Emily and I finally got to go to Royal National Park!!!
We left really early in the morning, took a bus to Central, then took a train to Cronulla, then took a ferry to Bundeena.
This was on the ferry ride:
The houses around there look so pleasant.
After we got off the boat, we had to walk like 20 minutes up a GIANT hill along a road just to get to the start of the trail. And, when we got to the start of the trail, there was no sign or anything with the name of the trail. The trail we were doing was Bundeena Drive to Marley Beach.
When we got to the start of the trail, we had no clue whether or not it was really the start of the trail. It just looked like this sandy road. And in/around the national park, there's no cell phone service. Coincidentally, this truck driver stopped at the entrance to the trail when we got there; he had to unlock the gate or something. We asked him if it was the trail to Marley Beach. He thought for a solid minute looking clueless or confused, then he responded confidently that yes, if you go straight, you go to Marley and if you turn left you go to some other place (I don't remember).
Anyway, I was like wow! thanks for the advice mister stranger! and believed him wholeheartedly. Emily was very skeptical and wouldn't stop telling me how we made a mistake and how she didn't trust this guy. But we still walked down this trail. The view didn't change for a while.
A lot of bush.
Finally, we saw the ocean! Well, actually, Emily saw the ocean. For some reason I thought the blue ocean was forest. I think because the trees also have a blue haze over them. I should probably get my eyes checked..
It started raining a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. And it stopped pretty soon after.
Basically, we walked down to the beach.
Marley Beach!
In order to get to the beach, we had to cross this giant creek/river!
But before that, we totally geeked out and tried to be marine scientists.
This is a terrible picture, but we found these weird looking things that seemed inflated. They actually looked a lot like bluebottles/Portuguese man-of-wars just without the long tail; these are super deadly jellyfish.
Anyway, I stepped on a bunch and enjoyed hearing them pop.
I also studied some green algae. Learned about that in class!!! Getting some quality field work in!!!
Finally, we crossed the river. Well, I managed to jump across without getting my shoes wet.
Then, Emily waited around, searching for a good spot to cross. And eventually, tried to cross but just got her shoes soaked.
We went on a dune and ate our lunches! And then we climbed this giant dune.
This was the view from the top of this particular dune:
For some reason, Emily really wanted to roll down a hill. So, she did that, and I took a video of it on her gopro for her. She rolled so slowly HAHA.
Then, we explored some more dunes and climbed another one.
Then, she took a video of me rolling down this giant hill. Mine was much cooler than hers, I assure you.
She also made sand angels.
We wanted to go sand sledding, but without a sled, we were just sad.
Oh, also when we were walking around the river, trying to head back, Emily stepped in quicksand and almost died. Well, she started sinking but somehow managed to get out of it. It was frightening!!
Anyway, without anymore sand activities, we decided to head back.
Cool rocks!
We waited on the beach in Bundeena for the ferry for around 20 minutes. We watched this drug deal go down on this little bridge there. This old guy was drinking coffee, then he put his paper coffee cup on the ground on the bridge, then this guy that looked kind of like Jesse Pinkman came on the bridge, and they didn't talk to each other or look at each other.
Ok, it wasn't an actual drug deal, the old guy was just hanging out with his granddaughter. But the two of us agreed, it could've totally been a scene out of Breaking Bad.
After we crossed back to Cronulla, we stopped by McDonald's. I got a frozen Coke float and some small fries :D
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