Day 2: Wauchope - South West Rocks - Wauchope
6 August 2024
Rain was in the forecast, so we decided to defer riding up the Great Dividing Range on the Oxley Highway until the following day. Cold and wet would limit the entertainment value. Instead we decided to visit a road I drove in a car a year before which would take us to South West Rocks which has a place in Pterodactyl's past.
Because we couldn't find a sealed road from nearby Port Macquarie to Crescent Head, we took the freeway north to South Kempsey — notable for an extensive police presence of speed traps and mid-morning random breath tests — before turning off for the coast.
CBs at Crescent Head
We had breakfast and coffee in the sun at the Point Break Café on the foreshore. We sat and watched the surfers who refused to be stopped by a cold wind blowing up from the Antarctic. Around the corner, pelicans patrolled the creek.
After breakfast, we set off north along the very pretty road that runs most of the way along the Belmore and Macleay Rivers. It's quiet, flat, quick and its proximity to the river makes sure there are plenty of corners.
Pterodactyl didn't much like South West Rocks, saying it was more like a city than when he was a frequent visitor. Trial Bay, to the east, is very pretty and we took a walk along the foreshore where we watched whales leaping not far out to sea.
Not a whale to be seen when I pressed the shutter release
We retraced our steps, stopping for a sandwich in Gladstone, and making it back to Wauchope before it got too chilly.
