Point Plomer to Port Macquarie

18 km (649 km) | 7 hours

I had always wondered what was 'up the 4WD track' between Port Macquarie and Point Plomer so it was a pleasure on the last day of this stage to finally see it for myself. I started with a glorious dawn walk around the 'point' of Point Plomer to its beautiful lookout with breaching whales and diving sea birds combining to bring up the majestic sun.

I waited till mid-morning due to the tides then made my way across to Back Beach past some amazing sea caves followed by rounding Queens Head and its superb lookout at the tip, with a fine view of some gun surfers making the most of the ideal conditions.

It was a final, almost melancholic, meander along the 14 kms of North Shore Beach to Pelican Point. With a few perfect driftwood logs to rest on (and a ‘community’ table and chairs not far from the southern end) it was a reflective stroll to the northern breakwater of the Hastings. I then wandered a little up the river to the car ferry to take me across from Settlement Point to Port Macquarie, the southern bookend of this section.

There is something reverential about traversing all these beaches and headlands on foot. Just as our bodies struggle with ultra-processed foods, our minds need a gentler, more natural pace and rhythm for optimal travel rather than the stress and strain and whir and rush of automobiles and aeroplanes.

I just love sitting on a headland, or a piece of driftwood or a firm sandbar in the middle of a long, lonely beach and feeling a part of something much greater than myself. Without being too philosophical, I think many of us find this kind of peace in the bush or on the beach or in the mountains, where everything is quiet and pure and natural and 'just so'. It is a state of mind that lingers and something I highly value. It seems to calm one's thoughts in the direction of being kinder, gentler and more forgiving - more like the person we want to be, rather than the one we actually are. I feel so exceptionally privileged to be able to feel this deep serenity so often on this walk – a walk I now regard as my very own coastal Camino.

But for now, it was back to Sydney, the big smoke, where 'normal' life would resume. I vowed that these beaches and headlands and wind and waves and whales and dolphins and eagles and feelings of peace and serenity and contentment would remain with me amidst the hurry and worry and hustle and bustle of city life.

And, as an Aussie who has lived and worked for many years abroad, I once again reflected on our unique land. As Dorothea Mackellar wrote so beautifully so many years ago about our magnificent sunburnt country:

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel sea,

Her beauty and her terror,

The wide brown land for me...