We had a wonderful day today, starting with a great drive through the countryside from Nana Glen to Moonee Beach. It’s an interesting area with pastoral scenes of rolling hills, agricultural fields, lots and lots of blueberry farms and other fruits, and heavy bush areas of great gum trees. It’s really beautiful.
Moonee Beach is a great spot. The estuary of Moonee Creek flows into the sea and at low tide, the tidal flat of the creek provides a very large sandy bottom. Arms of the estuary flow through the sand creating little pools for kids to play in and creative patterns in the sand to admire. Every several feet you have to wade across a bit of the estuary until you get to the widest part. One can swim across the estuary to get to the sea beach. One of the great things about Moonee Beach is that there are large pines bordering the sand so there is wonderful shade and a refreshing breeze. Nearby is a caravan park and the whole area is well-maintained.
I took a walk out to the estuary but didn’t go all the way to the beach. On my return, Christine came out to meet me and we walked back out to the estuary. It really is a great family spot because kids could safely play in the small pools at low tide. There was one family with 2 kids in the estuary. The water there was moving pretty quickly towards the outlet to the sea. The dad was downstream and the kids would run upstream, jump into the estuary, and flow down to the dad where he would catch them and put them onto the sand for another run upstream. They were having so much fun.
The rest of the group relaxed in the shade and watched the comings and goings.
We left the beach in the early afternoon and drove in to Coffs Harbor for lunch. We went to the Surf Club Restaurant, a beautiful restaurant on the beach housed in the Coffs Harbor Surf Life Saving Club building. The SLSC was founded in 1923 and is run by volunteers to educate the community and visitors on water safety, conduct patrols to protect beach goers over the summer weekends and ensure that everyone who visits the beach has a great experience. There was an interesting display about the club’s history and the important role volunteers play in water safety and life saving.
We had a great lunch and enjoyed being outside on a covered deck enjoying the sea view. We saw two paragliders zipping up and down the shoreline in a pretty stiff breeze.
After lunch we had another adventure, driving up to Sealy Point Lookout. We went up a very steep, winding road with significant drop offs down the mountain, through banana plantations, but the trip up was absolutely worth it. Sealy Lookout sits in a flora reserve in the Orara East State Forest. While there are lots of hiking trails through the forest, the real draw is the Forest Sky Pier.
From the end of the pier you get a grand view of the Coffs Harbor area and all up and down the coast. It was magnificent.
Across from the pier was a wonderful shady place to sit and we enjoyed the cooling breeze in the shade. It was a very lovely spot as you could still look out over the vista to the sea.
We made our way back home and enjoyed a pleasant evening with Tony and Liz. It was a wonderful day.