A return to the Royal National Park to see the Figure 8 Rock Pools, ruined by the sea.

It'd been a while since we'd been for a hike, but it was a welcome return to something I'd missed. Myself and a few of the lads woke up early on a cold Saturday morning ready to walk the 12km round loop to the Figure 8 Rock Pools.

Myself and Kemp left Campbelltown early to head to Sutherland to grab the rest of the group, before heading into the Royal National Park. We parked at Otford, grabbed our things and began the walk.

I always hate the first 20 minutes of a hike, especially when it's cold. I'm usually running on pure caffeine, little sleep and it's hard to get motivated when all you want to do is sleep. Once the wall is broken though, it's always great. I love the scenery and the challenge, and it's always great to chat and catch up with friends.

The Burning Palms walk is a pretty simple walk through lush green forest to the beach. The waves crash against the cliffs below, the wind blowing and making the trees sound like chimes. When you reach the bottom, you hit a long stretch of sand at Burning Palms beach in one direction, with the rock pool the other. This time though, nature would conspire to make sure we couldn't see the Figure 8 pools.

The sea was so fierce, the waves crashing all the way across the rocky path we were going to cross. It caused us to change our original plan and instead we just sat by the sea, reading, talking and grabbing food to eat. The sun was out so we soaked in as much as we could.

The last half of the walk starts with an intense hill climb. It's about 20-30 minutes to get to the top and it isn't easy, but once you reach the top, it's smooth sailing. The last 5km of the trek is basically a long 4WD/Fire Trail and it provides a respite from the usual hiking shennaningans.

We clocked this in about 4 hours or so, but it didn't matter how long or short it was, it was great to get back into the swing of things with some great friends.

Here's to the next one!

Brendan