Overnight in paradise

I have often walked into North Era, sometimes further, on a Friday after work and then walked back out again. This trip I decided to walk in and camp a night before returning. The weather had been so good lately that it was a no brainer to spend the night.

After getting away from work, I was delayed a little by road works along the way, then a truck accident on the climb up to Stanwell Tops. Eventually I got to the start of the walk and was able to get under way shortly after 3:00pm. The weather was warm but quite windy, so I was looking forward to getting into an area with more shelter.

By the time I reached the first board walk, my legs were feeling a little tired. I hadnt carried a pack for some time so getting used to the weight again was going to take time. But despite the pain, the walk had been worth it as the wind had dropped off a little and the landscape spread out before me.

I stopped a could of times along the way, but didnt bother dropped pack until I reached the camping ground. I like to get to my destination as quickly as possible, to ensure the best chance of getting a good camp site. To my amazement, I was the ONLY person camping here tonight, I've never seen this before! It was amazing, just me on this perfect winter evening.

I was able to pitch my tent only metres from the beach, just in time to sit back and watch the sunset behind me, and the stars expose themselves above. Now if the Swans had won tonight, it would have been the perfect evening!!

The next morning, there were plenty of surfers walk in just after sunrise as the surf was looking big (so big one guy broke a board!). There was also plenty of runners coming through. But today was pretty much slowly packup and head back to the car which took longer than expected, but was achieved without any issues.