Coronation by foot

Countless times I've driven that road down to Coronation Beach. In the old days it was a hell dirt road with nasty corrugations. In fact one of the funniest acts of vandalism I've seen was when someone replaced the roadsign on the highway with one that read "Corrugation Bitch Road" - too right!!
These days it's fully sealed to the campsite/carpark and a pretty easy stroll. It's 8km each way from the highway, so certainly in the distance stakes for our training walks. Sally and Sheridan have joined me in the walking campaign, as they are planning on heading off to the Flinders Ranges this winter. Sheridan came up with the plan to park at the highway, walk to the beach, have a snack on the new viewing platform then walk back.
We set off at 8:30am. Being Sunday, every man and his dog was on the road heading to South Corros for a surf, as well as the campers heading off, but Hazel was pretty good at keeping out of the way. The creeks have all got water in them, and the farmers have begun seeding so there's a wonderful landscape of freshly ploughed fields interspersed with verdant green. Not something we see alot of around here!
The walk is pleasant, with a few small climbs, and views over the bare fields to the flat-topped hills to the east. Lots of new greenery sprouting up along the road verges, as well as some dangerously deep ditches caused by all the runoff from the recent rains. Rounding that corner up the top of the last sanddune and looking down on the sets rolling in is a real treat for the walker. Usually you're concentrating on the winding road when driving, or counting how many people are already on the water and how powered up they are.
The lookout is a real asset to Coro's. It's got seats halfway up as well as in the gazebo at the very top. I reckon my hammock would fit pretty nicely indeed up there. Of course that's only halfway, we still had to walk back, up that hill which was a good heart starter and back to the highway. A breeze had kicked in by then so it wasn't hot, though Hazel was feeling it being closer to the heat radiating off the hard top. Luckily there was water in the creek near the farmhouse so she got down and dirty as only a dog can!! Don't think we'll do the walk again, not really enough scenery (though maybe that's because we've all driven that road so many times we're jaded), and we'd probably pick a weekday when there's less traffic.

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