Long Weekend on The Central Coast

Australia has endless places to explore and vistas beautiful to behold. On our first weekend away from our home in Sydney, we went to the Central Coast, a marvellous region of beaches, lakes and amazing views for those hardy enough to hike and climb.

The map below shows the location of most of the photos and places that we visited on our short three-day trip.

Our first goal was to explore the area just north of the Hawkesbury River, which forms a sort of natural barrier to the north of Sydney. If you zoom in on the map, you will see that there is a large peninsula that drops down from Gosford. There are some lovely small communities in there and a few small beachs. The look-out at Warrah along a fireroad between Pearl and Patonga beaches provides an amazing view both inland along the Hawkesbury and out to sea past the Barranjoey Lighthouse. As always, click on the photos for a larger image.

Warrah Look-out – looking out toward the Hawkesbury river

Along the fire road we had the opportunity to see lots of native flowers. I say ‘native’ because Australia has suffered from so many invasive species from the bunny rabbit to the prickly pear, that even in the ‘bush’, or forest, there may be invasive species.

Native flower

This next flower is one that I saw in Sri Lanka. I am not sure if that means it is invasive here or there, or simply native to both places?

Glowing flower

As we made our way northward along the coast, we passed an area where pelicans apparently like to congregate and feed.

Pelican circling

They are quite a sight, especially up close.

Pelican landing

Pelican colony

From the pelican feeding area, we headed north again along the Central Coast HIghway and stoppped off just a few kilometers later to get a selfie along Pelican’s Beach.

So many beaches – some are not even named

After a few more stops along the way, we finally arrived at our BnB in Coal Point on Lake MacQuarrie. We found this place on AirBnB. The hosts were a lovely, recently retired couple. Our bed was about 20 feet from the water (inside!) and so we fell asleep that night to sound of waves.

Sunrise over Lake MacQuarrie

The next day we continued our trip north. We passed through Newcastle, named, I suppose, after Newcastle in the UK because of the coal. We passed around the outskirts of Newcastle and over a bridge to the beach (another beach!) at Stockton where we got a great view of the harbour and Nobby Head. I took these photos on another trip to Newcastle to buy my new bass, but they are still worthy of inclusion here.

Looking toward Nobby Head Lighthouse

View from Nobby Head south toward Newcastle

From Stockton, we continued our drive northward in to the Worimi Reservation Lands along the Worimi National Park and beach which stretches for close to 30 KM to Birubi Beach. Despite the number of beaches, I am continually amazed by every new vista.