Day 86 - 7th July

Norahville to Barenjoey

Distance Travelled - 165.2 km

Woke up at about 6.30 am after a good sleep. Got up and whilst waiting for things to dry out a little from condensation (no dew last night) went for a half hour walk. Got back and packed up ready to start moving on. Found the local indoor pool and went for a swim for a bit before having breakfast at a local park and enjoying the morning sun.

Left the pool and park at Toukley, the next town on from Narahville, and started the drive towards Barenjoey at Palm Beach. Most of the drive was along the highway and not much to talk about. On the way called into one of the information centres to clarify order of lighthouses. There is one at Watson's Bay further on than Palm Beach called Hornby Lighthouse and just before the information centre was a sign on the highway saying Hornsby which was closer than the GPS was saying Palm Beach was. The people at the information centre looked it up to discover that the 's' makes all the difference. Hornby Lighthouse is closer to Sydney and Hornsby, with an 'S' is a suburb totally unrelated to the lighthouse and that is where the confusion lay.

After leaving the information centre, I detoured into a town called Woy Woy before heading back onto the motorway and Palm Beach. Called in and did some banking stuff and looked through a few shops in Woy Woy before having lunch and heading off again. Drove through to Palm Beach without incident.

Got to the lighthouse car park, paid for my parking and headed off to the lighthouse. You need to walk a couple of hundred metres along the beach to the turnoff and then ascend a steep hill to get to the lighthouse. Apparently there are two tracks up to the lighthouse. At the moment they are doing renovations and restoration work in and around the lighthouse and access trails so the 'normal' path was unavailable and I had to use the trail called Smugglers Track. I finally reached the top after climbing 446 steps (I counted them on the way down) and decided that the climb had been well worth it. Barenjoey Lighthouse is made out of brownish sandstone rocks and looks quite spectacular. The head light keepers cottage and assistant light keepers cottage are undergoing restoration and were off limits but you could still view the lighthouse quite easily. Not far from the lighthouse is the grave of the first lighthouse keeper and his wife. There are magnificent views of the surrounding coast from the lawns of the lighthouse, some 347 m (i think) above sea level.

After spending as much time there as I could and leaving enough time to get down before my hours parking ran out (I only had enough coins in the car to cover the $3.40 hourly fee)I came down the path substantially quicker than I had gone up it. Left the car park and went in search of somewhere to stay the night. Looked up the local Baptist church and went there only to find no one in the office. Rang the number and spoke to the answering machine. Left a message and waited. There is an underground car park at the church so went in and parked out of the rain while I waited. Received no call back by 6 pm so decided to set up for the night. It will be out of the rain in the tent and I can stretch out rather than sleep in the car.

Spent the evening sorting photos, writing the blog and reading before going to bed about 10.30 pm. Tomorrow I will go to Hornsby Lighthouse and see what happens from there. I have seen some specky photos of that lighthouse so might hang there for a while and see what I can come up with and how it goes for staying close by.

                                                                 Barenjoey Lighthouse

                          Barenjoey Lighthouse - what's not level, the cottage or lighthouse?

                                                              Barenjoey Lighthouse

                                Barenjoey Lighthouse and grave of first light keeper and wife

                                             Storm clouds coming towards the lighthouse

Day 85 - 6th July

Nelson Bay to Norahville

Distance Travelled - 145.8 km

Awoke after a restless and slightly uncomfortable sleep in the car. Got the car repacked ready to go and headed off. Went towards the info centre parked down near the beach to eat breakfast and go for a walk while waiting for the centre to open. After it opened the lady I talked to said the council has stopped people walking out to Fngal Island on the sandbar because a large storm several months ago damaged the sandbar and they consider too dangerous for people to cross on. The only other way there is by tourist cruises at about $100 to travel the 900 m to the island so I decided to give this lighthouse a miss. Went and had another look at the inner light house and then got on my way.

Drove through to Nobby's Head in Newcastle and finally found somewhere to park. There was a big NAIDOC festival happening on the foreshore and parking was chaotic. Grabbed some lunch at the festival and then walk out along a very windy breakwater to the lighthouse to discover it is blocked off from public access. Walked down to the beach and got a photo of the top of the lighthouse above the cliffs but somewhat disappointing not to be able to see it properly.

