Samurai Beach Camping - Nudity Optional
Forget about Stockton, I officially have a new favorite 4WD beach in New South Wales...
Because just a little further up Gan Gan Road is the spectacular Samurai Beach which still allows camping. As if that isn’t special enough, this beach also allows nudity. Needless to say, that was all the information my girlfriend Lily and I needed to decide to pack up her TRD Hilux and kick our cold offices on a long weekend Friday afternoon.
We started the drive from Sydney in high spirits on Saturday morning, even through the crawling holiday traffic that made up the M1 freeway.
The access track to Samurai Beach is a sneaky track between the Middle Rock Holiday Resort and the Treescape Holiday Park. This is a 4WD track with a distanced of about 2kms. I’d recommend dropping the tyre pressure before you head in as the soft sand can get pretty chewed up on a busy day, however the track isn’t a ‘tough’ one, and the TRD breezed in and out in 2WD most of the weekend.
The track winds through some beautiful bush scenery before you emerge onto the wide open sand dune. This is where you really need to put your foot down and hold onto your jiggly bits so as to get through the soft sand but once you’re over the dune you will be rewarded with the beautiful sprawling beach in front.
The beach here caters to many outdoor activities, and cruising along with the windows down we passed keen 4WDers, fishermen and surfers, but unlike Stockton, we did not find crowds. Perhaps that has something to do with the friendly nudists also spending their long weekend in the sand.
That didn’t bother us, we loved the uninhibited vibe in the salty air. We also loved that the nudity had obviously deterred most of your long weekend family camper types, and we certainly weren’t complaining about the lack of noisy children about. The Northern end of the beach hides the camping area which is nicely tucked behind a sand dune, but is still close enough to hear the crashing waves from your tent. There are no amenities on site, and phone reception is sketchy, so you need to be self-sufficient.
As the Hilux creeped up the sand dune we expected the worst. Would we even get a camp site? There's no booking here, it's first in best dressed, sites aren’t marked and it was a long weekend. We would have been devastated.
Alas! We got lucky, there were only about 6 other campers and we scored a beautiful spot in the back corner. It was a good sign of an amazing weekend to follow.
Now although Lily and I are no strangers to remote camping sans amenities, we both agree that you never really have to “slum it”. So we headed into Nelson Bay to pick up a few necessities for the evening from the famous Fisherman’s Wharf Seafood.
We set up for the evening atop the sand dune overlooking the campground and the beach which served as a perfect backdrop to enjoy our 5 star dinner. You can keep your fancy restaurants....
After a (fair) few glasses of bubbly the cameras made an appearance and we spent the evening dancing to Lily’s sweet playlist by the crackling fire. I think the photos captured just how utterly magical it was.
I highly recommend climbing that sand dune if you are a sunset lover like us. Plus, it is a perfect spot to escape the campground humans.
Bright and early and feeling a little worse for wear we were up just in time to catch the sunrise. The local surfers were rolling in and we drank our iced coffees while nursing our hangovers in the crisp morning air all the while envious of the spring in each surfers step.
After a full day of swimming and 4WDing we chose to spend our last night by the beach.
With the TRD parked on the beach busting out the tunes we and the champagne flowing we did the only logical thing there was to do to finish a camping trip at a nude beach….
Our weekend at Samurai Beach was unforgettable. I cannot recommend this campsite enough, and will be returning many times to come.
Samurai Beach is a 2 and a half hour drive north of Sydney NSW.
4WD access only.
You do not need a permit to drive on the beach.
Camping is $free and no bookings are required.