Port Macquarie

As Joy was at work all day yesterday she gave us the car so that we could go off and explore on our own. We decided that we would head into Port Macquarie, as it is only 20km from here and we were keen to look at the beaches and, yes, another lighthouse.

 

 

 

We started our look around in the central shopping area. Here there is a large 'green' area on the waterfront where lots of families were out and about enjoying the beautiful sunny day. There were lots of boats about, some available for charter or trips. Just off the coast is a good place to 'whale watch' and of course there is the fishing. We watched a fishing charter unloading while we were walking along in this area, and they were busy divvying up the large catch.

 

Port Macquarie was first settled in 1821 as a penal colony for re-offenders for convicts as it was an isolated location at the mouth of the Hasting River, with access only by sea. By 1830 it was opened as a free settlement and the waterfront area was used for commercial purposes. A range of facilities, including boat sheds, repair yards and warehouses developed along the foreshore. Today it is a both a service town and a holiday makers destination.k

After doing some shopping (we needed a birthday present for Joy) we headed out along the road to the Lighthouse. We stopped off in a picnic/rest area to eat some lunch. It was glorious sitting there in the sun without a breath of wind, looking out to sea. There is a path that you can walk along all the way from the central shopping area to the lighthouse at Tacking Point but a 9km walk wasn't what we had time for. We parked up at the lighthouse and sat and hoping to see some whales. We were very lucky to see a small pod of dolphins, swimming very close into the coast line but the whales seemed to be a bit more elusive. We thought we saw one, blowing its spout twice but after waiting for a quite a while we never saw it again. We finished the afternoon by walking along the track back towards Port Macquarie for a short distance before returning to the car and driving back to Wauchope.

 

 

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