Narooma is surrounded by many beautiful beaches so Pooles Beach might not have made it on to your must visit list. It’s gorgeous yes, but so are the rest of them.
What makes Pooles Beach special though is its series of secret blue rockpools. We found them on a bit of a scouting mission and it’s fair to say you are highly unlikely to share them with anyone else.
The water is crystal clear and the surrounding cliffs and rocks add a picturesque backdrop. Here’s how to find them.
The walk to the Pooles Beach Rockpools
The stats
Distance: 720m each way
Elevation gain: 70m
Difficulty: Easy
Trailhead: Pooles Beach Car Park
Summary: There is one staircase on route to the rockpools, but otherwise the walk is pretty much flat.
The terrain is predominantly rocky, so you don’t want to attempt it barefoot. There are two small bits of rock wall to climb over, but otherwise the walk is leisurely.
I would recommend using water shoes to get into and out of all the pools. I didn’t and sorely wished I did!
Safety info: tide & swell
I would say the best tide to visit on is mid tide, but we’ve been a few times and low tide is also fine.
You also need a swell reading that is ‘slight’. If you have really great conditions you can stretch the window from mid tide to an hour or so closer towards high tide.
Rocks provide some protection from the swell, but you still want a slight reading to lower the risk of large waves entering the pools (which can happen on any tide but is less likely when the swell is slight).
You can see the 5 day tide and swell forecast here (Pooles Beach does not have its own forecast but Mystery Bay is very close by).
Keep them wild
Please remember to take all rubbish with you and keep these places wild and pristine - as with anywhere in the outdoors. It’s important to leave them exactly as you found them so they will remain beautiful for generations to come.
Litter tends to breed litter, so if you do spot any and are able to pick it up and dispose of it outside the area, it will go a long way to keeping the area clean.
Please remember to wear reef safe sunscreen to protect the marine life inside the pool.
The Walk
To pool one
From the Pooles Beach car park (full parking details below) you head down the wide well maintained stairs to the beach.
You’ll hit the sand after 50m and turn left, making your way along the beach towards the rocks.
It will become pebbly at the 200m mark and from here you’ll definitely want shoes on. After another 80m you will reach the rock platforms which have very sharp rock, though it’s no problem unless you’re barefoot.
The first pool is located 50m along the rock platform and it’s the most exposed to the waves. Unfortunately for us each time we visited it was very windy but on a calmer day this pool would be fantastic.
Swimming at pool one
The first pool is large and crystal clear. It doesn’t look as clear in the photos as it actually is as the wind created constant ripples.
But trust me, it’s a vibrant blue (the water colour is better at mid tide than when our photos are taken at low tide) and clear all the way through to the glorious sandy bottom.
Getting into the water is quite easy as there’s a large shelf in the middle which you can step off. The water is deep here even at low tide but gets shallower towards the back of the pool, another reason to go at mid tide!
Either way you can still have a swim and the cliff wall behind the pool is an impressive backdrop.
Onto pool two - my favourite!
The second pool is just 90m beyond the first and this is your classic, fully enclosed rockpool. To reach it continue heading along the rock shelf and you will come to a little bit of rock wall to climb over 20m later.
This is an easy climb up of just two steps then you traverse briefly before dropping back down to the beach.
The rockpool is now 50m away and located close to the ocean, requiring a bit more time on the sharp rocks, though it’s still very easy as there’s no clambering involved, you’re just walking across the platform.
Swimming in rockpool number two
This rockpool is pretty much perfect. It’s small (though larger than it looks in photos) but the water is deep and so incredibly blue.
It’s two tone, with a deep indigo and a pale turquoise and the clarity is excellent. It’s full of little fish so please remember if you need to wear sunscreen to make sure that it’s reef safe.
Entering the water is also easy as you can step off the rock shelf into shallow water at the edge before it instantly deepens.
For me, the water colour here was one of the best I’ve seen and we went early morning and late in the afternoon - neither of which is the time to go for great water colour, so I can only imagine it at midday!
The pool colour in the early morning light
There are no rocks or weed through the main part of the pool, so you can have a proper swim in the deep water.
The rock walls protect it from the swell and I didn’t experience waves inside the water either time we visited (on a slight swell).
It really is a case of small but perfectly formed.
Onto pool three
Roughly 80m from pool two you will pass through a gap in the rocks and come out onto a small beach.
After crossing the sand you’ll come to another little rock wall to climb over which is roughly 100m away. Again it’s straightforward and the rock is grippy when dry.
You then need to continue along the rock shelf for a further 100m to the next pool.
The pool is not fully enclosed by rock walls, so it’s more affected by incoming waves of which there were some even on a slight swell.
All were small and none were anything to worry about, but if you prefer as close to no waves as possible, you would need a low wave height (my guess would be below 1m).
There are a few rocks around the edge as you enter the pool but then it’s large and unobstructed for swimming.
Alas it too was very windy (only my favourite rockpool had some protection from the wind) so again you probably won’t see just how clear the water is but it was stunning. It’s very deep and there’s plenty of room to swim.
At this point we turned back but you could continue exploring further along the beach if you wanted a longer walk.
Getting to the Pooles Beach trailhead
The Pooles Beach car park is located close to Mystery Bay, around a 10 minute drive from Narooma. You can see the exact location on Google maps here. The final 1.1km of the road is unsealed but in excellent condition and suitable for any car at time of writing. There are no facilities at the car park or anywhere along the trail.
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