Narooma to Port Macquarie

It would be possible to drive from Narooma to Port Macquarie in one day. The first part of the drive along the NSW coast south of Sydney is a lot slower because the Princess Highway wends itself along the coast through many different towns. At Nowra you can then turn off and head through the Kangaroo Valley towards the Hume Freeway. This part of the drive is very pretty and takes you through some very green pastures and ye olde worlde villages, ideal for a spot of lunch or a coffee break. Once on the Hume Freeway you basically have fast roads all the way up to Port Macquarie. I did however break for the night in Newcastle, where an old friend of mine now lives and works. I didn't go right into the city centre, but stayed in the suburbs of Mayfield and Warratah, which are old style Australian suburbs with weatherboard bungalows, each with its front and back garden, which I find much nicer than the modern suburbs where everyone builds massive houses right up to the edge of their block. I haven't seen my friend for about ten years, so we had a lot to talk about and consumed large amounts of beer.

The next morning I headed off back along the main road, but because it was only just over 200 km to Port Macquarie I decided to turn off once I saw a sign for a scenic tourist drive. This was called the Bucketts Way, which takes a route through the hinterland, passing towns called Stroud, Strattford and Gloucester including a river called Avon, just like in England. Stroud had some nice old buildings.

The pub in Stroud

The drive along the Bucketts Way is clearly not very popular, I hardly met any other cars. Before I got to Gloucester I saw a road sign to Barrington Tops, which sounded familiar to me, so I followed it. It took me along some very narrow unsealed roads until it joined a road that took me up to the Barrington Tops national park. This climbs up to over 1200 metres above sea level and is densely forested. I spent some time having a look around and visited some of the lookouts.

The view from Devils Hole Lookout

From the Barrington Tops I headed back to the Bucketts Way and followed it all the way to Taree. I must say that this part got a bit boring and the road very bumpy. I got to Port Macquarie mid-afternoon and checked in to the Edgewater Caravan park, where I booked a cabin for four nights.

The caravan park is about 6 km from the city centre, right on the Hastings river. It is only about 20 metres from my cabin to a fishing wharf, where I go in the evenings to watch the sun set.

Sunset over Hastings river

During the days I walked along the Port Macquarie coastal walk, which is an easy walk all along the beautiful beaches and over the headlands, from the centre of town right to Lighthouse beach. The walk is about 9 km one way, but unfortunately I parked in a 4 hour zone on the first day and had to turn around after about 6 km and go back an do the rest the next day. The last 3 km of the walk are in my view the most spectacular part, with the Tacking Point Lighthouse at the end of it. The afternoon of my second day I spent at Flynn's beach reading my book.

Tacking Point Lighthouse

Today I drove down to Lake Cathie, an inlet about fifteen minutes south of Port Macquarie. It was a lot less populated and I had a bit of a fish in the lake. I did catch a flathead, but it was too small to keep for dinner (33 cm instead of the required 36 cm). But I did take a photo using my iPhone and when I downloaded it I noticed that the picture I took back in Tathra also worked out, despite me not finding it last time I looked. So here you can compare my two gap year catches so far.

Tiger Flathead caught at Nelson Lagoon

Common Dusky Flathead caught at Lake Cathie

Tomorrow I head off further north to Brunswick Heads, where I am booked into a camp site for the long weekend. On Saturday I will go to Gordon's fortieth birthday party, where I no doubt will catch up with a bunch of ex work colleagues.