Finally sunny days and warm weather are back to Sydney, therefore hiking has to be included in daily plans again!
Figure 8 pools are located in the Royal National Park near the Burning Palms Beach. It became a very popular place to visit among tourists however many locals haven't been there or even haven't heard of it at all! They should regret not visiting the Figure 8 pools to which the beautiful coastal walk leads.
We took a train to Otford station which is a 1-hour-drive from Central Station and it seemed that we came to nowhere - the station in the middle of bushes with neither a cafe nor vending machine nearby. The walk started with a steep hill followed by the road walk until we reached the entrance to the Royal National Park. Landscape and views changed so many times and we even tried to imagine in which part of the world are we right now.
It was not a very easy trail and we were happy to walk there in the early spring as sun was not as intense as it gets during the summer. After a bit more than 2 hours walk we reached a stunning beach called Burning Palms Beach. It is such a quite place with few small summer houses nearby and it makes it the great spot for meditation.
From the beach the most dangerous and challenging part to Figure 8 pools starts. It's very important to check the tide level in order to be able to reach the pools and have enough time to come back to the beach. We started rocky walk at 11:30 am and tide height was 90 cm which was decreasing further. Rocks were still slippery, waves were quite strong and breaking nearby which was scary but the desire to swim in Figure 8 pools overcame our fears.
After 20 minutes walk we reached the place but we couldn't even found where that famous pool is! It was still fully covered by water and dangerous to get close to it due to still high tide level. 4 guys were brave to get there and were hit by the wave which came from nowhere so we decided to wait. Around 1 pm it seemed to be quiter and finally we got a chance to swim in the Figure 8 pools despite the water being so cold! We took our time to enjoy the pools because there were only 10 people in total! That's why trips on week days and not in a peak season are the best.
We planned to take the same trail back to the station but were suggested by the injured tourists to go to the waterfall which was supposed to be the same length. Unfortunately.... It came out that there were 10 kilometers to the station and the whole walk was on the road. 6 crazy tourists from which 2 were injured and 2 complaining of tiredness and hungriness, romantic music, dancing lady with a handbag and even more. This is a walk to remember!
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