Palm Jungle and Burning Palms Beach

Author

David Rutter

Start/Finish points

Train: Take the train to Otford station and walk to Otford Lookout.

Car: Turn off the Princes Highway and onto Lawrence Hargreave Drive. Follow this road for about 3km before you reach a junction. Go straight at the junction onto Lady Wakehurst Drive. Continue on this road for about 2km until you reach the lookout. There is plenty of parking available.

Nearest Towns

Waterfall, Heathcote

Route

1. Starting at the lookout, follow the signposted track. It winds its way up the hill, eventually coming onto a fire trail.

2. After about 45 mins you’ll coming to a junction. The signpost points the way to the Coast Track off to the right. Follow this track.

3. You will soon come across two fantastic lookouts that offer views to the south. Make sure you stop at at least one of them.

4. Rejoin the track and follow it down. Soon you will enter the Palm Jungle, a surprising forest of palms and other tropical plants.

5. After about an hour the Palm Jungle ends and you enter an open grassland. The track then leads down to Burning Palms Beach.

6. After taking a break at the beach, follow the track that leads from the Surf Lifesaving Club. The track enters eucalyptus and palm forests, eventually reaching the site of a farm called Garawarra.

7. Follow the fire trail (signposted) to Lilyvale and Otford. Continue past the turnoff to Lilyvale, and past the turnoff to the Coast Track you took earlier. Follow the fire trail as you did before back to the lookout.

Contact

Royal National Park

Phone: 02 9542 0648
Fax: 02 9542 1420
Street address: Farnell Avenue, Audley Heights, NSW 2232
Opening hours: 8:30am-4:30pm, daily (closed Christmas Day)

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