Sunset over the sea on the east coast

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Do you know of anywhere on the east coast of Australia where the sun sets over the sea?
We know of one, but this week we found a second.
A touch over 700kms south of Airlie Beach is a place we had never heard of, until a friend at church suggested that we make it one of our stopovers. 1770.
1770? Yes, Seventeen Seventy. It is one of only a handful of places on the east coast where Cook came ashore during his epic sea voyage of 1770, on HMS Endeavour. Someone had the idea to name the place, after a date and to build a memorial cairn to LEUT James Cook. This was dedicated by the Fleet Commander of the RAN in 1926, while the original HMAS Sydney lay anchored in the bay.  
On the headland at dusk we are joined by about 40 people including backpackers, tour guides offering champagne and a couple of leather clad bikers (who actually arrived after the sun had set).
It is indeed a glorious golden spectacle as the receding sun sets the smoky skyline ablaze. The headland juts out to a northerly point and then bends around to reveal a coastal inlet. From the headland we look west across the swirling river bar to the northern coast meandering in the distance. Although there are differences, it reminds us of the view of the setting sun across Trial Bay, on the mid-north coast of NSW. Four teenage girls on the beach are oblivious to the spectacle behind them as they doggedly check their phones while facing east. How sad!
1770 and Trial Bay are both rather modest. Neither reveal their glory from the highway; both require a traveller to make a detour east to the coast. Both, spectacularly reward the effort.






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