Botany Bay Coastal Walk Adevnture

October 2nd

Today was full of adventure as I traveled to Botany Bay National Park with my friends Kim (from Kansas), Dennis (from Germany), and Michele (from Italy). We hopped on the train at Central Station at 6am just as late night goers were traveling home. The train took us to the city of Cronulla where we grabbed a bus to Kurnell. 

Since it was POURING outside and some of us didn't bring proper rain gear, we all ducked into a local coffee shop where we took cover till the rain didn't stop. We also ordered multiple rounds of espresso drinks and snack food till the Batistas thought we were crazy.

Although it was rainy, windy, and muddy at least we never got lost... Kim and I got to sport our very trendy rain ponchos which could actually double as a kite! The weather conditions didn't stop us from having fun though. Kim decided it would be best to trek through the deeper mud areas and this is what happened..

No worries, I brought extra socks. For some reason everything was funny on this hike. Events like losing shoes in the mud, falling backwards in the mud, being blown sideways by the wind catching our ponchos, being suffocated by our ponchos, getting soaked from sneaker waves, walking with sand in our shoes from sneaker waves and everything in between were always followed by hysterical laughing I don't know why. 

This guy was fun. I was walking in front of the group and happened to notice this guy about two feet away from me and I saw my life flash before my eyes. No I didn't take this picture. I was too busy turning around and run screaming back to the group. I pushed my way past Michele and ran to the end of our line screaming snake. So I didn't have time to take a photo of what we believe was a Red-bellied black snake. It was a pretty hefty sized snake and not fun at all. From then on our trekking through the bushes and tall grass was filled not with hysterical laughing but severe fear that we were all going to die at any moment. If not by the snakes, by the fact that we were lost and happened to wander over a barb wired fence and onto private property which turned out to be a poverty stricken cult neighborhood of some sort. Luckily Kim reminded me that people in Australia don't own guns like we do in America so I felt better about the fact that I wouldn't be bitten by a snake then shot and chopped into little pieces. No. I would be bit by a snake, stabbed, and then chopped into little pieces. Very reassuring.

Luckily our day had a happy ending and we found our way to.....

A beautiful beach.. and city in the distance thank goodness! We followed the beach to the city finding many washed up puffer fish and too bad we didn't check the tides because it was high tide all the way and this made walking on dry land difficult. Luckily we didn't get swept to sea and with our legs thoroughly worked out we all slept on the train ride back to Sydney...well we took this picture first then slept.

Overall, the day was full of adventure. We came back tired, wet, muddy, sandy, and hungry but we had an experience of a lifetime and that's why we are trying it again tomorrow at a different beach! The weather should be the same but our shoes are already muddy so no drama! (That is an Australian term hehe) Till next time!

CHEERS! :)