, to the south, is a popular yacht ing centre. To the north, but off limits to deep draft vessels is Brisbane Waters. To the west, but restricted to sailboats due to a low bridge, is the Hawkesbury River system. Our destination, the many inlets and bays of Cowan Creek lay dead ahead, beyond Lion Island.

Once inside Cowan Creek, we fled

to a gratuitous park mooring alongside

cascading waterfalls in America and Refuge Bays. Following a bush-trail lined with tiny, yellow, pink, purple and scarlet coloured Autumn flowers, we found fab ulous Aboriginal rock carvings - twen ty-foot wallaby with a three-foot penis, and a big whale with Jonah’fied male and

female figures.

Around the corner from America Bay, Hallett’s has a pretty swimming beach,

good anchoring and several

moorings. Behind the shore, scrambling over rocks and through the bush, we found a soft waterfall, like a shower of spring rain, falling on a flat rock. I sat still - meditating upon the tiny refractive rain bows inside each tiny water

droplet.

Nearby, a huge lyre

bird pranced around, flashing

its tail like a peacock.

Although colourful, peaceful, wet and wonderful, we weren’t lulled into dropping our snake and spider watch!

One close call with a red bel lied black snake at America bay was enough! But here, our scare came from the sky.

A fish! Freshly plucked from the sea and still quivering, it

must have fallen out of the

claws of a sea eagle.

Half a mile west of Hallett’s, an enormous sandstone outcropping marks a bay known as Cottage Rock. Two small

waterfalls drop directly into the sea at high tide, but a sandy beach appears at low tide. An inquisitive goanna with a hyperactive tongue hangs out above the falls. We beached our dinghy at the base of the waterfall using it like an inflatable bathtub - a great way to keep cool on a bright blue day! Afterwards, we scrubbed dirty clothes, a drudgery somewhat ame liorated by the lovely location!

Deeply set in surrounding hills and bush, Castle Lagoon is an almost fully enclosed quiet bay with several park moorings and a small stream and water falls at the head of the bay. Skirting along the base of the rocks, then up a crack, and back towards the stream again, we encountered hundreds of gigantic spiders and even bigger, creepier webs before attaining a 360 degree view of Ku-ring

gai.

Setting off from castle Lagoon, we sailed past Yeoman’s Bay, stopped at Cot tage Point for ice cream, then cruised down Coal and Candle Inlet to the D’Alb ora Marina complex at Akuna Bay. The

Halltt's Beach is a wonderful way to spend the day

Our destination, the many inlets and bays of Cowan Creek lay dead ahead, beyond lion Island

marina has bait and ice, a cafe, restaurant,

laundry, gymnasium, chandler, yacht

charter base. Cruising Cowan Creek with no destination in mind, we eventually stopped at Smiths Creek.

Deep inside Cowan Creek, Lords Bay has well-maintained trails along the shoreline which run in both directions.

High tide makes it easier to land ashore where you can walk north to Waritah Bay, or south to Apple Tree bay and Bobbin Head. The track was pleasant with an immense amount of shell midden along the route and the remains of an old house boat right across from House Boat Bay.

But oh my!

We’d been forewarned about leech hitchhikers and checked our shoes, socks and backpacks before coming aboard. But not good enough. In the galley that night, the mother of all leeches was walking - no running - across the fibreglass in the gal

ley!

Jerusalem Bay has an evil appeal.

If you arrive at low tide you can see the

lifeline, or a pair of ducks would come for oatmeal snacks, or kookaburras would beg for sausages. If we wanted human com panionship, we headed back to Refuge Bay. Many of our best afternoons were spent visiting with friends aboard cruising yachts Insatiable, The Alice Colleen, Constance, Yarandoo 11. Cristata, Iron Butterfly, Sourdough, Antares, Jan Van Geht. Or we’d head back to popu lated Pittwater to watch the local sailors’ twilight

racing.

Australia’s a dan gerous place - ask any Aussie. Bush fires, heavy rains and frightening winds, hail storms, light

mud flats and avoid them. But on a falling tide, houseboats often run aground. A sailboat came to a noisy halt, too, as he crashed full speed into the mud bank ... his rig

screaming in

agony, hull flexing like an old oil drum. Soon after wards, two speed boats roared past

fellowship, merrily

throwing up big waves before sud

denly coming to a

blazing halt as they hit bottom in the river. Whoops!

We never lacked company. If there were no other boats, a currawong would sit on our

ning storms, snakes, spiders, ticks mozzies, leeches, crocodiles, sharks, jelly fish. Mother Nature can be a mother. But the Sydney Storm of ‘99 took us by sur prise. After a sunny flat calm day, a virtu al nonstop blitzkrieg lit up the night sky.

We were buffeted by gusts to 50 knots and short bursts of hail that bullied and heeled us over. One man, fishing in an aluminum boat near Cronulla, was killed

by lightning. Sydney reported cricketball

sized hail and damage estimates at $300,000,000!! Twenty thousand houses damaged and 60,000 cars!

We escaped damage and felt there was no better place to be. No better place indeed - smack in the middle of sandstone cliffs, eucalypt forests and extravagant birdlife. And always the magnificent waterways of Ku-ring-gai .. a superb backdrop to a cruising week or ten.

Besides, we wondered, where else in this world can you be alternately scared silly by lightning and hail storms, amused by goannas and lyrebirds, awed by Abo riginal rock carvings, spooked by snakes and spiders, then cleansed in an endless number of waterfalls and streams? ■

An inquisitive goanna with a hyperactive tongue hangs out above the falls

We fled to a gratuitous park mooring alongside cascad ing waterfalls In America and Refuge Bays