Kingscliff to Emerald Beach

We awoke again to another wet day. Breakfast was soon finished and we packed up quickly in between showers. As we headed off we had one more look at the Tweed River

before making our way onto the M1 south.

Even though the terrain was mostly flat with a few hills it was surprising how many tunnels and bridges either went through a hill or crossed the road.

Several of the road bridges crossed rivers too.

After about an hour and a half we stopped at a parking area and swapped drivers. Some beautiful wattle was in bloom.

Roughly fifteen minutes down the road we came to another bridge. This one was very steep and high.

As we reached the peak of the bridge we saw why it was so high – the huge Clarence River was below. When it floods traffic needs to continue flowing from Brisbane to Sydney, hence the high bridge. We have stopped in Yamba, a lovely spot at the mouth of the Clarence, a few times but not this time.

Our drive continued for about another hour when we reached the turn off to our destination, Emerald Beach, which is a quiet place just north of busier Coffs Harbour.

Distance travelled 262 kms

Once we had the caravan set up at the Emerald Beach Discovery Park we had lunch.

After lunch we took a walk along a well treed path to Emerald Beach itself.

Happily for Mel it was a leash free beach and she had plenty of sand to run around on. Unusually for her she even dipped her feet in the water as she went.

There were also nice views out to the Solitary Islands.

Now we didn’t find any emeralds but we did spot this interesting piece of conglomerate with shells embedded in it.

On reaching the far end of the beach we turned back.

As we came to the path back to the caravan park at the other end of we decided to explore more.

This involved crossing where a creek flowed into the sea.

Up ahead we saw a strange sight so walked closer. It was a tree with a collection of thongs on it. (Not the underwear type!)

Then we had to cross the creek to make our way back to the caravan park.

The following morning we drove into Coffs Harbour and met up with one of my Dad’s second cousins. (My third cousin I guess.) We had a hot drink and a good chat at the Dolphin Marine Conservation Park café. It had been a few years since we had seen him down on the Mornington peninsula at my parents house so we had lots to catch up on. On our way back to Emerald Beach we stopped off at the Big Banana, which is a fun park, not just a banana plantation and café as it had been in former times. I had first visited it on a Geography School Tour back in 1969!

Our afternoon was a quiet one. We did a bit of washing and took Mel for another walk along the beach,

although at one point on our return she refused, so Karen picked her up and carried a bit. What a spoilt dog we have!

That night we treated ourselves to some Hawaiian food being cooked and sold from a caravan on site at the entrance to the caravan park.

Next post we continue our journey south to yet another lovely beach location, Jimmy’s Beach at Hawks Nest, which had been recommended to us by some other friends who have caravanned up this way.