Yamba to Yamba via Iluka

A slower morning than yesterday was followed by the short drive to Angourie. We had coffee and toast at a restaurant that's in the top 200 restaurants guide. Opposite to the restaurant is a walking track which leads down to the beach. From here you can see back to Yamba.

We took a convoluted walking route to get to the Blue and Green Pools, quarries that had filled with fresh water when natural springs were disturbed. However, by happy accident, Karen found some flannel flowers, which she's been looking for for the whole trip.

This is the blue pool. While I would hesitate to call it blue, it is certainly less green than the green pool. If you look at the enlargement of this image, you may be able to see that there are a bunch of kids jumping off the rock ledge into the pool.

When we were finished at Angourie, we headed out to the highway, north this time, and turned off to Iluka. Before reaching there, though, we found it imperative to pause at Australia's most southerly coffee plantation, at Wombah. This comprised of a quaint little tea (coffee?)-room, along side a section of the plantation. Here are the beans as they appear on the tree, prior to picking, drying, roasting and grinding. 

Arriving in Iluka at lunch time sent us on a quest for something to eat. The selection was made quite easy, finding only 2 shops open, and one appearing somewhat disorganised. We went to the other and shared a king prawn burger, which was quite OK.

Lunch consumed, we headed off on the "World Heritage Rainforest Walk". This 2.5km each way walk took us through a stand of "littoral" rain forest. The forest was teeming with wildlife, including loads of birds (this robin being an example), and a Monitor lizard.

The walk ends right at Iluka Bluff. This elevated location gives a spectacular view over the beaches both left and right, and over the ocean where we could see several groups of whales splashing, breaching and blowing.

The majority of land use in this area is for sugar cane. These are the trucks that haul the cut cane from the plantations to the mills. The mill at Harwood is the oldest mill in Australia. 

Iluka is only a short distance from Yamba as the albatross flies, but is about 50km by road, since the nearest bridge over the Clarence river is the one associated with the main highway. It's also a lifting bridge, although we've seen little river traffic at all, let alone anything that would require the bridge to be lifted.

We've decided it's too late to try to get to Coffs Harbour today, so we're going to stop in at Yamba again. We'll obviously stop at the same motel, given how satisfied we were this morning. 

Since our accomodation is sorted, we've taken a little time to drive around this pretty town. The harbour is genuinely working, with a significant fleet of fishing vessels.

There are a variety of other cruising and pleasure vessels moored at the marina.

Our exploration  found us at the light house. This is not quite as grand as the Byron Bay one, but has it's own beauty.

 I failed yesterday to mention dinner. This was taken at "El Pirat", a tapas bar at the top of the hill. I'm sure we all know that tapas is where you order multiple small plates of Spanish delicacies, which you share with those at your table. The plates arrive generally one after the other, so you have opportunity to savour each in turn.

I've never "done" tapas before, so it was easy for me to concur with a diner at a nearby table who we overheard remarking to his table-mate that this was the best tapas he'd ever had (he had, apparently, tried many tapas bars).

Dinner was in fact so good that we went there again tonight, to try some of the dishes we didn't try last night. We were not disappointed.