The "Top End" of our roadtrip was to make it to Kat's auntie Andrea's new home at Banora Point.
On the way there, our main stop was the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coff's Harbour (after a very brief but obligatory stop at the Big Banana). What used to be a communications bunker at one of the most likely spots for a Japanese landing during WWII is now a remarkable art gallery, specialising in comics, political and otherwise. You could spend hours here, and with an entry price of only $3 you could imagine locals coming regularly. It is a must stop spot for those visiting the area in my opinion!
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| Breakfast stop at Nambucca Heads |
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| Looking back on the jetty at Coffs |
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| Obligatory stop! |
Banora Point is a stones throw (stone's) from the Queensland border. So close that when we paid a visit to our friends Bruce and Pam, we could see the shadows of planes as they made their approach to Coolangatta airport! It has been great to be able to see so many family and friends on this trip, we spent a lovely (if hot) morning with Bruce and Pam sampling coffee grown in the region and catching them up on all our news and to hear about their grandchildren and Christmas plans.
Andrea was a wonderful host, and her house has a remarkable view of the Tweed River and the Pacific Ocean, over the top of the Coolangatta Gold Club and Fingal Head.
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| Me and 3 layers of water: pool, Tweed River and Pacific Ocean |
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| Kat on the shores of Pottsville Beach |
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| Mooball Creek at Pottsville |
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| Loving the beaches near Andrea's |
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| Beard on a beach |
And Fingal Head was where we made a connection we could never possibly
have made without our visit with Christine to Northern Ireland in July. At
Fingal there are rocks formed by the exact same processes that created the
Northern Irish Giant's Causeway, the boring version (thanks to Gama Xul
at How It Works) is: "that at the
high temperatures of lava the minerals coalesce and form a larger design of
their natural crystal structure" but we much prefer the version that says
it was made by Finn MacCool to challenge the great giants of Scotland, then,
upon realising he might have bitten off more than he could chew, ran home and
had his wife pretend he was a baby (if the baby giant was so big, how big
must the father be?). The Scottish giant ran back home along the
causeway, smashing it up as he went, so that the Irish "father"
giant, couldn't come after him.
It depends on who is telling the story as to whether the giant's name was Finn MacCool or Fingal, but here's the other fun fact thanks to Aussie Towns: Fingal is only the European name for the area, named for the Irish giant. Many years before that, the Cudgingburra people called Fingal Head, "Buninybah" meaning "home of the echidna". It's pretty funny that in one culture, these rocks are associated with a giant's road, and in another, with a tiny spined anteater.
Buninybah/Fingal Head is definitely worth a visit, mainly because no one was there! We did love the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland which is far bigger and more impressive, and the visitor centre they had there, but it was nice to see a place that doesn't have upwards of 300 000 visitors per year. A small lighthouse stands guard over Fingal Head and if you are up (or down) that way, it would be a great picnic spot with accessible beaches on either side.
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| Fingal Head/Buninybah |
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| Kat making Fingal Head/Buninybah look big |
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| North side of Kingscliff beach near Fingal |
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| Superman (or trying to keep rings on!) |
No trip of the east coast is at all complete without a visit to Byron Bay. Particularly because of its beautiful lighthouse, beaches and most of all, the most easterly point of the Australian mainland!
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| Looking out to the Pacific |
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| Kat at the far east of Australia! (Well aside from jumping the fence!) |
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| Cape Byron Lighthouse |
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