Stories of the coast…
Walking reveals a rugged coastline
In Port Macquarie and feel like a little exercise to compensate for last night’s too-big a dinner and too-many a glass of wine? Well, there a fine coastal track that will restore your metabolism and clear your brain.
IF BEACHES and headlands appeal to you, don’t miss the Port Macquarie Coast Walk. You will get more than your fill.
You won’t need hiking boots for this easy walk. For nine kilometers it undulates along a smooth, well-maintained track through patches of bushland and along the beaches of Sea Acres National Park, a narrow strip occupying the coastal escarpment between the residential area and the sea.
An urban walk
This is an urban walk rather than a bushwalk. The track is easy to follow and can be walked either way, starting or finishing at Tacking Point lighthouse or Town Beach close to Port Macquarie’s central business district. The bus service from town passes a few streets from Lighthouse Beach from where the Tacking Point lighthouse is reached by the track that climbs the headland.
The walk can be done in its entirety or in sections and is suitable for older walkers and families. The first few hundred metres from Town Beach is accessible to people with walking aids. Town Beach has a cafe. If you are into coastal geography, the four kilometer stretch of the track between Shelly Beach and Rocky Beach is the Port Macquarie Coastal Geotrail. Interpretive signs tell the story of plate tectonics and how local geology was formed. Pick up the brochure at the tourist information centre in town.
This is the coastal subtropics and summer temperatures can be high although walkers can relieve the heat by stopping for a swim at the beaches along the track. Town Beach, at the northern, town end of the walk is patrolled by lifeguards. Best to take a bottle of water with you, suncream and a hat. There are bubblers at the beaches that are reachable by vehicle. Winter is mild here and walking the track in that season avoids summer’s sweaty heat.
For the desperately uncaffinated, the beachside cafe at Flynns Beach will restore your brain chemistry to optimal.
Fi and I walked the full nine kilometres from the lighthouse to Town Beach and back again, making an easy 18 kilometer day. That was in early winter. Walking the full length brought a new perspective in revealing the ruggedness of the basalt terrain. Were we doing it in summer we would make an early start to avoid the afternoon heat.
The coast
There are other walks like this one along the coast. Their value is threefold:
- the walks are another reason for visitors to come to a place and make the most of their stay; this is to do with town economies that are reliant in tourism, as is Port Macquarie; the walks also introduce visitors to the local geography, ecology and culture
- they are used by local people for recreational walking for fitness
- the walks make people aware of our coastal heritage, a heritage all too often threatened by overdevelopment.
Port Macquarie is a popular holiday destination and like all such destinations is prone to annual inlfuxes of visitors. That happens mainly in the warmer months. It was winter when we stayed in the region for a time, visiting a relative who lives in a town a half hour inland of Port and coming and going from the place. Winter is a good time to visit. Tourists are fewer. Daytime temperatures are mild, beaches are not crowded.
Port, as locals call it, is not new to us. We have come through many times before on our journeys north and south along the coast but this was the first time we walked the track in its entirety. It may be some time before get there again, but I am sure we will be doing that.
On the road with PacificEdge…
