If you’re thinking about going to the beautiful, naturally perfect Figure 8 Pools in Sydney at The Royal National Park, make sure you read this post before you go.
There’s loads of things you 100% need to know about the Figure of 8 Pools in The Royal National Park, otherwise you might waste your time trying to get to them.
1. Are you looking to do a tour to Figure 8 Pools from Sydney?
If you’d prefer someone to take you to the Figure 8 Pools so you don’t need to plan any of the Sydney tides times or logistics about how to get there, then check out a Figure 8 Pool Tour from Sydney with Get Your Guide.
They’ll pick you up right in the middle of Sydney CBD and will take you right to the Figure 8 Pools before anyone else gets there so you can get an awesome photo.
2. How Busy is Figure of 8 Pools in Royal National Park?
Back in 2016, the Figure 8 Pool became so popular, it was actually quite dangerous to visit because people didn’t plan their trip properly.
Remember it being on the news when hundreds of people flocked to the Royal National Park to see the incredibly perfect eight-shaped natural rock pool to get their Instagram pic?
But without a care in the world, most got injured along the way due to not bothering to research Figure 8 Pool tide times.
I remember a work colleague showed me his beaten up torso from being taken under by the waves from this Figure 8 Pools walk.
It looked like this hike was going to be a bit on the dangerous side which is why we put it off and we’re not too much of a fan to visit somewhere where hundreds of people are going to be lining up for a photo.
But because time had passed and Instagram fads come and go as quickly as fast fashion changing, we thought maybe it wouldn’t be so busy now. And we were pretty much right!
3.Check the Figure 8 Pool tide times and swell
This is the most important step before you even think about going to the Figure 8 Pools because if you just go on a whim, you’ll more than likely have wasted your time.
Make sure you plan this ahead because the tide and swell need to be under 1m. I’m no tide or swell expert at all, hell, this was the first time I’ve ever checked the tides but it’s pretty easy to figure out.
Just find out when the tide is at its lowest at Burning Palms Beach here. And for the swell just go onto BOM and if it says “hazardous surf conditions” don’t go.
We arrived when the tide was at its lowest in the morning, so we had to calculate how long it was going to take for the following;
How to calculate the tide and swell times to visit Figure 8 Pools in Sydney
1. How long to actually drive to the car park at Gunwarra Farm? For us it was just over an hour from our home in Cammeray (North Sydney).
2. How long was it then going to take to actually hike to the pools? Again, it took just over an hour at a slow walking pace and stopping for photos.
3. What time would we actually get to the pools and it still be low tide? We got there around 9am which was 2 hours before the tide would start rising again.
4. How long would we spend at the pools before heading back and it still being low tide? The section between Burning Palms beach and the pools (20 minute hike section) is the dangerous part as that’s where you’ll be climbing over rocks and you need to make sure the tide is still low. We actually spent an hour at the pools before returning back.
4. How to plan a visit the Figure Eight Pools
Use our timings as an example of how to plan your trip to Figure Eight Pools. Obviously you’ll need to match up the swell and Figure 8 Pools tide times before you go.
- Leave home 6:45am
- Get to car park 7:45am
- Get to the Figure 8 Pool 8:45am
- Leave Figure 8 Pool 10:00am
- Get back to the Burning Palms Beach in safety and away from any chance of freak waves dragging us into the water or tides being high at 10:20am.
- 11am tide would be getting high again
When you’re on the hike, it’s obvious NSW National Parks have done their best to help people with their safety. There’s loads of pictures and signs along the way with what can happen with the tides and waves.
When you head down to the beach, there’s a good sign showing you whether you can continue on or not with pictures of it being safe with the tide or not safe with the tide.
If you can’t work out if it’s safe, I would turn back.
5. Only wear hiking boots To Figure 8 Pools in Sydney
When we went on this hike, I couldn’t believe how many people were wearing thongs. This actually doesn’t surprise me on how many people must get injured when they set out to find the Figure of 8 Pools.
This is a hike, not a quick walk to the beach. I wouldn’t even recommend trainers because you’ll be walking down a hill (and back up on the return) which is in the bush so it’s not on the street FYI or just like a stroll down to Bondi.
You’ll then spend 20 minutes climbing over rocks to get to the pools and rocks aren’t always fixed so a sprained ankle can easily happen. I actually hurt my ankle jumping down a very small ledge and it wasn’t fun hobbling back on those moving rocks.
6. Bring enough water
When we went at 7:45am, it was so hot on this hike, I couldn’t believe it. I took my swimmers with me but didn’t think I’d actually be going into the pool really as I just thought it would be quite cold at that time of the day, but I was wrong.
Always pack more water than you need regardless of whether you can be arsed carrying it because this is an hour’s hike, not a 10 minute walk.
7. How to find the car park for the Figure 8 Pools
I can’t believe how many times I would have driven down this road not to have known the turn off to the start of this trek was there.
