Up in the Coffs Harbour hinterland, is the magical Orara Valley. With beautiful crystal clear water, lush rainforest and some of the best freshwater 'magic pools' (swimming holes) in the region, it is hard to give it a miss. Further up the Orara, where the river turns to bedrock and the gradient starts to pick up, rapids start to form, such as the 'Rock slide'.
Definitely an unforgettable experience, even with low water - I will be back to see what can be found, further upstream.
With a bucket of rainfall hitting the nearby plateau, I met up with a few local boys and a few boys from the south coast to run the Sandy's Creek section of the Little Murray. With a beautiful sunny day, and good water levels (however, lower than expected) we hit the river, of what I would define as one of the most enjoyable sections to paddle in the region. The river is in majority read and run class III (not too difficult), features some nice fun drops and is about 5-6km in length which takes approximately 3-4 hours to paddle. Sandy's Creek also features a nice 18 foot waterfall (Platypus Plunge) which makes up for its short boney descent, before joining the Little Murray.
With a few swims, and a few injuries within the crew of 7 (myself included) - there were mostly good lines all round. Following the sketchy gorge portage, I took a bit of a pounding after failing to stabilise on the entry to a slide, damaged my knuckles (which are currently very swollen) and in the end had a peaceful swim in the refreshing cool water. In the end, it was an awesome day and it was great to finally be back on the water (the leeches definately loved our presence).
With the warm weather upon us, I decided to check out the magnificent Coachwood Falls of Rosewood Creek - near the Never Never picnic area on the Dorrigo Plateau. With an easy-going walk to reach the falls, we were presented with a beautiful secluded waterfall in amongst the dense rainforest. The water was very cool, but brilliant for a nice refreshing skinny dip with my girlfriend - however, beware of the millions of leeches attached to your legs on the walk out.
Definitely recommended...
I have never really been that interested in any type of 'car sport' but rally driving definitely intrigues me. High speed action on gravel and mud through dense forest is a good mix for some dangerous prangs, and the Coffs Coast rally has surely seen its fair share of this. With the Nambucca stage being held on Saturday 10th September within close vicinity of home (approximately 15km) I snagged up the opportunity and viewed the action for the day. The viewing point was located on the corner of Graces Road and Dyers Loop Road just out of Bowraville and showcased the cars taking a right sweep around a very fast bend before accelerating uphill into further bends.
Unfortunately we did not get too see any carnage, though there was a crash further down at the next spectator point.
On the 14th of May, I took a trek to find 'Battery Falls' on the Upper Little Nymboida River and check out the entrance to the Bangalore Creek canyon. After missing the turn off to Battery Road on the overgrown / dirt tracks of the Ulong-Timmsvale Road and venturing too far, I finally found the turn (unmarked) and continued along in the hope to find the track to Battery Falls. The track is approximately 2km up Battery Road and is marked with a small sign.
Battery Falls is rarely visited (little know of its existance) and was an amazing sight dropping approximately 10-12m. After some quick investigating I deemed the waterfall definitely paddle-able (but required some more water due to the shallowness at the top of the falls). The line is a bit rocky but has an auto boof ledge at the bottom of the fall into a large clear pool. The water was real cold, but I will be back to descend this one in the near future.
Following Battery Falls, I drove to the the Bangalore Creek picnic area and walked to the Bangalore Creek Falls viewing area. This is also known as the start of the Bangalore Creek Canyon which can be descended via the use of ropes and abseiling. I plan to do this at some point, but I will need to buy some gear (ropes, harness, etc) and learn to abseil.
