We decided to get out of town for the weekend and because it's the right time of year for it, so we headed north to the Grafton for the first day of the annual Jacaranda Festival and for some leisurely flower-viewing. It was a hot weekend all over NSW and it was a sunny day in Grafton, perfect to walk under the shade of the jacarandas and to enjoy some ice cream at the local parlor.
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| Another thing I love about Grafton is all the enormous fig trees. |
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| This ficus virens was planted circa 1880. |
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| Bottle trees |
After enjoying the electric violet hues of the jacaranda trees we drove southeast to the coast to the city of Woolgoolga. After we checked into the caravan park on the beach we walked up the hill to the headland for whale watching (also the perfect time of year for it, as the southern migration is best viewed September through November.)
As far as whale watching goes, we were not disappointed. We saw several the first afternoon and the following morning saw a lot of splashing and activity out on the water (although it was difficult to see exactly what.) It was a bit of a surprise to look at the photos after the fact to see tails above the water and even several captures of the whales breaching. We also watched a Brahminy Kite (also known as a red-backed sea eagle) fishing, although we didn't see it catch anything.
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| Reid's stack |
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| Brahminy Kite |
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| Seagulls loitering in the parking lot at the headland |
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| Beach south of the headland |
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| The fishermen had a good view of the whales! |
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| Breaching |
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| Sandy Beach |
Sunday morning we headed south along the coast to Sandy Beach, a small community not far from Woolgoolga. There are two headlands on either side of the beach and we walked out on the southern one, lucky enough to see a whale passing by as we did. The view there is gorgeous, the rocky cliffs and the bare bluff of the headland really striking and of course the calming azure waves rolling in. We saw black cockatoos in the coastal banksia and there were rainbow bee-eaters flitting between the trees of the nature reserve and the powerlines of the nearby vacation houses. (We have never seen rainbow bee-eaters before, so I was very excited to spot a new bird.)
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| Scrubby and verdant coastal heath |
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| Sandy Beach headland |
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Looking out to one of the Solitary Islands in the distance, the whale passing
between it and the shore. |
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| Rainbow Bee-eater |
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