Royal National Park
The Royal National Park offers very different landscapes and vegetation. It lies on sandstone hills that break off a few hundred meters down to the coast. They are mostly covered by eucalyptus forests with a wealth of species. Centrally, deeply cut, the Hacking River runs through the park, which flows into the seawater of Port Hacking at Audley. This rugged bay offers protection from the open sea. The water at Bundeena is very shallow and is home to an extensive mangrove forest . There are a few beaches and lagoons on the open coast to the Tasman Sea. Most of them can only be reached on foot via the coastal footpath. Wattamolla can be approached and offers ample picnic and barbecue facilities. In the southeast the forest merges into the subtropical rainforest of the Illawarra Escarpment, in which there are also palm trees.