Monday Feb 24

Tramped to the Gannet Colony, this was a fun hike. We wanted to see the Gannets but didn’t want to do the commercial tour and then discovered the beach trail. It’s a lengthy hike, 15 km return, but worth it. Not many want to walk the beach – there is a bit of a risk associated due to the possibility of rock fall or even a “slip” (landslide). Slips don’t happen very often (there can be years between occurrences) so we decided to roll the dice and go. The day was fine without much wind and the beach was empty except for a few footprints in the sand from a few others trampers who woke up earlier than we did. After 7.5 km, we arrived at the lower and smaller Gannet colony, but we were able to approach very close to the birds. Got some good pics and enjoyed watching the Gannets harass each other. The main colony of gannets is another 2 km along the beach and up on top of the sandstone bluffs, currently inaccessible due to instability in the trail up the bluffs.

When walking the beaches, especially ones bounded by cliffs, you pay attention to the tides. We read that you must leave the gannet colony no later than 1.5 hours after low tide in order to make it all the way back without getting your feet wet. We left in plenty of time an arrived back well before we ran out of beach.

The hike consumed most of the day and were happy to climb back in the van to head back to camp for a well deserved happy hour and supper.

beach head at Cape Kidnappers track

impressive cliffs Cape Kidnapper's

looking back towards towards Clifton end of beach

boulders off the cliffs above

Part of the Gannet Colony

Juvenile gannet

Goofey gannet

heading back to the trail head

log break