Before we left Port Macquarie, we took a walk through the Kooloonbuck Creek nature reserve a few hundred metres from the centre of the town. It continues to amaze me how much country towns have done to preserve their natural assets.
We drove to Kempsey but didn't stop as there didn't seem to be anything to stop for.
On to South West Rocks, a town perched on the edge of the coast far from anything remotely urban.
Trial Bay Goal, a local point of interest, was built in the last quarter of the last century to house prisoners who were conscripted to build a breakwater for the protection of small shipping. In the last year of construction each man, on average, moved 700 tons of granite. The project was cancelled when a storm destroyed the best part of twenty years work.
The goal was abandoned but was re-occupied to house German internees during WW1.
The ruins are largely intact except for the roofs and create a very evocative reminder of this facet of our history.
We drove to Hat Head, a good place for bushwalkers.