Port Macquarie to Bulahdelah

---

Before heading south this morning we called in at the Port Macquarie Museum. The museum is currently celebrating Port Macquarie’s bicentenary with its 20 Decades, 21 Stories Bicentenary Exhibition Trail. The trail starts with information about the Birpai People, the traditional owners of the area around Port Macquarie.

The exhibitions continue with stories about the establishment of a penal settlement in the 1820s and free settlement in the 1840s. It progresses through the 19^th century providing information about education, trade and transport, experiments with growing sugar, the timber industry and federation. In the lead up to federation, Sir Edmund Barton, Australia’s first Prime Minister, was the elected representative for the Hastings-Macleay District.

Progressing into the 20^th century the exhibits deal with WWI, commerce and banking, the advent of tourism, WWII, the establishment of post-war clubs and carnivals, urban development, conservation, improvements in health services and climate change. All in all a very well-curated exhibition with some impressive items in its collection.

Leaving Port Macquarie behind us our next stop was at the Tacking Point Lighthouse. We visited the lighthouse in 2019, but the road to the car park was closed and we had to hike up to the lighthouse from the beach. The road and car park were accessible today which made for a much easier visit. Tacking Point Lighthouse is Australia’s thirteenth oldest lighthouse. It was built in 1879 to a design by the New South Wales Colonial Architect, James Barnet. There were lots of people on the headland looking out to sea trying to spot whales. We saw a few spouts while we were there, but they were quite a distance away.

The truck needed a drink so Bernie programmed the SatNav to find a BP service station. Gotta love how Syri says it, more like beepie, ha, ha. There was a Coles nearby so we bought some bread rolls to make our own lunch if we found ourselves too far away from civilization at lunch time.

We continued down Ocean Drive through Lake Cathie and Bonny Hills. We could not believe the amount of new housing being built in these towns. In both cases we drove through the original seaside village and then, on the outskirts of town, encountered the huge housing estates with all their cookie cutter new builds. People probably move to these towns for the appeal of living in a pretty seaside village only to end up living in a new housing estate that has all the charm and appeal of a housing estate in Cranbourne??!

We arrived in North Haven and made our way over Stingray Creek into Laurieton before crossing the water again (Camden Haven Inlet) and making our way out to Camden Head. We found a couple of picnic tables at Pilot Station Lookout so made our own lunch today with the fresh rolls and supplies that we had in the car fridge. After eating we drove down to Pilot Beach where we found some bathroom facilities.

We continued south on Diamond Head Road along Camden Haven Inlet through Dunbogan and into the Crowdy Bay National Park. Taking the back roads we soon found ourselves on a gravel road. Despite the fact that the road was rough enough to shake our fillings loose I dozed off anyway!! It WAS after lunch and obviously all my energy was needed to digest it?

Our next stop was at the Crowdy Head Lighthouse. Oh, my goodness, it was like déjà vu with this lighthouse being almost a carbon copy of the one at Tacking Point! The lighthouse here is the last of five lighthouses of similar (very similar!) design, designed and built by James Barnet between 1878 and 1880. From the lighthouse reserve you can look north to Diamond Head and the Three Brothers mountains. As he sailed up the east coast in 1770 Captain Cook bestowed this name upon the three mountains with no awareness of the fact that the Birpai people had been calling them that for millennia! To the south it is possible to see as far as Seal Rocks.

From the lighthouse we drove west along Crowdy Head Road to Harrington before turning south on the Pacific Highway near Coopernook. After a few kilometres on the highway we turned towards the ocean again to take Lakes Way through Tuncurry and Forster and alongside Wallis Lake to Boomerang Beach. From Boomerang Beach we headed more westerly beside Smiths Lake and Myall Lake before arriving in Bulahdelah about 4.00pm.

Our accommodation here in Bulahdelah is much more modest than the apartments we have enjoyed in Sawtell and Port Macquarie. Our room at the Lady Jane Motel can only be described as ‘rustic’. It’s perfectly adequate, as motel rooms go. It’s clean and has everything we need, but the chunky timber features and the exposed plumbing in the bathroom definitely qualifies it as rustic. Check in was a little bit different too. The motel also boasts an onsite bar and pizza restaurant together with a bottle shop and convenience store. The check in counter is in the bottle shop! Have to say the pizza restaurant made us damn good pizzas for our dinner tonight.



Steps: 8,425 (5.60kms)

---