Solitary Islands Coastal Walk - Korora to Sawtell

 

 

Day 3 was the shortest section, and we cruised in to Sawtell in time for an early afternoon tea. 

 

As well as Coffs Harbour jetty area, we encountered the following beaches: Diggers Beach, Charlesworth Bay Beach, Park Beach, North Wall Beach, Jetty Beach, Gallows Beach, Boambee Beach, Murrays Beach, and Sawtell Beach.

Here's one of those whales we were seeing a lot of. They're awfully hard to photograph.

 

Boambee Beach is a bit of a challenge. It's long, and you have to share it with cars, and with racehorses. There's also the airport right next door.

Solitary Islands Coastal Walk - Red Rock to Woolgoolga

It's 60km of largely beach walking, with scenic headlands, little bits of rainforest, and the odd street section. We walked it from north to south, Red Rock to Sawtell, over three days, basing ourselves in Coffs Harbour. 

It's named for the string of lonely looking islands just off the coast. The scenery is great, specially if you like beaches. Or wildlife. We saw lots of whales, dolphins, eagles, kites, ospreys. Plus kangaroos and surfers galore.

 

We used a minibus taxi based in Woolgoolga to assist with our start from Red Rock.

 

Then it's off along our first beach: Red Rock Beach.

 

Other beaches today: Corindi, Arrawarra, Ocean View, Mullaway, Cabins, Darkum, Safety, and Woolgoolga.

 

 

 

 

A pair of White-bellied sea eagles

Remains of a shipwreck here. The Buster sank in 1893, and unexpectedly re-emerged out of the beach a few months ago.

Sawtell dinosaurs!

Yes, I know. Which ones are the dinosaurs? But that's not the point. We went looking for butterflies. They call  it the Coffs Harbour Butterfly House. And we found dinosaurs instead. And that's quite a bonus!

 

They put on this fun little dinosaur show, where they do indeed   link dinosaurs with butterflies. It was to do with amber-encased butterfly specimens, and how amber-encased dinosaur bits are going to really truly bring dinosaurs back to life.

 Hope so. It'll be fun!

Travelling north again

Last week we headed off up north for a week in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast. I like a good road trip, and we took our time, breaking our journey each ay, at Sawtell, and at Coffs Harbour. Sawtell has to be one of the very finest spots, though there are plenty of rivals.

At the Hoey Moey pub in Coffs Harbour I had my first proper pub dinner since the recent Covid lockdown easing in NSW. They were doing it here in a properly socially-distanced way. Not always the case, I've noticed.

Where are we indeed? This aeroplane-loving car passenger had been decidedly dubious about such a big road trip. Then, several hours into the journey, wonder of wonders, there's the plane! She ran over to inspect it, and alas, it's only painted on the side of a truck. Which drove off. She'd missed the flight after all!

The Queensland border was to be a challenge. It was still closed, despite neither NSW nor Queensland having had any community-transmission Covid cases for quite a while. But there were exemptions, such as attendance at a funeral, and we made it through.

A day or two later it all changed at the border. They started a 'search-and-repel' policy for Victorians, that state having suddenly experienced an enormous Covid uptick. We noticed on the return journey that the queue had massively expanded, and northbound drivers were no longer being waved through.