Seal Cave

The walk from Flea bay to tonight's stopover at Stony Bay took us over bluffs and along ridges, down to creeks and beaches and back up again. Never rising much over 200m but a fair bit of up and down certainly gave us our exercise.

Just over halfway through the walk we came to Seal Cave which hosts, not only seals basking on the rocks but also this great little shelter. Built on and into the rock face the back wall, floor and part of the roof are rock. It would have been a great spot for a stop if it had been raining but the weather was good enough for us to stay outside.

This night's camp at Sony Bay was a fascinating place. It was almost like a wee hobbitville - a main hut with 8 bunks, a double bed cabin and 2 tiny two bed cabins (and I mean tiny - Liz and I opted to sleep in the bunks in the main hut because we didn't think we'd FIT in the hobbit sized beds in the cabins. No power at this stop so everything was done with gas and candles.

The shower room was built on a tree - literally! The back wall and a part of one side wall were a giant old tree - one still growing leaves both inside and outside the shower room. The baths were open air - and you had to light the fire under them to heat the water first. The toilets were built away off up the back - so you could sit and enjoy the view, or close the door if you didn't feel like risking being 'surprised' by someone else arriving to use them.

The beauty of this walk is that you're doing it with a maximum of 11 other people - which means no crowding and a great camaraderie building between the walkers. With us were a family group (all adults) of 5 and another family group of 4 (Mum, Dad and 2 kids).