We’ve travelled again , catching up with my brother at Stuarts Point , south of Macksville . After a quick 9 holes of golf at Coffs Harbour with Mark , we packed & headed off , arriving before lunch .
After no power for a few days , we have ended up with a few loads of washing to be done , fortunately for us the weather was beautiful , so everything was washed & dried in no time at all . We checked out the jetty at the park , with a view to having a paddle in the morning . Black swans like this stretch of water - there were 20 of them - here’s some of them .
After a good night’s sleep we were up early and after some breakfast we headed down to the jetty and hit the water . We paddled in The Macleay Arm section of the Macleay River , which stretch’s from Grassy Head back down to South West Rocks . We didn’t paddle that far , instead we went round to the end at Grassy Head and then back to Stuart’s Point footbridge and return , approx 9klms . It is salt water , so has lot’s of mangroves , weed and shallow sections , but is teeming with fish and birdlife - here’s some pics .
The tide was on it’s way out , so we discovered when we got to the footbridge , floating underneath it in the current , the realisation that we had to paddle against it sank in pretty quick !!! It was only flowing faster there due to the narrow section near the footbridge , and eased up a bit as we got further away from the bridge , thankfully !!
We spent the afternoon talking & catching up with Gordon . We missed Meredith , she was in Canberra for family Xmas catchup . Sorry we missed you Meredith !!
After another good sleep , we headed over to Grassy Head and went for a walk along the beach toward Stuarts Point . The beach stretches off into the distance for about 5 or 6 kilometres . The hills on the horizon are near South West Rocks & Smokey Cape .
Time to hit the road again and head off to Wingham , to catch up with Maree & Kevin ( sister & her husband ) . Stopping in Taree for some shopping and lunch , we continued on to Wingham and parked down at The Brush . The Brush is a remnant section of rainforest , that houses a large population of flying foxes , and is located beside the Manning River , there’s also a boat ramp , it’s a very popular area and well used by the locals and visitors alike !! This is our view of the river .
We set up where we wanted , as we were the only ones there , before going to Maree & Kevins , where we stayed till about 9pm .
With water right beside us like this , there was only one thing to do - get out and get paddling - we seem to be doing this a bit of late , must be making up for lost time while we were up north & over west !!
Reflections were pretty good again, the wind not annoying us till later . We glided past the old wharf - used many years ago as a base to transport goods further down to Taree and beyond .
The Brush made a nice back drop for the van & ute .
Continuing up the river , we passed under the bridge to Tinonee and kept going . Houses are built on the top of The Bight , and have great views down over the river and the farm lands on the other side .
A bit further up is a house , seemingly perched on the side of the hill with even better views of the river .
We paddled further up , deciding we needed to get out and stretch our legs , we chose this rock in the middle of the river !!
It was getting pretty hot , so we headed back down the river . The temperature got up to about 42 today - that’s hot enough .
Back to the van , we slid the kayak up the bank and dropped into the water and sat cooling off for about half an hour !! We cleaned the kayak , had some lunch , before retiring back to the river again for another cool down .
We had another swim later with Maree & Kevin , before we had some tea with them .
The flying foxes are well known for their mass departure flight from the brush on dusk , tonight was no different as they flew down to the river for a drink and then head off for the night finding whatever food they can find . It was also full moon , adding to the display .
Here’s a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p72fg7WCNeFrYbO8BkIgFMN8_-s&usp=sharing
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