Left there and headed to Norahville and the Norah Head Lighthouse. This one was quite nice and I spent a bit of time taking photos and exploring the beach and rock pools below it.  Decided to do some night photography so went for a stroll through town and did some reading to kill some time. Went back late afternoon and got some soft light photos as the sun went down and then settled in for the evening.

A bit later 3 other people turned up to do night photography as well. As it turned out 1 was a professional / semi-professional running classes and the other 2 were his students for the night. It was nice to have some photographic discussions and I managed to learn a few things from Dave, the teacher, and Bella and Beth, the students. After a couple of hours I headed back to the car and drove off to the nearby park area where I had chosen to camp for the night. Got set up and then went through my photos before crashing in bed.

Tomorrow I head for Palm Beach and the Barenjoey Lighthouse before finalising plans for my whirlwind assault on Sydney and the myriad of lighthouses in the harbour and surrounds before heading towards Woolongong.  

                                                      Nelson Bay Inner Light House

 

                                             Nobby's Head Lighthouse (at front of cliff)

                                                      Norah Head Lighthouse, afternoon

                                                        Norah Head Lighthouse, night

                                                         Norah Head Lighthouse, night

                                                        Norah Head Lighthouse, night

Day 84 - 5th July

Coopernook State Forest Camp to Nelson Bay

Distance Travelled - 275.6 km

Was rudely awoken at about 12.50 am by the sound of someone playing very loud music. Craning my head out of the tent it looked to be coming from the car closest to me. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. I was just about to get out of the tent and go have words with the morons when the music got turned off and quietness descended back over the camp ground again.
Unfortunately by this time it was just on 2 am. Finally fell back asleep and woke next at about 7 am to a much nicer sound of a myriad of birds chirping and calling to each other.

I got out of bed and looked to see if there was any movement from the offending car and none could be seen. The early morning light was very pleasant and beginning to peek through some of the trees. One spot in particular with a lot of dried leaves on the ground looked very pretty in the morning sun. I took a few photos but they really didn't capture how nice the scene looked.

After checking out the dew on the tent which was quite substantial, I decided to go for a walk on one of the tracks through the forest to see if there was anything worth photographing. I was away for about half an hour and found nothing to photograph. When I got back the sun was still not up high enough to get over the trees and onto my tent to help dry it out. I had breakfast and settled in for a read of the map book with my notebook nearby to try and work out plans for the next day or so.
Eventually everything was dry and packed away and I was ready to leave by just on 10.30 am. It was very sad but as I drove past the tent where the sleeping music offenders were my hand somehow slipped onto the horn and gave a large blast as I went by. Everyone else in the campsite was awake and the lady on the van nearest to that tent on the other side gave me a quiet round of applause as I drove past. I drove to the nearest info centre and talk to them about lighthouse stuff and received several maps and some handy information from the very helpful and obliging man behind the counter. Left there and went next door to the craft shop and saw some interesting stuff but not really much to inspire me.

Left the centre and headed to the Sugarloaf Rock Lighthouse at Seal Rocks. On the way stopped at the Forster information centre which had free wi-fi so posted my blog and found out about a giant book fair run by Rotary in Forster. Unfortunately the fair ran Saturday and Sunday and whilst there was still lots of books there, none of the ones I were chasing were around. Left the book fair slightly disappointed and headed on towards the lighthouse.

 The lighthouse was once again designed by the architect Barnet, but this time was a different design. It actually looks very nice and has a certain charm about it with the staircase winding around the outside of the tower. I spent a bit of time taking some photos and then headed down to the car. It is a very steep climb up to the lighthouse and was much easier coming down.

Left Seal Rocks at about 3 pm and started heading to Nelson Bay, about 2 hours away. Got there and found the lighthouse is really a building now used as a cafe with a light stand on the corner of the building. This was how the original one was set up and there is another lighthouse on Fingal Island, but that could be harder to access. Took a few photos and went down to the beach where a lovely sunset was on display. Lots of pelicans around and a jetty with people fishing all of which just begged to be photographed. Spent some time taking photos and then talked to a semi-local about the Fingal Island lighthouse. Apparently you can walk to the island across a 900 m or so sand bar at low tide and have enough time to take photos and the like and walk back without too much issue. The big drawback is that low tide tomorrow is at about 4.30 pm. I will have to investigate the lighthouse more thoroughly tomorrow morning to see if it is worth the wait to get there.

