Sept 3, 2025 More Port Mac Exploration
Our host offered to show us a few interesting sites around town and some further afield!
He started out taking us to the Tacking Point Lighthouse, one end of the coastal trail.
Then we headed south to a higher point at North Brother Lookout.
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!
Sept 2, Evening Bats
We went out at sunset to the site of the flying fox roost
to watch them waking and flying off on their nightly foraging
for fruit and flower nectar. We stayed after dark on the moonlit
night to see the last few bats flying off!
Sept 2, 2025 Port Macquarie
We arrived to Port Macquarie yesterday from Sydney after a 6 hour train ride to Wauchope (inexplicably pronounced War-hope)
and a half hour bus trip to the vacation destination/retirement community.
Today we set out to explore some sights.
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.
On our return trip we walked through the Reserve and found the huge colony of flying foxes, hanging right over our heads!!
Aug 31, 2025 Zig Zag Railway
The reason we came to Lithgow is to ride the Zig Zag Railway steam powered train! We had to take the more modern electric train the 3 miles from Lithgow to the Zig Zag station at Bottom Points to catch the steam train that then took us up to Top Points.
While we waited for the steam train we enjoyed the little model railroad they have in the station!
The train arrived and we waited while it took on water for the climb to Top Points.
We had views looking back as we descended to Bottom Points of the stone trestles we had just crossed.
A great ending to a wonderful day on the rails! What a difference from the winter weather of yesterday!
Aug 30, 2025 Lithgow
We traveled from Sydney into the Blue Mountains, past the area we visited in May of 2024, to the town of Lithgow. We encountered true WINTER here! No snow on the ground, but freezing temperatures and cold, wet winds!
The train ride from sea level Sydney to 3,120 foot Lithgow took 3 hours through countryside into the Blue Mountains, similar to the Appalachian Range, not too high and no jagged peaks!
Lithgow’s heyday was the late 1800’s to WW2. An industrial town with factories powered by the coal mining in the area, the economy shrank after the war. Currently it is reinventing itself as an artistic tourist destination.
.The main street is long and reminiscent of a bygone era.
Alleyways along the street are decorated with artworks like these colorful tiles.
We ended our second night at The Blue Fox, a restaurant a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We settled at a table next to the warm woodstove to take the winter chill off. The waiter shared photos he had of the snow flurries late last night that we missed!
