Forster to Smiths Lake

When we set up this trip to Oz, Robin requested that we do a road trip north of Sydney. We decided to go about four hours north of Sydney to the Forster area and the nearby lakes.

We stayed in a caravan park at Tuncurry which is across the river from Forster. The unit we stayed in was part of an octogon.

Many caravan parks in Australia are in wonderful locations by water. This one was no exception.

We drove over the bridge to Forster and stopped beside the beach. It was all a bit gloomy from the rain that we had driven through on the way up from Sydney on the day before. You might notice the rock swimming pool at the end of the beach. My friend Geoff and I had come here four years ago when we drove down the coast from Brisbane to Sydney. It was interesting to come back.

High rise across the road from the beach.

We drove up to the nearby headland.

The ocean was calm but the swells were increasing in power from the storm off the shore that was bringing rain to the area.

Have you seen them lately? I must check it out of Netflix.

We walked further out along the headland.

Point from where we took the prior photos.

The impenetrable vegetation beside the path.

The point at the end of the headland.

The beach to the south of the headland. Normally this view would be beautiful but on this gloomy wet day, not so beautiful.

The swells were getting stronger/

Thirty years ago, this area was probably just open fields.

We drove back into Forster. This is the bridge over to Tuncurry.

Next stop was to be Cape Hawke.

It's a bit of the climb to the top but not too bad.

Tower that I climbed to be able to see the views that are hidden by the vegetation.

It was a Saturday. Just another day during this voyage of discovery.

The tower was up in a cloud. This was the view to the north.

Nothing could be seen of the easterly view to the ocean.

Robin appeared out of the forest. Marianne appeared soon after but while Robin climbed the tower, Marianne sensibly decided that looking at a grey wall of fog was not worth the climb.

What the view should have been.

We drove to a nearby beach at Pacific Palms where the waves were becoming more impressive.

Curved roofs were common.

A few miles south we came to Smiths Lake and stopped at a pull off.

Smiths Lake.

We drove south to Seal Rocks which gets its own blog.

There is an actual town of Smiths Lake and we had lunch at this cafe by the lake. Pumpkin soup and crusty bread. Very welcome on a dank rainy day.

House across the road from the restaurant. Many of the houses are rentals in summer.

When we returned to Tuncurry, we passed these large pelicans.

That is quite a mouth.

It's a lovely area and we were all pleased that we came up here.