trail

[Rick Hernandez]

hi ! is there a short cut from heavenly bay to big bay in castara. besides by water & how much of a treck is it ? any info would be usefull. rick

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Rick

Other than wading/swimming to the main beach, your only option is to walk up the hill. Its no big deal except in the heat of the day. There is a slight shortcut, which does save a minute or two....

Make your way up the hill from Little/Heavenly Bay beach area. Pass Beach House, Young's House and the entrance to SeaScape, all on the left. You then pass under the Clay Kitchen restaurant, which will be on top of the cliff on your left. The road then climbs sharp left, with Castara Cottage on the cliff-face facing you. Just before that, you will see a narrow semi-paved pathway on the hillside to your left. Make your way up that. It comes out on top of the 'Blue Mango headland', immediately before Trinity Cottage, which is part of the Blue Mango Cottages. Turn right on the road and it will take you down to the beach at the Naturalist. Turn left and it will take you up to the main road.

Hope that helps.

[Ninas]

Steve I guess you had a mirror picture in front of your eyes when you were describing the way to the shortcut or were you just to exciting imagining the way to the shortcut Clay oven is on the right and before the Castara cottage you have to turn right on the shortcut. Rick here is the photo of the cliff with Castara cottage where you have to turn right (in case you haven´t found it yet)

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Nina

No, not a mirror image, just an old fool suffering a "senior moment". Thank you for the correction. Just for clarification, folks, EVER building I mentioned will be on your RIGHT as you walk up Depot Road out of Little Bay. Sill old sod doesn't know his left from his right.

[Chris Runciman]

The shortcut up! This path is not a right of way. It runs along the boundary between Castara Cottage and Clay Oven/Blue Mango. An improvement on the original I can assure you as some / many of us have come a cropper and rolled down the hill after a rum or 3, or 4!
One Sunday morning a group of us laid the concrete. Joshua laid the stones, Hilton, Tom ( Lillibets ) and myself were the hod carriers. Up the top the boys mixed the concrete as did anyone who fancied a turn. A lot of people all chipped in with the materials and labour originally to help Cheno's mum and her friends get to their chapel at the bottom, it all started as these things do, over beers at D'lime.
Colin ( Blue Mango )issuing orders we tried to ignore, no end of passers by ALL giving us instructions about what and how we should actually be doing it without taking their shirts off or putting their hands in their pockets much to our amusement. Rum, beers, chicken were all donated and we worked until we ran out of materials. Hence the concrete does not quite reach the bottom. A great communal day having fun getting thoroughly dirty and all in a good cause! One day we will finish it..................one of these days!

[Rick Hernandez]

thanks for all the info & history. the picture is very helpful . i was hopeing for a flatter option.may have to take the water route . thanks so much - rick

[Ninas]

Steve,
no worries, I have constanlty "senior" moments when I drive in a car and give directions to the driver. Left is always right and vice versa it usually ends with me saying "why are you turning in this direction??"

Chris, I love your story! Now I know why there is no concrete at the beggining of the shorcut, it was a sort of a mistery to me. The first time we were in Castara the shortcut was still in "natural" condition. There used to be a rope along the shortcut which was really helpful but there is none at the moment. One night on the way down, all on a sudden the frog crossed my way. In a dark I didn´t know what it is, I jumped because it scared me and if there was no rope...I would probably end up on the road with a bump on my head. Luckily the only consequence of my Superman flight was a scratched nail polish on my toe nail. If we are there on the day when the shortcut is about to be finalized we will be willing to give you a help. We have a good view on the shortcut from the balcony of the apartment we usually stay in so I´m not affraid we´ll miss it when you start with work

[Paul Tallet]

Water route is best but not for nervous swimmers during heavy waves or high tides.

You can also catch your legs on some very sharp rocks in Heavenly Bay if you cannot see where you are wading.

And remember there are some sea urchins in Heavenly Bay that would make it uncomfortable for those straying from the normal wading route.

Regards