Newcastle to Port Macquarie via Forster

Newcastle to Port Macquarie via Forster 

A distance view of the lighthouse at the entrance to the river.

Newcastle is the second largest coal exporting terminal in the world and Australia is the largest coal exporting country after Indonesia. The port handles 166 million tons of cargo a year.

The source of all this coal is a giant open cast pit inland from Newcastle, visible from space.

There are huge machines, bucket excavators, piles of coal and long conveyor belts. 

Trying to take photos from the coach is a challenge.

More coal moving infrastructure.

A bucket excavator.

Conveyors and silos.

And more.

And we left the city and headed through rolling cattle grazing land as we headed north up the coast. We left the main highway for a quick break in Bulahdelah, Aborigine for big hill, which is the name of the hill that over looks the settlement. Then we took the Lakes Road. 

Which was a route through a national park and past several lakes. 

The start of the route was through tall stands of eucalyptus, with the thin canopy allowing the suns rays to penetrate the canopy and caste some dappled sunlight on the light coloured trunks of the trees. The road was rough with potholes, sharp corners, crossings over gullies and many gradients, both up and down. 

Finally we emerged on to a countryside that was more rolling and open.

The tree cover was  noticeably thinner. 

Some of the dappled light on tree trunks.

And finally we were at sea level although even the estuaries of rivers in this area are all called lakes.

We passed Myall Lake on our right and later Wallace Lake on our left. 

We arrived in Forster where the river enters the sea but with some great beaches, wharves and amenities.

Looking down river on the river front.

Our tour boat that would take us up the river to explore the lake but it wasn't ready for us just yet.

There was other traffic on the river.

And a busy marina.

Then it was time to set off from the marina with its buildings on one side and above, wetland wilderness on the other.

The area is a large oyster growing area renowned for its Sydney Oysters which used to be the number one producer in the southern hemisphere, although now, it has fallen to the 92nd.

A close up of one of the lines of bags contains the oysters.

A pelican although it turned away as I took the photo and never turned back to get a good profile of its beak. 

One of just many sand bars, islands and peninsulas around the lake.

And we saw dolphins but they were too far away for my camera.

We had lunch as we chugged gently up the lake. We had stories of French and Finnish millionaires who had built houses along the water front. 

On the way back to the wharf, we passed a sea eagle nest. We had seen a sea eagle earlier but there were none just here. We lingered for a while but there were no birds. 

And then we did see dolphins and some of us got lucky and got them in shot.

They played with us as we circled to get better photos of them.  

And a very lucky still photo of a dolphin just breaching.

A view of the bridge across the mouth of the river, originally contracted in 1959 but it started to sink into the soft sediments so it had to be piled down to the bedrock sandstone.

After Forster, we took the highway to reach Port Macquarie, passing though rolling grazing pastures...

...for what seemed like for ages...

...and we passed three big hills, name in Aborigine as Southern Brother, Middle Brother and Northern Brother. These are significant in Aboriginal culture as there is a related Dream Time story which makes they significant in they culture.

The photo is taken through the window of the door of the coach and the 'DO' at the top right hand corner is the second line of the advice stenciled on to the centre of the window saying 'Auto Door'.

Three brothers went a trip of discovery and were attack by a witch. They killed the witch with a boomerang. Unfortunately for the brothers the witch came bak to life and kill the brothers and turn them into stone and hence the three hills here.

By a strange quirk of history, when James Cook sailed past and saw these hills, he named them the Three Brothers, as they look so similar to each other.

Hobbies Beach in Port Macquarie, made famous by the beaching of a whale that was subsequently buried but attracted dozens of white sharks endangering bathers so it had to be removed completely.

 I got up early for a walk along the beach front to watch the rising sun.

And despite being just after 6am, the front was busy with cafes open and a share seat hard to find. 

There were joggers, dog walkers, families, children on bicycles and open air gyms and personal trainers., plus a few just out for a walk.

Most of the rocks along the sea front have been placed there as part of the seawall to hold back erosion of the coastline. Most also have colourful paint jobs.

Some are poignant...

...some are childlike...

...but they stretch along the sea front for a long way.