If you are looking for something to do in spring, take the opportunity to visit one of Sydney’s best kept secrets.
Muogamarra Nature Reserve is only open 6 weekends a year (during spring), from 9am – 4:30pm on those weekends and costs $15 per person to enter…and is absolutely worth visiting!
On Saturday 10th August 2019 my husband and I braved the cyclonic winds to do the unguided Peats Bight walk. This spectacular hike took us through four different landscapes and outstanding scenery. The wildflowers were in full bloom and offered excellent photo opportunities! The reserve is only open to the public during spring, as this is when the wildflowers are at their best.
The 10km hike is graded “hard” and many sites mention it is “challenging”. This doesn’t appear to be true at the start as you walk along the clear, flat paths of the Tippers lookout walk via an expansive view of the Hawkesbury river system. Then you reach the first descent with some stairs and steep rocky sections, which makes you think twice about whether this walk will be as easy as you first anticipated. The next section is mostly fire trail which is flat and well-trodden and provides access to an amazing Aboriginal whale engraving.
Further along the trail you will reach an intersection, which is well signed, and need to go left for Peats Bight walk or continue straight for the Lloyd Trig and Deerubbin walks. Soon after the turn off, the Peats Bight walk becomes a switchback fire trail, lined with native, wild tobacco plants. This switchback area is the steepest and most challenging of the whole walk because while the track is wide and open, the descent is fairly steep with many slippery, loose stones making it difficult to keep your footing. You will never hear me say this again but returning back up this section was actually easier than the descent! And remember how much I hate walking up hills…
Once you reach the bottom you are basically at sea level and the rest of the walk is relatively flat. The next section of the hike is into Peats Crater, which was used by convicts in the 1800s for farming due to the rich soils. As a result of this farming, the area is now fairly clear and offers the first scenery change from dense eucalypt forest to grassland. We were warned not to sit down here as ticks are apparently rife in the area.
When you exit the grassland the forest changes again to rainforest. The path here is no longer fire trail and is quite overgrown. Continuing along the track, you will enter a casuarina forest that comes out alongside a dried-up salt flat. The landscape soon changes back to rainforest. Winding through the rainforest you cross over some water courses and finally find yourself alongside a small stream, Muogamarra Creek. The path parallels Muogamarra Creek for a while before reaching a more open clearing and a beautiful, old, stone wall. A nice reminder of the area’s past habitation and use.
Then quite suddenly, you emerge from the rainforest into mangrove forest and are following Berowra Creek. The river feeds into the mangrove forest and your hike now traces an old, man-made wall that was used as an access point for boats to ship produce from the farms to other islands and towns in the area. This continues out to the bight point, and the track’s end, where you can see oysters on the rocks and look out to the Hawkesbury river and Bar Island. This is where an excellent volunteer, Graham, told us all about the area. There are volunteers along all the walks and stationed at the end points of all walks in case you need help or have any questions about the area!
After stopping for a snack and a chat with Graham, we headed back.
Once we reached the carpark we walked out to West Lookout, a short, easy stroll from the carpark. The vantage from West Lookout showed us were we had just been! It was pretty incredible to see where we had walked from that height and perspective.
So, while some parts of the track are definitely a little rough and a bit of a challenge, overall the Peats Bight walk is worth taking the time and putting in the effort! Learning about the history in the area and getting the chance to see so many different forest types was enlightening enough…but seeing all the volunteers with huge smiles being so generous with their time and knowledge definitely made our Muogamarra Nature Reserve experience one to remember.
Some important notes:
They have credit card facilities at the entry.
Wear hiking shoes or sturdy runners.
Take lots of water.
Stop for lunch at Pie in the Sky across the road after your walk for a well deserved (and tasty) treat!
Photos credited to my husband, Russell Turner.
The Life 