I heard about Coff’s Harbour from one of my office colleagues who bought a beach house there. I don’t know anything about the place, except that it is a coastal town which is around 500kms away from Sydney. Since it is not close to Sydney, we never planned a trip there. We got a long weekend in Jan for Australia day and with some Covid cases flaring up in Sydney now and then, all other states closed their borders and we are left to explore only our state NSW and 4 days looked ideal to plan a trip to Coff’s Harbour.

Day 1: Sydney to Coff’s Harbour

We usually love our drive towards the north of Sydney, as we stay towards the north and its easier to catch a highway. Since it was a long weekend, we planned well in advance and prepared ourselves to face traffic on the route. Luckily, we didn’t face much traffic and we could easily drive past Newcastle after which we could hardly see vehicles on the road.

Forster

Forster is a beautiful coastal town in the north coast with a slight de-tour from the highway and we took a scenic route towards the town. It was a hilly drive in Myall lakes National park with beautiful lakes all along the drive.

Our initial plan was to visit Cape Hawke lookout, but we cancelled our plan as it felt like a longer hike, in the middle of the day in the hot sun. We searched for any other lookouts nearby without much walk and found Bennetts Head lookout. The views from the lookout point were amazing, with sea cliffs on one side and nine mile beach on the other side.

We found a park near the Forster bay and stopped there for lunch. There were many water based activities near the bridge and most of the locals were found enjoying near the water in the hot weather.

Port Macquaire

Our next stop was at Port Macquaire Sea Acres Rainforest center which offers a guided tour of rainforest on a 1km board walk. We reached the place around its closing time and missed the tour. Instead we drove to the Tacking Point Lighthouse from where we got an overview of the town. Port Macquaire is famous for its weather – As per some reports, it has the best climate in Australia. There were many things around Port Macquaire like Koala hospital, zoo etc which we decided to explore when we stay there next time.

Coff’s Harbour

We finally reached Coff’s Harbour by evening and we were completely tired at the end of the day after the long drive on a sunny day. We reached our Airbnb, relaxed for a while and decided to have dinner outside.

We found a good city center in Coff’s Harbour with a bunch of restaurants decorated with lights. We had good Thai food there and took rest for the day.

Day 2: Coff’s Harbour Local

Today we decided to explore local Coff’s Harbour and planned our day to avoid much exposure to sun. We wanted to start our day first by visiting Sealy lookout to get a bird eye view of the city.

Sealy Lookout (Forest Sky Pier)

It took us around 15mins drive from the city center to reach the lookout. We found the iconic Big Banana of Coff’s harbour on our way to this lookout, but it looked very busy that we couldn’t even get a parking spot. We had no idea of going inside the Big Banana park, but just wanted to take a picture. So, we decided to come there once the park is closed so that it will be relatively free.

The drive to Sealy lookout is very scenic with beautiful trees and sea view all the way. We found many banana plantations on the way to the lookout which gave us a feeling of being in the tropics.

The Forest Sky Pier was a platform that is constructed above the trees providing 360 degree views of Coff’s Harbour. It offered magnificent coastal views over the city of Coffs Harbour and up and down the coastline. There are walking tracks through rainforest, ranging from one to three hours, and picnic tables and toilets are provided. We took a quick 15min return walk around the forest to explore the trees.

The island is home to thousands of wedge-tailed shearwaters, so called for their ability to cut or shear the water with their wings as they skim across the surface. Early settlers called them muttonbirds because of their fatty mutton-like flesh. The birds spend the Australian winter in southeast Asia, travelling back to Muttonbird Island in August each year. Amazingly, the birds return to the same burrow every year. A pair of birds share the responsibility of keeping one single egg warm and then share the raising of their chick. During the day they forage for food and return to their burrow just after dusk. They depart on their annual migration in late April every year.

The views of Coff’s Harbour from the Muttonbird Island were simply awesome that I couldn’t resist taking pictures. I would happily walk two hours a day if only walks are this exciting 🙂 I should say this is one of the best coastal walks so far. This bridge made me wonder if Ramsethu (the rock Bridge to Srilanka from India laid by Lord Rama many million years ago) was constructed in a similar fashion.

We continued our walk all the way to the end of the Muttonbird island where we found a good viewing platform for Whales and dolphins. It was completely serene being there in the middle of the ocean.

