Stuarts Island

We have stopped off at Nambucca Heads for a three night stay. This is a quiet resort on the Nambucca river mouth. Our site is on a cliff above a sandy beach and we are surrounded by the sound of bird life. Rainbow Lorikeet chatter away as they munch through the seeds within flower heads on the trees, Kookaburra are laughing in the background and a host of other birds make up the soundtrack, squeaks and squawks aplenty. The temperatures have dropped to a reasonable 25 degrees, and we were able to sit outside our tent and sleep without the constantly running electric fan!
We did the Nambucca Heads foreshore walk starting off on the beach below the site, this took us over a headland to the river where people are encouraged to offer their inspiration by painting the rocks and boulders that make up the sea wall. The rules are simple - you can paint anything which is not offensive and you can not paint over a previous offering - the result is very colourful but soon they will need to extend the sea wall as there are no unpainted rocks left.
We walked along the riverside along boardwalks to find the tourist information centre to pick up some info about the surrounding area for our third day. One of the tourist brochures for the area claimed that the beach we had just walked along (Shelley Beach) has been voted the eighth best beach in New South Wales. As nice as it was we could think of many others similaror better which we had already visited and we presume that the poll was conducted by Nambucca council amongst their residents. We have also noted that we have passed a number of Shelley Beaches so perhaps the result is due to an aggregate of them all.
On the third day the rains came once again, so we went in the car to visit Macksville - a little town on the river to the south west, a pleasant little place with a quilting shop. Quilting seems to be a popular pastime here, and the range of beautiful fabrics take some resisting. Karen has bought enough to take home for another few projects!!The late afternoon was spent on site chilling under the canopy.Read more