I found a secret Aussie beach that looks like Thailand’s Maya Bay

Wedged between two rocky ledges, this beach is like a scene from a Hollywood film — but lucky for us, it’s right here on our shores.

“The first I heard of the beach was in Bangkok, on the Koh Sanh Road.”

So begins The Beach – the story of a group of backpackers who bribe fishermen and swim with their backpacks, island hopping across Thailand’s Koh Phi Phi archipelago in search of a mystical, unspoilt beach, where a community of intrepid travellers have started a secret community on a remote island.

Though they eventually find this Garden Of Eden, and enjoy a few perfect months there, it all goes Lord of the Flies in the end, with all sorts of intrigues, romantic scandals, drug running and food poisoning eventually ruining everything.

Speaking of food and flies, I recently got back from doing the Murramarang South Coast Walk – a three day hike in NSW, starting at Pretty Beach and finishing in Batemans Bay.

Along the way, I found my very own capital B Beach. While it might not have had fields of marijuana growing on one side and a brooding group of cooler-than-thou backpackers on the other, finding it was the closest kind of adventure I’ve ever had to what I read about in The Beach.

Maya Bay, the Ko Phi Phi cove made famous by Danny Boyle directed film, The Beach.

I first saw MY beach on a helicopter ride home from the Australian Alps (tough gig, I know), with the deep blue water of the Pacific leaving me entranced as it turned turquoise, light green and then a frothy shade of white as it entered the bright yellow bay of sand.

Protected by two headlands, the water was as calm as a splayed out ‘roo at midday, sheltered from the summer nor-east sea breeze.

Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Le, is where the 2000 film The Beach, based on the 1996 novel The Beach, was filmed.

There was a creek at the southern end and a spooky looking forest full of gnarled trees, misshapen from the nutrient poor soil, behind it. Unfortunately, within seconds it was gone.

Once home, I lay tormented, regretting the fact I hadn’t been able to make a note of where, exactly, this stretch of sand was, especially as I was booked in to do a hike in this region a few weeks later.

Moments before the big reveal …

I searched on Google Maps, but was unable to find the exact beach I had seen, with the only named beaches I could find online in that area on Google Maps being Maloneys Beach and North Head Beach.

The view from the helicopter.

Because of this, I set off with the exact location of The Beach a mystery. A vision in a dream.

After hiking about 32km, over three days on the Murramarang South Coast walk (which goes for a total of 34km), and after numerous false alarms (there were plenty of beseeching bays, with each new cove teasing me into thinking it might be The One) I finally, with just a couple of kilometres left of the walk, found myself staring out at The Beach.

On my way to The Beach, I saw plenty of kangaroos.

Of course: it was the last beach of the hike (before Maloneys, the beach the hike ends on).

A cathartic (more for the blistered toes than the soul) swim ensued, and my partner and I revelled in paradise, feeling like the only people in the entire world, until a rock fisherman popped up, and made us glad we hadn’t decided to skinny-dip.

Pebbly Beach (left) and Durras (right) were both beautiful. But neither was The One.

Just like the famous ‘beach’ from The Beach, however, reality is never quite as Windows Screen Saver-y as your dreams. Unlike the cerulean colours of the day of the helicopter, when we got to The Beach, there was an onshore southerly wind, and the water was dark green. There were also clumps of seaweed (so much for the Koh Phi Phi vibes). Oh, and I definitely didn’t nail the Leonardo DiCaprio in 2000 smouldering look …

"When you order your tropical beach (and Leonardo DiCaprio) off Wish."

The moral of the story? Everything looks better from a bird’s eye view. And – cliche as it sounds – it’s not about the destination, it’s the journey. In the end I enjoyed the walk to The Beach a lot more than my time at The Beach. But I still reckon it’d be great – if you catch it on a nice day.

Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from film The Beach'. Picture: Supplied

Oh and if walking 30 plus kays isn’t for you, you can always park at Maloneys (the end of the Murramarang Walk) and walk there in about 15 minutes.

Either that or maybe you could bribe a friendly fisherman to charter you around. Beach vibes eat your heart out.

This article originally appeared on Escape and has been republished with permission