Light to Light Walk

Ole Benjamin Boyd fancied himself to be an entrepreneur, he built a tower and planned a city (and did some other dodgy stuff)… but it all went a bit pear shaped and he had to bail out. The tower still remains and was our starting point of the Light to Light walk. This is a 30km hike from Boyd’s Tower to Green Cape Lighthouse, if you are fast and nimble you could do it in a single day but we chose to take our time and camp a night. It’s not a difficult walk with just enough trail variation and incline to keep you interested and the only navigational issues we had were along the exposed rock platforms. The red rocks along the coast mesmerized me, as did the many species of wildflower and although there were no whales this time, we did see dolphins.

A hop skip and a jump got us across the first creek crossing at Leather Jacket Bay with dry feet and we celebrated with morning tea. It was such a pretty location that we contemplated setting up camp here but we were only 5km in so we stuck to our plan and mosyed on.

After much meandering around headlands and possibly a million photo stops we came to our next creek crossing. This required shoes off and short shorts as we waded across the thigh deep water (don’t bother putting them back on as you have to cross another channel at the other end of the beach). Saltwater Creek Campground at 13km in tempted us to down packs and jump in for a swim, but we satisfied ourselves with lunch and continued on.

The spectacular vistas continued and as we approached Bittangabee Bay we could hear the hum of happy campers but this was just teasing to sore muscles as we still had to make our way around the inlet to reach the campground on the other side. 24km in, we were happy to set up our tent and go exploring. Ships used to drop off supplies here for the Green Cape Lighthouse and the ruins still exist along with the stories. Swimming here was refreshing and I had packed in my snorkel but the conditions weren’t clear enough to have a go (maybe next time?).

Fed and rested we headed off for the remaining 10km to the lighthouse. The sharp, jutting rock formations collided with the azure water to create an impressive landscape that validates the number of shipwrecks along this stretch of coastline. We passed the gravestones of those lost on the Ly-ee-Moon in 1886 including Mrs Flora MacKillop who was Saint Mary MacKillop’s mother.

Our experience concluded with a historical tour of Green Cape Lighthouse, where, climbing the stairs and seeing the intricate lenses that required constant cleaning, changed any notions we had of becoming lighthouse keepers. We spend the night in the converted Telegraph Station, our brains brimming with stories from the past, our bodies strong from hiking and our bellies full.