Weekend Warrior Series: Secluded Sunrises on the South Coast of NSW

Forget Bondi. The most beautiful (and quietest) beaches are found just south of Sydney. So pack your tent and sunscreen and head on down.

Travel Time: 1.5 hour drive from Sydney

Highlights: Mystics Beach, Minnamurra River, The Farm Beach

Distance Covered: 200km round trip

If you have more time: drive on to Kiama, Jervis and Mollymook for more beautiful beach hangs.

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As a Brit, you’d think I’d be used to camping in the rain, but the truth is – I’m a fair weather camper. I don’t like being damp and cold, lying in the tent hoping it’s not going to start leaking. But with Summer off to a bang you’d think I’d be safe right? Wrong. No sooner had the tent been erected, the skies opened and we had to run for shelter. Luckily the tent seems to still be waterproof and we slept peacefully and dryly through the downpour.

But by morning the rain had passed and the sky was just starting to get light, so I shook Old Mate awake and we ran down to the beach to watch the sunrise. I’ve seen many a sunrise over the last few years, but this is the first one in a long while that I got to watch over the ocean. We had the entirety of Mystics beach to ourselves other than some friendly dolphins that were playing close to shore and some waders picking for food in the wet sand. It was absolutely beautiful - the few fluffy clouds that were still hanging around glowed pink in the morning light and we watched the sun come up over the water before heading back to camp for coffee.

 Just down from Mystics Beach is Killalea Beach, known as “The Farm” which has been a national surfing reserve since 2009. Needless to say the waves were banging and even an absolute novice like myself could enjoy padding out. Killalea State Park has approximately 265 hectares of pristine coastal reserve, as well as wetland and rainforest areas. The campsite is cheap and cheerful, very close to the beach and with a large communal firepit. Just watch out for the friendly Black House Spiders which may or may not manage to make it into your tent, (luckily not ours, but our camping neighbours got a horrible shock at 11pm…)

If you’re a water baby, the beaches around here are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen on the NSW coast and you can spend hours in and out of the waves. Just note that all the beaches within the reserve are unpatrolled. We ended up walking the full 1km length of Mystics until it reached Minnamurra River. The water here was absolutely crystal clear but freezing cold and there was an amazing sand bank in the middle which emerged as a sort of island at low tide. Minnamurra is derived from the Aboriginal name Meme Mora which means “river of many fish”...however we had the fishing lines out for a few hours and caught nothing except a few shells. Thank goodness for the fish and chip shop in Kiama!