Yacaaba Walking track/ Mount Yakaba

This afternoon we did a quick dash to Hawks Nest to do the Yacaaba walk. You will find it on google maps by searching Mount Yakaba. You certainly won't find any official information on it by searching that name though. Since I found a few people arguing over the name on the internet I decided I will call it what the green sign did.

The National Parks website says it is 3.5km each way. The climb itself is only 1.5km one way but it is haaard... The car park for the walk is at the end of Beach road and from there head left to the beach. The beach walk to the bottom of the climb is only about 1.25km (measured using google maps to end an argument at this camp, we both lost). So it's really more like 2km one way. We did it easily in 2hours, with lots of stops to stretch out those tight calf muscles and plenty of photo stops too. I would rate this walk moderate, simply because it's pretty short.

The start of the climb welcomes you with a heinously steep section that will have your calf muscles screaming. The top part is a bit of a slippery rock scramble. The middle is a lot of up and a little bit of down with some easy strolling. I would recommend doing it in the morning rather than the afternoon like we did, just for photos back to Hawks Nest, so you're not shooting into the sun. Once you get to the 'top' there is another track that heads to the left and is an easy walk up a little higher to a much better view.

Stretching before the top scramble

Onwards and upwards!

Looking back to Hawks Nest

From the top towards Hawks Nest

From the top towards Tomaree

The way down was much nicer than the way up, and much quicker. Walking back along the beach I had a go at taking some wave photos with mixed results. There were heaps of big birds hanging around and diving to catch fish. It was pretty cool to watch. At one stage, about 5m in from the shore a heap of medium size fish jumped out of the water followed by what we suspect was a 1m shark. We didn't get much of a look at it because it was only a split second that it was above the water for. 

Looking back at Yacaaba headland

Fishing birds

Our footprints