After finishing there I set off in search of a place to sleep. All of the caravan parks within a reasonable distance want over $30 for me to camp the night so I have decided to go find somewhere else to sleep, as I consider that an absolute ripoff. Found a quiet deserted car park at the back of the local Catholic church and as I write my blog I haven't been asked to move on yet so hopefully this will be the place for tonight.

After finishing the blog I will sort my photos from today. make a few phone calls home and then settle in for the night, listening to music and possibly doing some reading. Tomorrow I will head towards Newcastle and the next lighthouse and then make some more solid plans about entering the Sydney area and how to spend the least amount of time in the metropolis but still get all the lighthouses I can. There are 12 lighthouses in Sydney Harbour itself and a few on the outskirts of the harbour so there will be a bit of planning to get the logistics of it all sorted. There does not appear to be anything in the way of free or cheap camping so that will need to be considered and sorted as well.

                                           Coopernook State Forest campgrounds

                                                           Sugarloaf Rock Lighthouse

                                                          Sugarloaf Rock Lighthouse

                                                               Nelson Bay sunset

                                                                    Nelson Bay sunset

                                                               Nelson Bay sunset

Day 83 - 4th July

Kempsey to Coopernook State Forest camp

Distance Travelled - 192.9 km

Awoke to a clear sky and a tiny bit of sun poking it's way into my tent. Got up and went for a quick walk and then had breakfast while waiting for things to dry out a little. Hardly any dew last night which was good. Left the grounds around 9 am and went for a look through the town. On the way I discovered their weekend markets so wandered through, buying some fresh fruit and vegetables for the next few days and talking to people about various wood and metal work pieces they had on display, getting some ideas for my own projects as well as some for the kids at school.

Left the markets and went in search of the local pool which is heated, only to find that it is closed for maintenance in July. Spoke to a local who told me that the next town on my list, Port Macquarie also has a heated pool. Finished wandering around town and headed for the information centre. Not a lot to look at in regards to art and craft but it was well set out and the staff were friendly.

Left the information centre and started the trip to Port Macquarie to view the Tacking Point Lighthouse. Found it easily enough only to discover that parking was very limited and there were large numbers of people there, primarily as it is a good place for whale spotting. Finally found a spot to park and spent a fair bit of time getting a few people-less photos before indulging in a little whale watching of my own. Saw quite a few but they were well off in the distance, it was more a case of seeing whale spray than whale.

Left the lighthouse and went onto town to the visitor centre which is housed in the Glasshouse - a concert hall type arrangement with a gallery as well. Found out the location of the pool and went there only to find that one too was closed in July for maintenance. So much for my decision to do some swimming as a form of exercise to help offset the sitting down while driving.

Went past a local fish and chip shop and decided to call there for lunch and had a delicious feed of grilled fish with way too many chips on the plate to even contemplate eating them all. After feeling that my hunger had been extremely cancelled out, I headed off for Crowdy Head Lighthouse. Found it without too much trouble and this was another of the 'twin' lighthouses designed by the architect Barnett. There are 5 in total of these 'twin' lighthouses as they are called. Took a few photos and headed off to Coopernook State Forest for the nights stay.

The campsite is a beautiful area inside the state forest, surrounded by very tall pines eucalyptus trees plus a variety of others. There were a reasonable number of people staying here, about 15 vehicles all up but all well spaced apart in a park-where-you-like, no-set-arrangement system. Found a spot and parked and then headed off to explore. Came back about an hour later having spent time wandering and speaking to people about their travels and experiences.

Set up the tent and cooked tea before settling in for a relaxing early night, chilling out to some music and doing a bit of stargazing in what appears to be a clear night. Tomorrow I will head for Sugarloaf Rock Lighthouse at Seal Rocks and Nelson Head lighthouse at Port Stephens and then see how I go from there. Camping places are becoming harder to find as I get closer to Sydney so that will require some investigating too.

