Robert's Travels

Today we took a trip down to the Royal National Park to see the coast and enjoy the scenery. We got up around 6:30, had a quick breakfast at the AirBnB, and got ready to go. We walked from the AirBnB to a Budget car rental located at King’s Cross, which was a short 10 minute walk away. As we walked up to the rental car office we noticed the hotel we had first stayed at in Sydney - it was just across the street! I had made the reservation the night before, and when we showed up just after 8:00 we had no issues picking up the car. We headed out in some rush hour traffic, but once we got out of the downtown core traffic lightened up. Our first site of the day was Wedding Cake Rock. This sandstone rock formation, located on the eastern coast of Australia, is notable as it stands on its own as a bright white slab of rock amongst the otherwise sand-coloured stone. The site isn’t directly reachable by car, it is necessary to hike in several kilometres to reach it. The trail head is located at the edge of a small parking lot that is just outside Bundeena. We arrived at the trail head several minutes before 10:00, and headed out on the hike.

It was still fairly cool when we got out of the car, so we bundled up with jackets and pants on. We were assuming that the sun would warm the area up as the morning progressed, but we didn’t want to be cold while we waited for this to happen. The hike to Wedding Cake Rock gave us some pretty views back towards Sydney, and gave us the opportunity to enjoy the company of some birds that were flying along the bushes that lined the trail. We didn’t see any other wildlife on our hike, which we weren’t entirely upset about. The trail to Wedding Cake Rock took us first to Marley Head, a lookout on the top of an ocean-facing cliff that gave a great view back to Marley Beach. We arrived at Marley Head after about an hour of hiking, shortly before 11:00. We took some photos, took in the view of the ocean, and then followed an elevated trail along the coastline to Wedding Cake Rock. This was a nice change of pace - the hike from the parking lot to Marley Head was rough, mostly sand and rock, and so level plastic grating was a nice change.

We reached Wedding Cake Rock shortly after 11:30. There was heavy brush on both sides of the trail to the lookout, so we didn’t really get a good look at the formation until we were practically there. You used to be able to walk right onto the rock formation, however park geologists have determined that the rock itself is very unstable and there is a risk of it falling into the ocean at any moment. Last year the park erected a large fence to prevent people from reaching the unsafe area. This fence, while understandable, did unfortunately take away from the majesty of the view. We were able to hike up a small side trail to get to a viewing area that was mostly unobstructed by the fence, which was nice. We spent a few minutes looking out over the ocean before turning back and returning to the car.

It was around 12:30 when we returned to the car. The sun was high in the sky and it was quite a bit warmer than when we had left the car; both Todd and I had removed our coats and I had applied a first layer of sunscreen. We were getting hungry, but decided to drive to the next location before eating. A short 15 minute drive later, we arrived at Wattamolla Beach. Here we unpacked our lunch at a picnic table and enjoyed our sandwiches while some kookaburras watched us from the tree overhead. After lunch, we walked around the park area for a bit before taking the trail down to the beach. The beach was nice and sandy, but the ocean was pretty rough so we didn’t see anyone swimming or surfing. I took some photos of the surf breaking on some rocks out where the beach ended, and then we did a small walking loop around the lake that sat behind the beach. We spent about an hour exploring before heading back to the car.

We drove on to our final destination in the park, Garie Beach. It was another short 15 minute drive away, and this was the first beach that was immediately reachable from the parking lot. We walked down onto the sand, and took in the ocean views. We both stuck our hands into the ocean, however I wasn’t paying attention and a wave came and got my feet soaking wet while I was reaching down into the water. We didn’t spend long here - it was getting a bit late in the day and we needed to return the car before 17:45. We snapped a few photos then turned around and began the drive back to Sydney.

We left the park shortly before 15:30, and unfortunately ran into some rush hour traffic on the drive back to Sydney. We ended up returning the car shortly after 17:00, then walked back to the AirBnB as the sun was going down. While we were in the park the season 11 finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race had aired, so after we got back into the AirBnB we pulled out my laptop and watched the finale. We didn’t want to have the ending spoiled for us! The finale was enjoyable, and both Todd and I were happy with the winner of the season. After finishing the episode we freshened up and headed out for dinner.

We had dinner at Priscilla’s, a restaurant in The Imperial, which is a cornerstone of the Sydney gay community. They combine dinner and drag into an evening of fabulousness. We arrived shortly before 19:15, and even though we didn’t have a reservation we managed to squeeze into a couple of free seats at the bar. The first show started just as we were placing our drink orders, and we watched a pair of drag queens lip sync to three different songs. We celebrated our trip with a cocktail, then had some delicious food as more drag performances took place on a stage about 15 feet from where we were sitting. The show was mostly a series of lip sync performances, though there was an audience participation moment where two people were brought on stage and had to lip sync to ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion. They did alright. We had a great time, and left The Imperial about 2 hours after arriving. We returned back to the AirBnB for an early night.