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).
Over the weekend of Saturday, 16th April 2011, I headed to George's Junction - a popular camping spot on the Macleay River with family and friends. I was hoping to find some half decent rapids (both downstream and upstream of the camp spot) but without much gradient and low water, I was only able to find a few class I-II rapids joined with large stretches of flats in-between.
With the lack of 'quality whitewater', I decided to create a 'mudslide' which ended up to be the highlight of the adventure. I will head up again next year and venture further upstream (to steeper gradients) to see if I can find the 'goods'.
On Sunday 13th March 2011 after some decent rainfall in the area we decided to run the Nymboida River from Platypus Flats to Cod Hole. This stretch of river is approximately 9km and contains many class III rapids with a few class IV-V rapids. The level reading on the day at Platypus Flats read at 0.85m and after the usual shuttle setup and gearing up, the five of us put on the river at approximately 11am.
We ran the majority of the rapids except for Rock Bar (a class V rapid with a dangerous undercut) and D1 (Devil's) due to it being too high to safely run center chute and too low to run the river left chute.
Unfortunately, I missed the line on Broken Elbow (was too far right) and got munched in the hole. I had issues rolling due to the aerated water and therefore ended with a swim. Fortunately I was able to make a small eddy river right and not swim the rocky second section/drop of the Elbow which would have been a painful experience.
All in end, it was a great day and I cannot wait to get back on the river. Stay tuned!
