When long weekends roll around, it’s never easy to pick a destination that won’t be riddled with tourists, selfie sticks and the worst of the bunch, slow walkers.

Regardless, we decided to tackle the traffic and head up the coast to Bouddi National Park to give the coastal walk a try.

If you haven’t been, here are a few tips for first-timers:

• If it’s rained recently, there will be plenty of mud. And by plenty I mean wear gumboots.
• Sections of the track are also covered in clay.
• Consider packing a tent, the campground at Putty Beach is small, but very nice.
• The public toilets there stink.
• Park on the side of the road before entering the gates, it’s free.
• It’s 8km from Putty Beach to Macmasters, so remember that you’ll have to double that if you’re doing a return trip. (This seems obvious, but for some, it’s not)
• Keep your eyes peeled for enormous ants nests. And don’t stand on top of them.

We found a spot to park before entering the National Park gates at Putty Beach campground (saving us a total of $8), and walked along the road until we reached the beach.

When you reach the sand, walk toward the headland and up the wooden steps to start the 8km walk.

At the top of the steps, we reached our first (of many) obstacle courses: a mud pit.

Don’t be disheartened, the mud stops around the corner where there’s a  long wooden boardwalk that lines the coast.

Once you reach the turn off to Bullimah beach, you’ll have to track back into the bush and through a few muddy trails, until you reach some steps that lead up to Gerrin Point Lookout.

We continued a little further around, said G’day to a little goanna, and reached a sticky section of wet clay, where we pretty much said, “Yeah, nah,” and turned back to sit on a cliff and catch the sea sprays.

Putty Beach makes for a great spot to watch the sun set in the afternoon. You’ll see a lot of people chasing their dogs around the beach, just keep in mind the beach actually has signs that read ‘Dogs Prohibited’ everywhere, but #Straya, so who cares.

So, is it worth it? Hell yeah.

Oh, and this happened.

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