Belmore River

We were woken in the morning to the sound of parrots in the trees around our campsite, so Carolina quickly got up and spend time taking photos and videos as she loves these birds.
The forecast was for an initially sunny day becoming more cloudy as the day progressed and with rain in the evening. So it seemed a good idea to spend the day in the northern beach areas of the Mid-Coast region taking advantage of the better weather.
So we headed first to Hat Head, a short 10 min drive from our campsite. A fellow camper had told us it was a quiet seaside place frequented mainly by locals who come here every year during holiday times and all know each other. A gathering of like souls every year. So our expectations were not too high about what was there to see. As a result we were very pleasantly surprised when we came across a very scenic beach and river area with a lot of swimmers and fishing people - and lots of pelicans! A very nice spot!
Then it was off to the main event of the day - Southwest Rocks and Horseshoe Bay. Again we were not disappointed. Lots of tourists due to the school holidays, but clearly a very nice popular location with beautiful beach views and lots of boutique shops. Horseshoe Bay is the main attraction with a small but very picturesque beach and has an adjacent caravan park that is right on the beach. We had tried booking in there but they wanted a minimum 5-night stay and do not allow dogs during school holiday times. The park was very busy and packed and on balance we preferred the quieter more relaxed location of our campsite as a base for the Mid-Coast. Nevertheless the scenery at Horseshoe Bay was fantastic and it was very easy to see why this park is so popular.
We walked for a long time around the area loving every minute of it. Peter had a cappu and stayed with Chanel while Carolina wandered around the shops.
We then headed around the southern headland out to the Arakoon National Park and the Trial Bay Gaol which started life in the mid-1800s and was used for German inmates during the First World War before being decommissioned.
We then headed further north to Scott’s Head where we found a very nice fish restaurant and had some calamari and John Dory for lunch. This was big meal that filled us up and ended up being our last meal of the day.
Our final journey north was to Nambucca Heads. It was becoming very windy and the weather was changing so after driving to some of the lookouts with very nice estuary and beach views we headed back to our PlayStation free camp for a restful evening watching a movie as light rain began to fall.
A very pleasant relaxing and varied day.
Our plan tomorrow will be to spend the day in the southern sections of the Mid-Coast including Port Macquarie.Read more