One last walk through the flying fox colony in Kooloonbung Creek Nature Reserve,in Port Macquarie, and past the sculpture to catch our bus, then train into Sydney.

In Brisbane we got our rental car and drove an hour and a quarter to our Airbnb in Deception Bay. After grocery shopping we took an evening walk along the waterfront near the Redcliffe Jetty.

We were greeted at the trailhead by an Australia brushturkey, busy scratching up forest duff for nestbuilding. A colorful and similar looking bird to an American turkey, but not related at all.

We looked back at the Tacking Point Lighthouse as we started down the track, going from beach to beach back into the main area of town.

At every beach we stopped to watch the whales passing by, sometimes breaching, but mostly fin-slapping the water, like this one above the furthest rock, just below the horizon. You can just see the small splash as the fin hits the water surface. We spotted 9 whales at one lookout point!

These pandanus trees growing on the rocky cliffs along the beaches are fascinating! Growing in tropical and subtropical zones in the Pacific mainly, they are used for everything from food to shelter, woven baskets, and clothing. The ‘stilt roots’ grow down from the branches to stabilize the tree.

We completed our hike at the tiki bar in town at the end of the coastal walk. Refreshed with a beer, we walked through the Kooloonbung Creek Reserve and got another good look at the bats!

top pic; Looking east toward the little town of North Haven from North Brother Lookout.
bottom pic; looking west towards Middle Brother Mountain beyond Watson Taylors Lake. There is a South Brother mountain as well, out of the picture!

We descended to North Haven and saw the beach where our host used to go surfing until he found out how many sharks frequent the area due to the fishermen cleaning their catch nearby! The pelicans like the fish cleaning station also!

After lunch we headed into the woods to find “Old Bottlebutt”, the largest Red Bloodwood tree in the southern hemisphere, with a girth of 16 m (over 52 feet)!

4 wheeling through the forest, our host took us to Bago Bluff on Rollover Road, for a scary overlook down into a eucalyptus forest where we spotted some fires (one turned out to be a bush fire!). He returned us safely to town and we watched dogs frolicking in the evening surf at the off-leash beach close to where we started the day!

Near our B&B is the Kooloonbung Creek Nature Reserve, a tranquil oasis in the middle of town with boardwalks and gravel trails along a creek and through the wetlands around it.

Some open areas appear as grassy prairies, but you don’t want to step off the boardwalk into the wet marsh!

From the north end of the Reserve you can walk through the CBD to the Waterfront Esplanade lined with brightly painted rocks and onto the town beach.