Sunday 12 March 2017

Korora Lookout

Today's adventure included daddy. He was able to come along with us because it is Sunday, a day to be spent enjoying family time.
Ellie got into the swing of the adventure by dressing up as Wonder Woman, wearing a tiara and bringing along a star topped wand and a length of rope.  This supposed 20-30 minute walk from Sealy Road to Korora Lookout was going to take a bit longer than that for us.
Moving at Ellie pace, we left the car park after reading the interpretive sign and climbed down the slate steps to a service road.  The walk is fairly easy going as it is essentially along a service road that has been built to maintain a radio tower.  We will get to the radio tower shortly, but first we had to let all of the other walkers past as we had some serious exploring to do.

The track runs on a ridge above some houses, so you never really feel like you are terribly far from civilisation.  In fact, part of the road seems to double as access to a house as we passed a drive way and letter box.
The walk is made more interesting by the addition of some artistic sculptures created by a local indigenous artist.  There are no interpretive signs accompanying the art, nor a name to let us know who created the pieces.  But, none the less they are very good, particularly the  first one.  It is a vertical piece of wood, carved into wavy patterns, with rusty iron and a lizard.  Because this walk is all about telling the aboriginal dreaming story about the black goanna












The first half of the walk is as much a wander through a natural art gallery as it is a nature walk with tantalising glimpses of sparkling blue ocean.  Just past the half way point we come across the radio tower.  Now this edifice should be an ugly blight on an otherwise beautiful walk. But a fence and the associated buildings have been painted in stunning art work.  The paintings tell some of the story of the black goanna....Ah yes, that WAS what this walk was meant to be all about.  The painting is bright, colourful and very beautiful.

















Not long past the radio tower an amazing vista is revealed.  The whole walk reveals small tantalising glimpses, but the real prize is the view from the lookout.  On the edge of the lookout is an attractive wooden platform where you can stand and soak up the gorgeous coastal view. Or you can sit and enjoy the vista in a more relaxed fashion.
Behind the viewing platform is another sitting area, one where you are encouraged to linger and to listen to the story of the black goanna on the message stick.  Here a recorded message tells the dream time story in both gumbangir and English, complete with traditional aboriginal music as its  backing track.
It is well worth a listen.


The way back is just straight back along the track, the way you came......Well for most people, that is.
For us, however, we had Wonder Woman with us. And Wonder Woman hadn't had a chance to use her rope yet.  So at regular intervals we had to stop and connect the rope to a tree  so that our little super hero could 'climb' up the rope to the tree.  When that game wore thin, it was time to tie up daddy and run away.  This second game got us back to the car pretty quickly, as we had to get to the top of the steps before daddy got himself untied.

Having come this far up Sealy Road, we had to go the extra mile, as it were, and visit the amazing Sealy Lookout and Sky Pier.  The Sky Pier affords a terrific view over Coffs Harbour, whilst ever so gently swaying with the movement of the people on it.  We found more interpretive signs and some fabulous areas to have a picnic.  No BBQ's, so definitely bring your own packed lunch for this stop.
Once again, Miss Wonder Woman was in full super hero mode and had to tie up daddy. Once to the Sky Pier itself and once to a big tree in the bottom picnic area.
Then she decided it would be more fun if daddy tied up mummy (this didn't half look totally weird to the other visitors) and then when mummy called out help, Wonder Woman Ellie would come and untie mummy and rescue her.

After all this excitement, spectacular views, cool art works, and escaping from bad guys; it was definitely time to head back down the mountain and home for lunch.  It is always a good idea to bring a stash of gold coins with you so that you can buy bananas and avocados (when in season) from the road side stalls on Bruxner Park Road.  We picked ourselves up a big bag of lady finger bananas for three dollars.

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