Blueys Beach Forster revised to Mystery Run

22 July 2019 / Words and photos by John Hansen

Tuesday 9 July was to have been our Midweek Run to Bluey’s Beach Via Wootton Way. However, at the 9 am staging point at ‘Olivers’ in the Port Macquarie Service Centre a.k.a the donut we had only three intrepid starters.  Allen in his red ND, Peter with his black NB and John in the galaxy grey NC. A few members had phoned to say that they hoped to meet us at morning tea in the Flow Bar down at Old Bar. However, the day turned out to be a perfect MX-5 driving day with plenty of sun and blue skies and accordingly we decided to drive down to the Flow Bar and depending on numbers we would plan the rest of the day accordingly.

With the tops down and heaters up we had an uneventful drive down to the Flow Bar. The only item of note was the presence of a safety patrol car to keep us honest and the amount of traffic on the Pacific Highway. Most of the traffic appeared to be heavy vehicles that were all travelling at the maximum posted limits. It was a thought-provoking driving experience to realise how small a profile an MX-5 has compared with ‘B Doubles’ with huge loads, especially when driving alongside!

Susan and John in their green NB welcomed us as we parked near the Flow Bar swelling our numbers to five. We decided to modify the original run and John and Susan suggested that they could lead us on a mystery run using their local knowledge to explore the district for future runs. Our club is always looking to find new runs and so we retired for an excellent morning tea to plan the rest of the days activities. As an aside, the Flow Bar at Old Bar provides a variety of very tasty food including an excellent egg and bacon roll!

We set off for an interesting drive to Manning Point reserve which is part of Mitchells Island connected by bridge to the mainland. Only two of us had been in this part of the coast before and it was fascinating to see the extensive waterways and channels that make up this part of the Manning River System. The road was also undergoing fairly extensive roadworks and at one point it appeared that Susan and John’s car was going to receive a complimentary car wash from a water truck! Manning Point was a pleasant location where we could see across the river to Harrington; there is a reserve with walking tracks and a local shop with a small restaurant open on the weekends. John assured us that it was also a very popular spot for fishing and could be quite crowded in the summer holidays.

 Susan and John suggested that we explore the road to Coomba Park where we could stop for lunch. As locals they volunteered to be the run leaders which would be very useful especially in navigating through Forster Tuncurry on a very busy school holiday weekday. Although the road was very busy great glimpses could be seen of extensive waterways alongside of the aptly named The Lakes Way. This road goes through part of the Booti Booti National park where there are numerous turn offs that lead to a varied selection of bays and beaches. Eventually we found the turn off onto Coomba road that would take us to our lunchtime destination. The road was a joy to drive with plenty of twists and turns with views of sparkling waters of the Wallis Lake complex and interesting place names such as Whoota on the way to the picnic ground at the end of the road. Coomba Park turned out to have a well-maintained picnic ground with clean facilities and its own wharf located on the shores of Wallis Lake with a view to Wallis Island Nature Reserve and Yahoo Island. We all agreed that the mystery run day had been very successful as it provided the ground work to put together a future run in the Forster Tuncurry district. In addition, the day turned out to be most enjoyable with great winter weather, a variety of road conditions and scenery and of course good food and company. Capping it all off with a companionable picnic lunch overlooking the water with our MX-5s close by to take us home.

Thanks to our run co-ordinations Allen and Peter and our local run leaders Susan and John.