Any visitor to Sandon – who’s come from the Brooms Head direction – will see the village on the south side of Sandon River and wonder how in the world you get there, because clearly there isn’t a bridge!

Sandon Village is pretty unique in this regard. The number of non-4WD vehicles in Sandon Village is exactly zero, because the only way to get there is along the Sandon Back Trail from Illaroo to the south. This trail takes in a stretch of beach, so that is serious 4WD access.

Anyway, Sandon Village backs on to Clay Head, and as you’d imagine in a place that’s legitimately challenging to reach. Clay Head is a lovely, lonely, and spooky-but-in-a-nice-way place.

The coves beneath Clay Head are jagged but picturesque affairs with grassy foreshores and pebbly beaches, and when the headland eventually spills down to the south-facing back beach, you can still feel vulnerable and humbled by one of the more rugged and desolate stretches of Clarence coast.