Coff's Harbour, NSW

Coff’s Harbour,

Heading north for Boambee Bay Resort we stopped for a short while at Port Macquarie. Port Macquarie was settled in 1821, making it one of the oldest penal colonies outside of Sydney. We took the Port Macquarie Coastal Walk from the beach to its rocky shores, which are alive with rich biodiversity. It was also nice to stretch our legs.

Resuming our journey we arrived at Boambee Bay later that afternoon. Our unit was 2bds, 2bths, comfortable and very spacious. We unloaded our luggage and made our way to the grocery store. On our return we went to the Indian Restaurant on site for dinner. The food was very good and no cooking involved on Barbara’s part.

Saturday morning Jim phoned his friends Malcolm and Ros and they arranged to pick us up on Sunday. They took us on a lovely tour of the local area followed by a swim and lunch at Mal’s Golf Club. The Bonville Golf Club is most impressive. It was green and manicured, beautiful shrubs, amazing clubhouse and delicious food in the restaurant. Apart from the lovely lagoon like pool it also has tennis courts. This is an internationally renowned course and equally as good as Banff Springs or perhaps even Augusta and no Roos. After lunch we went back to see their house on the hill. What amazing views, both to the ocean and across the mountains behind. They bought this ramshackle abode at an auction and totally transformed it into a magnificent home and lush paradise. They have almost every kind of fruit trees that you can imagine and no lawn to mow. The birds, as you can see, love it here. They also have a bird feeder for a close up view.

We arranged to see them again for dinner at their house on Tuesday and then they joined us for an Indian meal at Boambee Bay on Thursday.

Our dinner on Tuesday was a delicious BBQ’d chicken, one of Mal’s specialties while Ros prepared scrumptious potatoes, salad etc. More birds outside joined us, their very dear friends and neighbours came for dinner and we all had a wonderful evening.

In between seeing Mal & Ros we managed two tennis matches, one swim in the pool and whilst swimming, we were pounded by a tropical downpour. What the heck we were wet anyway!!!

We also took a drive to see more of the coast and some of the countryside. We stopped first at North Beach, Mylestom and had coffee by the river where it converges with the ocean. Onward we went to Ungara and walked the boardwalk to the ocean and through the mangroves. This was very interesting and must have been a monumental task to complete.

After leaving Ungara we drove toward Dorrigo via Bellingen. It started to pour with rain and as we headed higher up the mountain along Waterfall Way???? it became torrential and the cloud was so low it was like thick fog. We were in the rainforest, so what did we expect????

After reaching Dorrigo and the rain deluging the town, we opted to stay dry in the car. Somehow, possibly through lack of visibility, we took a wrong turn going miles out of our way and ending up in Grafton. We drove through very narrow mountain roads, with loose cattle free ranging here and there and you didn’t know where here or there would be. Although the scenery was magnificent and it was an experience to behold, we were glad to see Grafton, pick up the Pacific Highway and get back to our resort. Sadly, after all the torrential rain that this area suffered over the following several days, it culminated with major flooding and two people drowned in the floodwaters.

We said goodbye to Coff’s Harbour, in yet another downpour and made our way to the “Big Banana”. It is situated on the highway and is apparently the most photographed landmark in all of Australia, even more so than the Sydney Harbour Bridge if you can believe that one. We also stopped at Moonee Beach, not to be missed according to our friends, but it was truly not at its best. Without a doubt it would be beautiful on a nice day.

Heading further north the rain worsened and we found out later that it was a tropical cyclone. We stopped for coffee at a little restaurant beside the Clarence River, at Maclean. When Jim asked the lady if the river would flood she said “it is not if, it is when”. Hence all of the rivers from Coff’s Harbour north to the Gold Coast have flooded. We were impeded on our way by fallen trees on the highway but eventually cruised into the Esplanade at Burleigh Heads to our next resort where the weather looked more promising…………………..