Road trip with lighthouses (and birds!) #3: Crowdy Head

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

With no good weather news coming in, we decided to make a dash for Sydney. Lunch was cooked, luggage was packed; the car was loaded and moving by 0815. As we moved further south the skies cleared but the winds increased and could be felt buffeting the car.

But I couldn’t resist the idea of visiting another lighthouse (and anyway everyone agreed it was time for lunch), so I took the turnoff to Crowdy Head.

Road trip with lighthouses #2: Coffs Harbour and surrounds

Smoky Cape Lighthouse, Hat Head National Park

10 October 2012

We started off early for Coffs Harbour, with a side trip to South West Rocks and the Smoky Cape Lighthouse.

Road trip with lighthouses #1: Port Macquarie and surrounds

Tacking Point Lighthouse, Port Macquarie

A planned road trip to the Gold Coast (Queensland) with family (689km, 7 days) was truncated for reasons of distance/time and became a New South Wales-only holiday terminating at Coffs Harbour (536km, 5 days) before the return trip to Sydney. The revised plan involved driving to Port Macquarie using the fastest possible route, staying for two nights and then moving north to Coffs Harbour to stay an additional two nights, with an option to extend through Sunday if necessary. The return journey would be a slower one via coastal roads rather than solely using the Pacific Highway.

Here are some photos from Port Macquarie and its surrounds.

Seaside Lights: Kiama

Kiama Lighthouse as seen from Blowhole Point

I drove to Kiama on Wednesday 19th August to photograph the famous lighthouse and blowhole, and came away with half the job done: the blowhole was inactive because the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.

The day was otherwise excellent: the drive was very pleasant, the sky was mostly clear, there was a light breeze and the winter’s day unseasonably warm. I dined al fresco on john dory and chips at the Saltwater Café in the main shopping precinct.

Seaside lights

The Sydney-to-Gold Coast trip of 2008 turned, in part, into a treasure hunt. The treasure in question was lighthouses: fascinating structures that before the advent of high-tech navigation made the difference between life and death for many seafarers.

Cape Byron Lighthouse

Cape Byron Lighthouse, New South Wales, S 28° 38.352′ E 153° 38.156′, built 1901.