Port Macquarie Trip 2019, Days 6 & 7: Walking, walking, walking

When we come to Port Macquarie there are the things we always do, the new things we find, and the things we do occasionally. Most of the occasional ones are hinterland explorations, and checking out the many lovely little reserves in and around town. The things we always do include what we did on day 6, that is, the Coastal Walk followed by rewarding ourselves with lunch at Port Macquarie’s best restaurant (in our opinion anyhow.)

Coastal Walk

If you’ve read our Port Macquarie blogs before, you will be familiar with this walk. You can do it in either direction, or indeed as a round trip or as little sectional walks, but what we do is park in town opposite our lunch spot, then taxi out to Tacking Point Lighthouse and walk back in. The full walk is about 9km, but the restaurant occurs around the 7.5km mark (after climbing some 25 floors according to our walking apps).

So, this was the plan again for this holiday, except that the driver taking us out to the gorgeous lighthouse told us that he couldn’t take us right to the lighthouse as there were roadworks going on. It turned out that we couldn’t even walk in, resulting in our having to walk back up the road to one of the beach entrances in Sea Acres Rainforest and start our walk that way. In the end it was probably about the same distance, and the “new” walk in added something of interest to our walk’s beginning. However, sadly, it meant that we didn’t get the obligatory lighthouse photo, and we didn’t get to walk on the lovely little rocky beach (Little Bay Beach) at the foot of the lighthouse. We did walk all the other beaches though:

• Miners Beach: the unofficial nudist beach (and there were a couple of nudists hiding up the far end of the beach which is where the shyer ones, or perhaps just those who don’t want to be stared at usually go.)
• Shelly Beach: a long beach and one of the most popular beaches on the more southern end of the route because it’s accessible and less rocky. It is also where we are most likely to see critters (bush turkeys and goannas, but not today); it has some lovely public art; and it is famous for the local, late resident, Harry Thompson. Unofficial caretaker and artist, he looked after the reserve here. He created a lookout, a bush track of 254 hand carved steps, and some gorgeous bush furniture, which we have photographed in the past. Since his death, various works have been created to commemorate him, including a creative picnic table with King and Queen Chairs, an entrance archway at Harry’s Lookout, and a Spiral Path telling his story.
• Nobby’s Beach: the official dog-friendly beach which is always, always joyful, because there are always owners and happy, playful dogs here. One of the highlights of the walk.
• Flynn’s Beach: a popular surfers beach (for lean-to-surfers, we’re told). It has a lovely kiosk (the Sandbox) with covered seating. Being two-thirds of the way into our walk, or about half-way if you do the full 9kms, it’s a great spot for a quick rest and a cooling drink or cuppa.
• Oxley and Rocky Beaches: two beaches that we seem to walk past pretty quickly, but are pleasant too.
• Town Beach: another popular beach for board riders, and for Port people in general as it’s the closest to town. It has a very popular kiosk/cafe called Salty Crew. We have seen surfers here many times. It’s also where we leave the walk to go to Stunned Mullet.

This walk also takes us through parts of Sea Acres Rainforest, and across Windmill Hill Reserve, which was where Major Innes built a gristing mill in 1825. There is now a large public art work, commemorating it, which you’ll see in the photos.

Stunned Mullet

Or, the Stunned Wallet, as my mum likes to call it. Yes, it is expensive, but this is food of a high order, cooked and presented beautifully. I had a scampi entree, followed by venison (which I have most years we come here), and a gorgeous dessert of pineapple and coconut in various manifestations, while Len had an oh-so-pretty tomato entree, followed by a delicious wagyu beef, and then a chocolate-based dessert. The ambience captures the beach location, without being clichéd. We’re so glad that we weren’t disappointed on our farewell tour visit!

The rest of the day was spent quietly, but we did watch a DVD in the evening of a movie we didn’t see when it was released, Cry freedom. So glad I’ve finally seen it – but we were amazed at the youth of the actors. Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline and Penelope Wilton were barely recognisable! Haha. I guess that’s the difference 32 years makes!

Kooloonbung Creek Nature Park

Our big walk was Tuesday, so on Wednesday we decided potter around the Kooloonbung Creek Nature Park, which is on the edge of Port Macquarie’s CBD. It includes the historic cemetery, a small arboretum and some walking tracks. We walked through the arboretum, loving the wonderfully informative signs for the trees, down to the two walking tracks which comprise earth paths and boardwalks through a variety of ecosystems including mangroves, paperbark stands, the creek, and a large flying fox colony. The two walks are very easy level ones, and in combination are only around 3km, so it was an easy morning.

We saw (and heard) the flying foxes, heard many birds, and, at the end of the walk, saw an Eastern Water Dragon that is common to the area. Best, though, was that it was a very pleasant walk on another gorgeous 22°C day. We could take more of this but we know a cold weekend is coming that none of us in southeast Australia are going to escape.

Pottering around town

The rest of the day was spent lunching at LVs on Clarence, a casual breakfast and lunch place that we’ve visited before; checking out some shops, including a nicely stocked independent bookshop called Book Face that I don’t recollect seeing before; and playing, of course, a round of mini-golf. No holes in one today, however!