North Coast - Day 2

Slept ok.  Had one of my bacon and cheese rolls for first breakfast to keep me going.

Chilled for a bit.  

Cat in a bag!

Cat in a bag!

Went out with Kerry and Violet - they were going to see if Target had any rollerblades, but they were only online.  Then had a little walk around the waterfront.

Waterfront at Port Macquarie

Royal Hotel

There's quite a few Art Deco buildings in town, one day I should document them properly.

Art Deco buildings

I thought this was cute.

Love bug

When everyone was ready we headed out for second breakfast - at Bittersweet cafe above Lighthouse Beach.  They wanted to put our group of six essentially right in the middle of the footpath where literally everyone trying to get past in or out of the inside part and outside part or either way along the footpath would be tripping over us.  Kerry asked if we could go in the far corner furthest away from everyone (it was only setup for four people) but they said they couldn't because of congestion for Covid.   *blink* what?  Whatever, they did actually let us sit there.  I think because Kerry said something they blacklisted us - service was *very* slow.  Took fifty minutes for our food to arrive.  I got eggs benedict with bacon and a cheese and bacon rosti.  Mostly nice, although the second egg was a bit overdone so wasn't as nice by the time it all cooled down.

Eggs benedict at Bittersweet

After brunch we thought we'd go up and see the lighthouse.  But everyone in Port was doing the same thing, and there was literally no parking available, so we just left.  The others went home and the sweetie and I went back down to Lighthouse Beach for a looksee.

Funky building at Lighthouse Beach

Stu at Lighthouse Beach

Lighthouse Beach

Lighthouse Beach

Lighthouse Beach

Funky building at Lighthouse Beach

Drove around some more.  Went to Shelly Beach where we were lucky enough to get a park.  So.  Many.  Crowds.

Went for a walk around the headland looking at beaches and stuff.

Shelly Beach

Stu walking around the headland

Stu walking around the headland

Unnamed small beach

Miners Beach

Miners Beach

Nobby Head

The path back

As we were leaving, someone asked if we were leaving so they could take our parking spot.  So.  Many.  Crowds.  All of Port is like that, and it's not even peak season.  Apparently the locals hibernate for Christmas/January to avoid the crowds.

Next we headed back into town so Stu could do a driveby of an old friend of his houses.  Then I remembered a slide I'd scanned of Dad's taken in 1976 of the view from a holiday flat we stayed in, and looked up where it was taken.  Turned out it was in the same street as his friend's house - about five houses back from where we'd stopped!!  I'll post the comparison pics in a separate post, but this is the house.  I wonder if Mum would remember it :)

Flat in Port Macquarie where I stayed in 1976

Continued to drive around.  Wandered all the way up to Settlement Point and even saw the ferry.

Sailing boat on the Hastings River

Ferry on the Hastings River

Stay apart ya pelicans!

On the way back looked at the crazy expensive houses around The Anchorage/Portside Crescent.

Houses on The Anchorage

Chilled for a little while (I played through some of Violet's beginner piano books - I *really* need to learn the bass clef) before getting ready to leave.

Group shot

So headed north.  The last time I was up here the Kempsy bypass and bridge over the Macleay floodplain was still under construction.  This time we got to go over it.

Bridge over the Macleay floodplain

Crossing the Macleay River

Bridge over the Macleay floodplain

Northern Gateway Sculpture - Confluence

And finally arrived at Jeff and Ruth's.

White headed pigeon

Had a brief rest, then went on a drive with Jeff around town.

View to the Macleay River from Salmon Circuit

View to the Macleay River from Salmon Circuit

Sally, Jeff and Stu

They don't need lawnmowers in this part of town - they just let the kangaroos at it

Kangaroos outside a house on Riverview Place

Kangaroos outside a house on Riverview Place

View to the Macleay River from Riverview Place

Macleay River

The Back Creek Bridge has been rebuilt since we were here last

Apparently a historical building

Trial Bay from Monument Point

Stingray Rock at Trial Bay Front Beach

Then over to the east side of town

Little Bay

Kangaroos at Little Bay

Kangaroos at Little Bay

Then back into town, for an obligatory jacaranda photo

Jacaranda tree

This is the view from where we had dinner.

View from the balcony

Ruth cooked up beef for dinner.  Nicely cooked, although fairly grissly, they weren't too happy with it.

Roast beef

After dinner we watched the second last episode of Masterchef Junior.  Amazing kids.  We saw two get dropped out before the finale with the final three.

Then bed.