IT’S 7:15am, showers are forecast and I’m sending my four-year-old up the toughest part of the new Tomaree Coastal Walk in Port Stephens, NSW. In her pink tracksuit, she’s a ball of bouncing bubblegum in a muted sage landscape. As all adventurous parents know, early morning is the best time to get little people out and about before hunger and exhaustion set in. But that’s not the only reason I’m joining locals jogging up Tomaree Head, a short but vigorous 2.2km (return) Grade 5 trail in Tomaree National Park. I’m heading out on my first self-guided multi-day walk and I have 27km in front of me.
The $6.7 million Tomaree Coastal Walk is a fabulous initiative by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). The trail is part of a project to create a network of NSW Great Walks, which includes the Murramarang South Coast Walk (read about it at ). Of the Tomaree Coastal
