Our apartment was just a few hundred metres from the train station, and we’d arrived about 4 pm, so it was still afternoon by the time we were sorted. After six and a half hours on the train, including a couple of hours seated directly across from some of the worst parenting (and therefore worst-behaved child) that we’ve seen in a long time, we were ready to get out in the sun and hit the beach for a swim.
Of course Karen needed to get a picture of this Screw Pine on the walk down. Behind her you can see the fencing around the Coffs Jetty Carnival, which was just in its last few days when we arrived. No, we didn’t go.
The Coffs Coast is a long string of beaches, running for many kilometres. This is Jetty Beach, one of the closest to our apartment. It’s almost fully enclosed by the harbour breakwaters, so it has a very gentle surf and is great for actually swimming.
After our swim we got some extremely good takeaway fish and chips from Sea Salt in the shopping centre nearest the jetty. Recommended, and if you want a beer to go with it, there’s a bottle shop just around the corner.
Further up the garden was this collection of cacti.
At the pool by the Japanese Garden (which was nice, but unimpressive compared to some others we’ve seen recently), there were quite a few water dragons catching the sun and going for swims.
The Garden sits on a bend in Coffs Creek and is bordered by a mangrove swamp.
Beside the Garden is the Coffs Harbour Historic Cemetery. This was divided into all the major Christian sects: Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, military, and poor.
From the Cemetery we walked another kilometre and a half into the Central Business District, where we found King Tide Brewing tucked in the middle of an industrial area. We enjoyed some water (which disappeared fast), some very good beer on tasting paddles, and a better-than-average meal. Then it was back to our apartment for the night.
On Sunday the Coffs foreshore plays host to the Harbourside Markets. Although we didn’t need anything (and in fact are doing our darnedest to buy as little as possible on this trip, because what we buy, we carry) we enjoyed wandering the stalls.
From the market we headed out along the Marina Walkway towards Muttonbird Island. This is North Wall Beach, just to the north of the walkway. As you can see, it’s an unprotected beach with a serious surf.
On the south side of the walkway is the harbour. This is the pleasure boat section…
… and this is the industrial and fishing part of the harbour.
The end of the walkway is fronted by a massive breakwater, constructed of these concrete hanbars which were designed specifically for use on this harbour. But what’s that funny-looking white plaque on the side of the hanbar?
Why, it’s an academic research paper! In fact, it’s this paper. That is definitely a first: we’ve never seen a research paper on sheet metal glued to the side of a concrete block before. Unfortunately, if you want to read the whole thing on the web you’ll have to pay. But we suppose you could always go to the breakwater and read it there for free.
At the end of the Marina Walkway is the Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve, home to an enormous rookery of Wedge-tailed shearwaters. These are sometimes known as muttonbirds because of their dark flesh and a taste that’s said to be similar to mutton. Chicks generally hatch in late January, and we could hear them calling from their burrows (the holes you can see here) as we walked up the hill.
This is the view back towards Coffs Harbour from the observation platform at the top of the hill – which you can just see at the top right of the previous photograph.
At the outer end of the island is another observation platform overlooking the sea.
The waves crashing in were quite impressive.
As we walked back, the sea and sky behind us were a brilliant blue…
… but landwards we could see rain rolling towards us, with lightning flashes off in the distance.
Fortunately we just caught the edge of the storm and within half an hour the sun was shining again. So, we got into our swimsuits at the change room beside the jetty and took another swim at Jetty Beach.
Of course, on a hot day after a swim there’s nothing like gelato!
The 22nd was rainy, so we stayed in the apartment and got some work done. However, by the afternoon of the 23rd things had brightened up enough that we could head out for a short walk.
Just up the road from our apartment was Beacon Hill Lookout. From there we had a good view of Muttonbird Island and the south arm of the breakwater, which was to be our other destination for the day.
This was the neighbourhood where we were staying.
We walked all the way out to the end of the south breakwater. The original breakwater, constructed in 1917, was built from locally-quarried thirty-ton rocks. However, even before the breakwater was complete, these had begun to break apart from the wave action. The rocks were replaced first by large concrete blocks, then in 2013–2014 by 2508 hanbars.
Just south of the breakwater, around Corambirra Point, is Gallows Beach. From there we walked back to our apartment.
Our train from Coffs Harbour didn’t leave until 4 pm, so we had most of the day to do some more wandering. Normally we have breakfast and coffee in our apartment, but since we had to leave things tidy for checkout we had a relaxing coffee at a nearby cafe instead.
As we were walking towards the shore, we realized that we hadn’t been out on the jetty that gives Jetty Beach its name. This is a view of Muttonbird Island from the end of the jetty, with part of the inner harbour on the left.
The jetty has a swimming platform partway out, which was being put to good use by a crew of teenagers and some younger kids.
Coffs Harbour is home to a substantial population of Green sea turtles. Yes, like Crush. This was the largest one we saw. We also saw a small school of rays, but didn’t manage to get a picture.
About 18 kilometres from Coffs Harbour is South Solitary Island, home to an important lighthouse since 1880. This is the original lighthouse lens, which was replaced when the lighthouse was automated in 1975. For optic fans: it’s an eight panel, first-order, dioptic, revolving Fresnel lens, made up of 296 prisms of lead crystal and manufactured by Chance Brothers in Birmingham, UK.
From the jetty we walked north along the shore, turning inland when we got to Coffs Creek. Along the way we passed another mangrove swamp, with a nice boardwalk running through it. We kept walking, past the Botanic Garden and all the way back the central business district, where we lunched at a cafe before heading back to the apartment to collect our bags.
Then it was back down the hill to the train station, and onto the train, and then bus, that would take us to Byron Bay.
Normally trying to take pictures from a moving bus in low light gives terrible results. But sometimes they’re terrible in interesting ways, so we’ll leave you with this one.