                                                           Tacking Point Lighthouse

                                                 Tacking Point Lighthouse coast view

                                                          Crowdy Head Lighthouse

                                 Old forestry house, Coopernook State Forest campsite

Day 82 - 3rd July

Maclean to Kempsey

Distance Travelled - 283.9 km

Woke about 7 am and peered out of the tent to find a clear sky with a hint of sun shining through the trees at the edge of the showgrounds. Got up and made breakfast and ate it watching the sun gradually top the trees and start to shine on me and the tent, quickly drying the light dew and warming me against the slight breeze blowing through. Casually packed and chatted to a variety of people staying there eventually leaving about 10 am.

Started on my way towards Coffs Harbour, looking through Maclean on the way and stopping at the info centre. They had a nice selection of art and craft on display ranging from small woodwork pieces (another idea or 2 for school gleaned here), knitting, painting, paper craft, cards and jewellery. Spoke to the lady there about a few places I want to visit that are not lighthouse related and she managed to answer most of my questions.

The drive to Coffs Harbour was pretty in parts going through some farming land, state forest and semi rural areas and a tad boring once on the highway. Went through plenty of small towns and stopped at few for a stretch of the legs or a look at interesting shops etc and finally made it to Coffs Harbour - home to the Big Banana - by lunchtime. Went to the info centre and discovered it is probably the least interesting one yet.

Left Coffs Harbour. via Maccas to post the blog, after finding out the lighthouse associated with this area is offshore and only accessible by helicopter. Continued on to South West Rocks - the location of Smoky Cape Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in NSW. The drive there was once again punctuated with bits of nice scenery interspersed with highway driving.

The lighthouse was quite well presented but given it's location a little difficult to photograph due to only limited amount of space on the platform around it. Took a few shots from the platform and then some more on the way down the hill back towards the car. The view over the water was very nice and I took a few shots of that as well.

Left the lighthouse and headed towards Kempsey Showgrounds, the location of tonight's campsite. A nice 40 minute drive from the lighthouse (including roadwork delays) found me in the showgrounds. Went for a walk around the grounds for half an hour for some exercise and then set up for tea and made up the tent.

Spent the evening listening to music, reading by torchlight and sorting my photos from today and writing the blog. Tomorrow I plan to investigate Tacking Point Lighthouse in Port Macquarie and Crowdy Heads Lighthouse near Harrington and if time permits maybe Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse near Seal Rocks.

                                            Dead tree between Maclean and Coffs Harbour

                                            Dead tree between Maclean and Coffs Harbour

                                          Dead tree between Maclean and Coffs Harbour

                                                    View from Smoky Bay Lighthouse

                                             Opposite view form Smoky Bay Lighthouse

                                                              Smoky Bay Lighthouse

                                          Full moon through tree at Kempsey Showgrounds

Day 81 - 2nd July

Byron Bay to Maclean

Distance Travelled - 174.7 km

Woke up periodically throughout the night as I slept in the car which was not overly comfortable. Byron Bay is not particularly tourist friendly in some regards. Very expensive parking ($4 an hour to park at the main beach and just about anywhere else in town), very little parking at major touristy spots -there are at total of 29 car parking spaces within 1 km of the lighthouse that attracts 1500 visitors a day. 21 of those at the lighthouse proper costs you $7 and the other 8, 500 m away cost you $4 an hour. It was pandemonium trying to find somewhere to park to access the lighthouse this morning.

After the alarm went off at 5.30 am I woke from where I had parked in a side street out of the town proper. The main car parks in town like at the beach etc are closed from 1 am to 5 am or 6 am depending on where they are, making it hard to find somewhere to sleep overnight. Drove up to the lighthouse and did some sunrise photography before heading off around 7 am to sort breakfast and food for the next day or so.

Found the local farmers market and bought some fresh bananas and apples and a coffee before wandering the streets to look at shops and the beach in the post sunrise glow. Spent some time on the beach chilling out before going to the info centre, banks, post office and the like when they opened. Headed back to the lighthouse to grab a few things from the shop. Took 20 minutes to find somewhere to park (double parked a guy in who said he was going to be at the lighthouse for some time so my quick in and out would be fine) and 10 minutes to walk up, get the stuff and walk back.
Left Byron Bay and headed towards Ballina where the next lighthouse was. Got to Lighthouse Beach to find the beach closed, the Westpac Helicopter flying overhead and several lifeguards patrolling the water on jet skis and in boats. Took the photos of the lighthouse and as I headed off heard that a guy body boarding at that beach this morning got bitten by a shark around 10 am, about 2 hours before I got there.

