Sunday July 11 - birds, whales and fire on the water

Up early at Diamond Head for another walk along the beach to watch the sunrise - rewarded by a spectacular fiery display reflected in the shallows as the waves receded. A visual feast and suitable compensation for such an early start. Out at the split rock sun warmed the colours of the east facing cliffs while the west was dark and cold, an interesting contrast.

Heading back to camp we found a newly constructed trail through the coastal heathlands and followed it until it ended at a part-built whale watching platform. I was surprised at the variety of wildflowers scattered amongst the grasses even though it is midwinter. A young magpie watched us carefully as we walked past the paperbark where he was perched and there was the usual cacophony of birdsong as we strolled back for breakfast. Returning to the campsite we came across wallabies chewing on the grass and scratching and stretching - much like their human counterparts who were also starting to get ready for another day.

After donating a few more $ to National Parks, we continued on, stopping at Kylie's beach for a look and then to Crowdy Bay lighthouse. As we drove along the bush tracks we seemed to be herding flocks of friar birds and lorikeets, there were dozens flying beside and in front of us for kilometres.

Crowdy Bay lighthouse crouches at the top of the headland, a squat, rounded shape rather different to the usual tall structures built to house shipping's guiding lights. A surprise sighting of whales blowing and breaching as they travelled up the coast kept us entertained for a while, until the pressure of time sent us on our way south again.

Back on highway 1 the scenery wasn't quite as interesting until we turned inland through the rural paddocks and marsh areas where I could spend time spotting waterbirds. Then the New England highway and the familiar roads back home. Gave the Fiat a quick scrub up and changed the sheets for the handover to the youngsters later this week. It's off to Tassie for the travelling holiday house and we get the 4WD and a tent if we are heading off into the bush again anytime soon.

Saturday July 10 - sunrise, sunset...

Couldn't resist an early morning walk to the point for sunrise - and it was worth the effort. The birds were waking and the banksias were full of early morning noises. We watched the dolphins play in the surf for a while and spotted an early morning fisherman as he risked a cold bath to scramble down the steep rocks to his favourite spot.

Breakfast with a view of the beach - not a bad start to the weekend. The campsite is full of surfers and anglers, most of them look as though they have been coming here since the 70s and we were hoping that we hadn't stopped in anyone's favourite campsite.

The beach offered an easy walk around the bay, so we wandered along, watching the surfers, sanderlings and dolphins and trying to identify myriad small birds that darted in and out of the coastal scrub. Fishermen had boats and nets waiting on the sand for the next school of mullet and a teenager sat huddled against the dunes, having been dropped in the water from a boat about 100m out and told to swim ashore - I can't help but wonder what the story was...

Back at the camp and after coffee and some lemon slice (homemade because we have an abundance of lemons on the tree and absolutely delish if I might say so myself :-) we went back to the headland for some more exploring.

The views were quite different further around the point and we saw lots more birds as we walked. Brown quail and grassbirds, lewins and new holland honeyeaters and little wattlebirds were everywhere. A sea eagle soared above, king parrots and rainbow and scaly breasted lorikeets looked down from the high branches. The bird list would be too long to add here, suffice to say it was hard to remember them all when we got back to camp and I relied on photos to remind me.

Too early for lunch, so we decided to go back to the Melaleuca campsite and walk the big hill track before lunch. This is a great little walk up through coastal rainforest (ugh, had a leech latch on to my leg) and then around the point just in from the cliffs. We came across a kestrel, all fluffed up and sunning him (or her) self on a lichen covered rock at the lookout area. We walked quite close before it flew away. More honeyeaters and lorikeets chatted away to us on the way back down to the camper.

The campsite was closed and we didn't fancy the idea of negotiating the potholes again, so we had lunch at Crescent Head and then drove south down the coast road from Port Macquarie to Crowdy Bay National Park and the Diamond Head campsite.

We arrived in time to set up the camper and have a soothing glass of red before we walked out to the point at split rock just on sunset. A sea eagle watched us and a sooty oystercatcher sat out on the rocks near the shore. No rain tonight so we ate outdoors and enjoyed the cool, calm winter night.

Friday July 9 - heading for the coast

we left after lunch for a trip down the Oxley highway to the coast. I had forgotten how many bends are in that road! It's not really fun once it is dark and raining and the wet weather kept up as we drove to Crescent Head and down to Limeburners Nature Reserve. The road into Point Plomer camping area has LOTS of potholes - enough said. We thought the wet weather may have made it worse than usual, but the old surfers we met the next day say it's always been that way...

Arrived, paid our dues and set up camp just as the heavens opened - thank goodness for instant housing and a pre-cooked meal. It was snug inside and we hoped the weather would improve for the morning... and it did - see above!

on the road again...

So - we've been home for almost a month - it must be time to hit the road again... a weekend away to air out the travelling apartment before the kids take it on a boat ride and a wintertime tour of Tasmania.

The coast sounds enticing as there's been record low temperatures inland, a week or so ago we woke to a front paddock with frost so thick that it looked like a ski field (no photos though, it was too warm in bed!) and there have been snowfalls in the Barrington Tops, so the plan is to head up to Limeburners NP and do some walks in the coastal scrublands. Looking forward to some beaches as well, though not for swimming. Pack camera (tick), beanie, scarf, gloves (tick, tick, tick) dust off the walking boots, find the binoculars, a jug of wine, a loaf of bread...