Tilligery and Tomaree

Day 2 we started towards Tomaree National Park in Port Stephens to hike up Tomaree Head. On the way we saw an interesting looking flight of stairs built into the side of a hill called Tilligery Lookout. Curiosity got the best of me and we stopped for a walk up. When we reached the top there were a few trails leading in different directions, but it wasn't a great lookout.

I read somewhere that Tilligery means “pelican”. We didn't see any pelicans at (or from) the lookout, but we did meet a few when we stopped for lunch. We ate outside at a beach at Lemon Tree Passage and within minutes of setting the food down we were surrounded by 4 - 5 pelicans. Pelicans are big birds. It was a little creepy, so we didn't stay too long.

Finally we made it to Tomaree and did the walk up Tomaree Head. There were great views of Port Stephens and some outlying wildlife preserve islands. We could also see down to Zenith beach at the bottom and saw dolphins swimming! Half way down the hill, we took a detour to check out some World War II gun emplacements. One of the emplacements had a bunk area attached to it where the soldiers stayed between lookouts.

After the hike down we went to Zenith Beach to have a look. By the time we got there the dolphins were gone, but SPie had fun playing in the sand and chasing the water off the beach back out to sea.

Some of the pictures in the random flicker set at the top of the blog are from Tomaree and Tilligery Lookout, so I haven't added pictures to this post.