Left Ballina and headed to Yamba where the next lighthouse was. Found that ok and discovered that the town made a replica of the original one not far from the present one (which by the way is still over 100 years old). The replica now is home to the local community radio station. Took photos of both and then headed towards Maclean for the nights camping. Stopped at a Coles on the way to grab some meat and veges for tea and continued on to camp.

Found the showgrounds and settled in, cooking tea before it got dark and then did a bit of early evening photography of the river and bridge nearby. Whilst doing the photography was invited to sit with a group of 'recycled teenagers' as they call themselves, everyone else uses the name Grey Nomads. Sat and chatted with them around their small fire and gradually a few others joined. Got speaking to one other person about my age from Germany. She is quite into photography and is travelling up the coast with lighthouse photography one of her interests. We swapped some info and ideas and afterwards discussed photography techniques which was beneficial for us both.

Following that, wrote my blog, sorted photos and got ready for bed. Although it is windy and a little on the cold side tonight it will be nice to stretch out in the tent rather than be sleeping in the car. Tomorrow I head towards Coffs Harbour and South West Rocks and the lighthouses there.

                                                       Byron Bay Lighthouse at sunrise

                                                      Byron Bay Lighthouse at sunrise

                                                      Richmond River lighthouse, Ballina

                                                       Yarn bombing, the next big thing?

                                                  Clarence River Lighthouse (new), Yamba

                                                     Clarence River Replica Lighthouse

                                                 Bridge view from Maclean showgrounds

Day 80 - 1st July

Coolangatta to Byron Bay

Distance Travelled - 98 km

Had some trouble getting to sleep last night with lots of things on my mind but eventually nodded off about 1 am. Woke at 4.30 am to the sound of the alarm on my phone going off and struggled out of bed at about 4.4 5am. Got sorted and left around 5 am to take Keri to the airport for her flight to Cairns for her conference for uni. After I dropped her at the airport I went back to her place and went back to bed.

Got out of bed about 7.45 am and proceeded to finish the last bits of packing the car and cleaning up after breakfast etc ready to leave. Headed off towards Fingal Head in NSW, stopping at Maccas on the way to post the blog.

Took some more shots of Fingal, with its new paint job, and then spent an hour or so watching the surf from the hill top between the lighthouse and the beach. There were some glorious breakers rolling in and not long after I sat down to watch 2 pods of dolphins numbering about 20 in total swim through. Unfortunately I only had my wide angle lens with me which made photographing them difficult but I did get one poor shot that even after cropping makes it not real easy to see. A few of the dolphins rode the surf and jumped over and through the waves giving me the opportunity to get one in a shot.

After viewing the dolphins until they left, I went round the head more to watch a couple of surfers and was able to see a couple of whales out in the deep, too far away to photograph or see too closely but the spray and size of the shapes left no doubt they were whales. A few minutes after spotting them they disappeared and so I took my cue to head towards Byron Bay.

Got to Byron Bay Lighthouse and settled in for a lesson in patience. Although I know it probably doesn't matter, I really want my lighthouse photos to have no people in them. Given that Byron Bay has, on average, over 1400 visitors a day and over 500 000 visitors  a year and the fact that it is school holiday time in Qld I didn't like my chances and thought I might end up having to compromise on my wishes. However, after 3 hours of waiting and snapping photographs I had 3 people-less photos I was reasonably happy with. I left the lighthouse and went towards town but the traffic congestion was incredible so I returned to the lighthouse to wait for darkness so I could do some night photography.

After taking some night shots at the lighthouse I left to go find one of the beach car parks that might give me access to a view of the lighthouse at night with perhaps a chance of getting the beam in a better position for the ideal photo I want. I will try and find somewhere close by to sleep and head back to the lighthouse for some sunrise photography before heading off further into NSW and heading for Richmond River and Clarence River lighthouses.

                                                             Fingal Head Lighthouse

                                          Poor shot of a dolphin jumping out of the wave

                                                        Byron Bay Lighthouse day shot

                                                      Byron Bay Lighthouse night shot