Brooms Head

Friday 16th October

We were fortunate to leave Lismore in glorious weather, which continued all the way to Brooms Head where we were to meet up with John and Rebecca, for the weekend. Although we wouldn’t normally take a break on such a short (1 1/2 hours) hop we caught up with them at a rest stop so figured a morning cuppa was called for. To quote John’s philosophy ‘its not about the destination but the journey to get there’ (should sound familiar to some).

We were welcomed to our waterfront site by glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze, and just a hint of ‘essence of seaweed’. As it was low tide there were plenty of birds foraging on the sand and with little effort I had a dozen birds on my list.

After lunch John and Rebecca retired to watch Game of Thrones while Michael and I explored the area around the campground. We ran into one of Michael’s Byron swimming group, who has a house here. He gave us a few ideas for some exploration during our visit.

The Norfolk pines were planted by Adam Albert in 1916, one for each of his 12 children. Some of his clever inventions were the Cane Derrick, and Trip Hook, both of which simplified the hauling of cane onto punts. He and his son-in -law also came up with the idea of a double ended fishing boat!

I was happy to see not just Pied Oystercatchers, but several Sooty Oystercatchers and well camouflaged Red-capped plovers. John and Rebecca surfaced for Happy Hour before Michael was finally able to christen his Baby Weber. 

After a few drinks he thought he would try his hand at fishing from our ‘back door’ where he promptly lost not one, but two hooks etc when they got snagged...seems once the tide came in the memory of the rocks and seaweed below us faded quickly. At least I was able to convince him to leave it until the daylight hours to see if he could retrieve anything.

Saturday 17th

After discovering that his fishing lures/hooks were buried under many layers of seaweed...not swallowed by a gigantic fish, the line was cut and we got on with our day.

We had only ever visited Brooms Head once, about 20 years ago, and that was just a day trip, so this morning we decided to explore the surrounding area. 

The area was originally know as Cakora Point but was renamed Brooms Head after a broom, thought to have come from a shipwreck, washed up on the beach. 

The village is in the heathland of Yuraygir National Park which stretches from Yamba to Coffs Harbour. Although much of this park was affected by last years bushfires the area around Brooms Head was spared.

We first headed north to check out the circuit around Grey Cliff, Red Cliff and Lake Arragan. There are a number of off-grid campsites on the circuit which would certainly be worth revisiting. As we couldn’t really find somewhere for our picnic lunch we then headed south to Sandon River. 

Looking back to Brooms Head from Grey Cliffs

Sandon River is a very picturesque spot, with a small (crowded) campground which apparently must be booked months in advance. We found a shady spot for lunch, with a choice of lunch companions. We chose Mr Coco Nuthead, as he had a rather cute canine companion. As we were about to leave I noticed a Tawny Frogmouth sitting right above us.

By the time we returned to Brooms Head the wind had picked up considerably. Although it wasn’t at the predicted 50km/h level it was still strong enough for us to roll up the awnings before the boys decided to venture over the headland in search of a weed and rock free beach to do some fishing. Rebecca and I poked about in the rock pools before I wandered off, binoculars in hand to see what I could find. You can’t help but envy the Brahminy Kites ability to just hang in the breeze.

The boys returned empty-handed although Michael had actually caught a fish deemed too small to bring home.