Solitary Islands Coastal Hike Day 3 - Emerald Beach to Korora Bay

Solitary Islands Coastal Hike Day 3 proposed iteniary. The Solitary Islands Coastal hike starts from Red Rock and finishes at Sawtell. This is the day one itinerary of a 4-day hike.

This version of the Solitary Islands trail takes in many of the headlands not encompassed by the original trail. The headlands provide much of the best views of the islands and beaches that are available on the hike. The trail itself is suffering from a lack of maintenance by local councils and signage at times is very limited. The obvious lighthouse trail posts have disappeared from many spots so pay close attention to the track provided.There are components of the hike undertaken on stairs which are falling into disrepair.

This days hike requires careful timing as you will need to be hitting two key areas at sometime other than high tide give or take say an hour to allow you to get across Moonee creek and Campbell's rocks

This days hike starts The Boulevard at Mullaway Beach. There is a dirt carpark there and it is away from the main trafficked areas. Initially you take the track to Moonee Beach and then you proceed up the coast following the beach. Looking into the distance at the start you see the headland jutting out and in front of that is Moonee Creek.

Moonee creek depending on the tides will require you to at least get your ankles wet and maybe thighs for small people.There are extensive sandbars there which constantly change so explore the crossing spot as indicated on the map to find the best spot. You shouldn't need to swim if you get the tides right.

At the other side of Moonee creek is a park with toilets and a bridge will take you to the track that takes you to the headland there. We did an optional walk out to the headland to get a view of the solitary islands from Green Bluff.

At the other end of Green Bluff is Sapphire Beach. Sapphire Beach has great views of Split Rock. Sapphire Beach concludes and White Bluff. Here the trach diverges along the green verge of the bluff past some residential properties and some roads across to the other side of the bluff

After a small section of beach you then divert in and out of streets and bush before finally arriving by a set of stairs to where Pine Brush Creek enters the sea. I can only describe this section as a confusing hodgepodge of poorly marked twists and turns through streets and allyways with at its end is a rickedy stairway condemned by the local council. The local council has forgotten that the Solitary Islands trail progresses here and has not provided an option for people to actually utilise the supporting network of track through the area.

From here you proceed along Korora beach up past a a jutting set of rocks and then follow up to the smaller headland via a bridge. You then follow the trail through a forest area to Chatsworth Beach and then progress on to Diggers Head.

At Diggers Head we opted to walk out on to the headland to get some more great shots before including the days activity by coming down through the forest to Diggers Beach Rd. There are BBQs and picnic areas here.

All up this day is probably the most physical of days with the most climb and difficult terrain to traverse.