Port Macquarie, the town where we are trying to sit out the worst of the Corona crisis, is a charming village with a Koala hospital, amazing wildlife but most of all an amazing coast line. Since leaving home is only ok for essential purposes such as shopping or exercise it is nice to have a beach just a few minutes away. Our closest beach is Flynn’s beach where we went pretty much every day, sometime to swim or bodyboard or surf, sometimes only to feel the sand and water on our feet. One day we got up very early to see the sun rise from the ocean – totally worth it.
From Flynn’s beach we can go either north or south which brings us either into the town or to a lighthouse. There are several smaller or larger bays with amazing beaches to cross. To get from one to the next you have to climb the rocks or hills separating the bays. Every time we had to go shopping for groceries, we took this longer but nicer way into town. We’d pass a paragliding starting pad and some really nice viewpoints from where we could look over the beaches and watch the surfers and even some dolphins! From Town beach which is, well, the closest beach to the town center we’d turn inland and follow the Hastings river. Here people have painted the rocks at the shore with all kinds of different messages. Due to Corona the restaurants and pubs are closed but some of the coffeeshops are still open and an excellent ice cream shop was open as well. For my birthday I treated myself (and Chris to an ice cream cake with our favorite flavors: Salted Coconut Pea Flower and Black Hawaii (coconut, chocolate and charcoal). Took us a few days to finish it (and lots of discipline) …
Going into the other direction to the lighthouse there are more beaches with less people. Some are only accessible on foot. There is one dedicated dog beach which I really liked. Here people would go into the water with their dogs. Sometimes we’d see a dog waiting and watching for his owner who went to have some fun in the waves. In-between the beaches we’d walk through stretches of rain forest. Arriving at the picturesque Tacking point lighthouse, over one hundred years old and one of the oldest lighthouses of Australia, we’d sit for a while and enjoy the view. Sometimes it’s possible to see whales here that come to feed on the plankton. It is transported up by the currents along the edge of continental rift from the depth of the Pacific.