Jetty Beach

We walked back from the island and reached Jetty beach. It is a protected beach with a very long jetty beside, built for walking and fishing purposes. It looked like an ideal place to watch sunrise.

We saw many kids jumping from the ocean into the beach and swimming around. It looked like an ideal family beach. After a good stroll around the Jetty area, we reached our hotel back and walked to explore the nearby Park beach. I wanted to explore the route to this beach to come back for sunrise the next morning.

Day 3: Waterfall Way

Yesterday’s preparations worked perfectly well and I reached the Park beach on time to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately, there is a huge cloud cover near the horizon making it difficult to catch the sun right out of the water.

Park beach sunrise

When I could watch the sunrise finally, it felt completely worth the effort and time 🙂 It was absolutely beautiful watching the sun coming out, adding brightness and warmth to the world! Good morning 🙂

Today we decided to explore the Dorrigo Rainforest near Coff’s Harbour. I read many things about this drive, which is called Waterfall way and we are excited to spot many waterfalls on our way. The drive was beautiful, which looked similar to the lookout drive yesterday. We found two beautiful waterfalls along the road, but we couldn’t stop there on our driving direction. We decided to stop near them on our way back.

Skywalk Lookout

Our first stop was at Skywalk lookout, which is a small walk from the visitor center. Skywalk lookout offered a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding landscape. Skywalk lookout is a 70m boardwalk that soars over the edge of the escarpment some 21m above the rainforest.

The view is dominated by the double peak of McGraths Hump, also known as Old Man Dreaming. In Aboriginal legend, it shows the profile of a warrior’s face, Ngali. It was Ngali’s job to protect women who came to give birth in Bellinger Valley. But Ngali fell asleep, and for his punishment he was turned to stone for all eternity.

Crystal Shower Falls walk

Crystal Shower Falls walk is a beautiful waterfall walk in Dorrigo rain forest that takes us behind the waterfall. It started from Dorrigo Rainforest center near the Skywalk. Lush rainforest trees covered all the way on the walk to the falls, with beautiful sounds of various birds and insects.

As we got near the falls, a suspension bridge carried us across the valley in front of the falls offering fantastic views of the waterfall dropping into the pool below.

A short side track took us behind the waterfall into a rocky cavern, where we could look through the veil of falling water. This reminded me of Seljalandsfoss, from Iceland where we walked behind the waterfall in a similar way. It was completely exciting to stand behind the waterfall and enjoy the small droplets of water sprinkled on us by the waterfall.

Dangar Falls

After completing the walk, we drove 5-6 kilometres further to reach Dangar Falls, a beautiful 30-metre waterfall set amidst scenic agricultural and dairy farmland. A scenic walking trail took us to the the viewing platform of the falls. The waterfall looked beautiful and the trees around it enhanced its beauty.

We walked further down to find that the track is under construction and it was recommended not to go any further. We found some people crossing the sign and reaching the bottom for a good swim. We decided not to cross and just enjoyed the falls from a distance and returned back.

We had our lunch at picnic tables near the Dangar falls and started our journey back to Coff’s Harbour.

Waterfall on the Way

We were careful this time to find the road-side waterfalls well in advance on our way back. The waterfall looked beautiful beside the road and I waited for a colorful car to pass through to add beauty to the frame. After waiting for around 5mins, I could spot a red car on the way and captured the photo 🙂 Yayy!!! Mission Accomplished 😀

We reached Coff’s Harbour by afternoon, took rest in the hotel for a while and headed out to the Big Banana in the evening. We finally could get a chance to take a picture with the iconic Big Banana of Coff’s Harbour 🙂 It stands as a symbol for the local Banana plantation in that region.

We drove a bit further north from Big Banana and stopped at Guru Nanak Temple at Woolgoolga.

Day 4: Back to Sydney

We started our journey back to Sydney early in the morning from Coff’s Harbour to avoid the long weekend traffic in the evening. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any traffic on the way back and reached Sydney by afternoon. It was an extremely hot day and we avoided the peak afternoon on the road.

Bye Bye Coff’s Harbour! 🙂 We had a really good time and it felt like a trip to Asia and I now know where to go when we miss India 😉