Patonga

Patonga is a very small settlement in the Brisbane Water National Park, between the mouth of the Hawkesbury River and Broken Bay. It’s the southernmost beach and fishing port on the Central Coast.
 
We have never been to Patonga, so we set out today to explore it. We were puzzled to encounter several small convoys of cars travelling in the opposite direction, away from Patonga. Did they know something that we didn’t?
 
In fact this is a ferry stop. People park their cars near the wharf and take the ferry to Palm Beach, returning in the afternoon. Those who don’t drive get to the ferry by Government bus. We just happened to encounter the passengers from a couple of ferries. The ferry operates on Friday to Monday only.
 
You can just see the wharf behind the warning sign. Patonga itself has about 6 streets, a laid back hotel and restaurant and a couple of galleries. The road in is very narrow, tunnelled through bush and sandstone, with dizzying bends and warnings of falling rocks. Patonga beach is calm and sheltered from the ocean just a few kms to the east and in spite of the warning signs it seems very safe. All this feels very remote from the bustle and traffic just a few kms away, a quite different aspect of the Central Coast.
 
By the way, the trolley in the foreground is padlocked to the railing, one of a number thus strategically placed to help in bringing the catch ashore.