You just need to head towards the Garie Beach (one of my favourite beaches in Sydney) and as soon as you turn off Sir Bertrams Stephen’s Drive and onto the Garie Road, take the first right immediately onto Garrawarra Farm Road.
After about 5 minutes until you get to the end which is a car park, you’ll find rubbish bins and porta-loos here.
If you’re coming on public transport, you’ll need to take the train to Otford. But I’ve not done this so I can’t advise the route sorry!
There’s no toilets or rubbish bins along the way so it’s important you take your rubbish with you. I had read other blogs of people seeing loads of rubbish when they went but thankfully there wasn’t any there on our hike.
When we arrived at the car park, there were probably about 20 cars or so. I couldn’t believe it. We honestly thought there might have been about 3 but nope, it looked like the pools were still popular and more and more cars were turning up as we arrived
8. Is the hike to Figure 8 Pools hard?
I’d always heard this was going to be a hard and long hike although I read another post about it taking just an hour so I was prepared for everything. Although it said it was a 7KM return hike, you just don’t know how long that might take.
As we set off through the bush, it started to decline quite quickly. The decline isn’t steep but yes it is downhill. I’d read that it was really steep, it’s not. As I have my trusted Garmin 235 watch, I always time my hikes so I know exactly how long it will take us and for reassurance along the way!
It took us 40 minutes to get to the bottom to Burning Palms Beach which is absolutely beautiful. It’s really easy to navigate and you’ll more than likely see other people along the way.
You’ll see some houses there which always fascinates me in The Royal National Park that you can live so remotely right in Sydney. You’d have to walk a good 40 minutes back to your car – imagine the food shopping trips?
Once you get to the beach, walk right to the end on the right where you’ll come to the cliff edge. This is where the climbing over the rocks begins. It took us 20 minutes to climb over the rocks but it’s incredible. The view is amazing and we were in complete awe.
9. How did we find the Figure 8 Pool?
You’ll know when you get to the pool because there will most likely be someone standing there. When we arrived there were a good 10 people or so there at the same time which was fine for us. I was expecting a lot more.
Once you climb over the rocks which are directly next to the ocean, hence why there are so many accidents when people go at the wrong time of day, you’ll come to an open part of rocks where there are quite a few pools but not too many that you can’t find the Figure 8 Pool.
We dumped our stuff and headed over to the pool. The pool is pretty small so don’t expect anything spectacular but it’s quite amazing at the perfect 8 shape. There’s other pools right next to it to explore as well.
I had my Canon 6D with me and straight away I was asked by some tourists to take their photo. Before I knew it, freak waves came crashing over and I had to leg it as I had my big camera on me. I couldn’t believe it. It went from being all calm to suddenly mental and it was still low tide!!
But, it calmed down and we were able to go out quickly and get a few shots. This is where you’ll need to be careful, the water can change very quickly.
10. The actual best part of this hike
But the actual location is what did it for me. You really feel like you are away from it all, like you have come to a magical hideaway (just with other people as well!). I haven’t seen anyone actually talk about how beautiful this hike is. The walk down with the morning sun glistening on the water is incredible.
The climb though the rocks made us feel so small but in awe of the beauty and now the rock pools were just insanely stunning.
To me, I wouldn’t write home about the actual Figure 8 Pool because I think most like myself was expecting something a lot bigger. It was the beauty surrounding it that made it special.
11. Break up the hike on the way back
On the way back, after a 20 minute hike back through the cliffs and rocks, we stopped off at Burning Palms Beach and chilled out there for an hour. You just need to make sure you get back to that beach whilst the tide is low and once that is done, you can just chill out on the beach and enjoy the rest of the day.
It was then a 40 minute hike back up to the car afterwards.
We actually saw a lot of people heading down to the pools whilst we were on our way back up the hill and all I thought was, you obviously haven’t checked the tides because high tide is coming right now.
12. Watch Our Figure 8 Pools Video
Make sure you watch our Figure 8 Pools video before you go on this Royal National Park walk first.
13. Other Places To Visit Nearby
There are loads of things to do in Royal National Park and in the nearby Stanwell Tops and Wollongong area. We recommend checking out our favourite Royal National Park walks and swimming spots in the Royal National Park such as: Karloo Pools, Olympic Pools, Winifred Falls or the nearby Kellys Falls.
If you continue down from the Royal National Park, you could go and check out the popular Sea Cliff Bridge, the ghostly old Helensborough Tunnel, or hike to the amazing Macquarie Jump Rock.
There’s so many things to do in South Sydney, you’ll be coming back time and time again.
Make sure you check out the below guides before you head down to The Royal National Park!
15 Best Hiking & Camping Sydney Weekend Itineraries
15 Best Royal National Park Walks in Sydney
How to get to Wedding Cake Rock in Royal National Park
Best Things To Do In Wollongong
13 Figure 8 Pools Tips You Need To Know
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