Coffs Harbour

Coffs Harbour
Woven between the mountains and the sea, Coffs Coast is a breath-taking tapestry of colour, with many quaint villages, national parks, mountain escarpments, sandy beaches and marine reserves. Located half way between Sydney and Brisbane we found it an idyllic destination to discover the mid North Coast of NSW. As we left today, there was the NSW state of origin team in training for the first of three big clashes.

Muttonbird Island Nature Resort – Boat Harbour and Jetty
Fantastic views and a great walk. The Marina area has a terrific co-op where you can buy the freshest of fresh fish. Each evening you watched as the fishing trawlers head out to sea. They only went just past the headland to fish so the ocean must be very rewarding around Coffs. There was a great mountain backdrop when you looked towards the hinterland. A bonus for us was spotting our first 2 whales frolicking off Mutton Bird Island. Unfortunately a bit too far out to get a decent camera shot. But they were having a wow of a time, beaching and tail flicking for a good 20 minutes before they were just too far away to see.

Sky Pier
Just past the Big Banana there is a turnoff to a magnificent viewing point namely Sky Pier. Great designer as it perched high over the escarpment. Fantastic views of Coffs, Mutton Bird Island. It overlooked banana plantations and you could see the great range of mountains. We were at this 10-minute stop for about 90 minutes as everyone up there was so friendly and chatty.

Village of Sawtell
Took a quick drive to neighboring village of Sawtell to check out the lookout. Great views of the rocks and ocean. A great vantage point to see whales but we weren’t lucky to spot any. Lots of locals there are looking out for the beautiful creatures. Several great headland views of the Pacific both north and south. These headlands had stunning views.

Butterfly House
Visited the Butterfly House in Bonville just out of Coffs. Delightful place with lovely staff who were happy to chat. Butterflies were easily seen and spectacular. We could not get a good photo of the beautiful Ulysses butterfly with its iridescent blue wings with drop ends. There was a small display of stick insects – camouflage extraordinaire.

Dorrigo, Dengar Falls and Belligen
Drive through up the mountain was on narrow and very windy roads but we made it without mishap. [Good Driver] Arrived at The Rainforest Centre near Dorrigo to do a 6.6km walk. Dorrigo National Park is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area offers stunning scenery that has been millions of years in the making. The park contains a range of forest types that protect an enormous variety of animals and birds, like red-necked pademelons, the vibrantly coloured wompoo fruit-dove and the spectacular regent bowerbird.The Rainforest Centre was full of the most gorgeous souvenirs – most of them very unusual and more importantly made in Australia. The lady working there was very friendly and informative, telling us the best way to do the walk so we wouldn’t miss anything.

The skywalk overlooked the massive forest and your view stretched for miles. Our walk was fantastic with beautiful pathways that allowed you to really look at the rainforest. Some parks have very uneven paths so you need to concentrate more on where you put your feet rather than taking in the surrounds.

We did the Wonga walk with tall, lush World Heritage listed rainforest providing a cool and shaded walking track. The cascading Crystal Shower Falls, 600-year-old trees, colourful fungi and interesting bird calls are just some of the sights and sounds waiting for you on this walk.Met some locals on the way who were just lovely and friendly- you could tell they lived in nearby Dorrigo – they just loved their rainforest and we could see why. The whole set up at the centre was A Class and highly recommended another definite must do when in these parts. Within the walk there were two waterfalls Tristanian Falls which was flowing very nicely and you got great views of. The other fall was Crystal Shower Falls which had a cave behind it so you could walk behind the fall.

There were great amounts of water falling from both falls and there has been no rain for a long time here so I’m guessing that both falls are continuous all year long. We got high among the rainforest trees along the elevated Walk with the Birds boardwalk. This fully-accessible walkway, elevated above the forest floor, offers unique forest views and close-up birdwatching opportunities, of course we didn’t spot any rare and magnificent specimens – I think we always go to fast and don’t stop to smell the roses(sit and wait for the wildlife to come to us).

From here we went further along Waterfall Way to Dangar Falls to check out yet another waterfall. Water was flowing over this one too. We were expecting a reasonably long walk through forest to get to the fall but it was right near the car park for all to see without even needed to walk down the stairway to the bottom if you couldn’t manage it. The walk was easy and only took 10 minutes or so to get to the bottom. On the drive to Dangar Falls spotted some lovely autumn leaves so had to stop for a photo opportunity. Although nothing like what would have been in Armidale it gave us a taste of what autumn could look like.

On the way home we stopped in at Belligen. Where else would you park your car in the Main Street right next to a trio of buskers play real country music – there was even a double bass. They were very entertaining and lovely to listen to. There was some really lovely architecture on the main buildings in town dating back to the early 1900’s.

TGPD

Trevor Galbraith

Coffs Harbour

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