Nymboida

Today turned out to be exactly the reason I love travelling - the unplanned adventure. Over breakfast we were tossing up between two routes...a longer route through two national parks or a shorter (but still 3 hrs) scenic route. The scenic route won out as it passed a canor centre so we took some misty river photos and departed Ulmarra and the Pacific Highway for the Waterfall Way.

The Nymboida Canoe Centre was probably 45 minutes away and we weren't sure it'd be open, but a friendly chap named Gray arrive shortly after us and kitted us out. He gave us a simpler, shorter route over seven rapids and drew dust maps on the ground for the trickier passes before throwing us in his 4WD and taking us to the get in. He briefed us about platypus, water dragon, python and turtles and set to pick us up a few hours later.

We paddled upstream in the hope of playpus but enjoyed the morning sun despite no sightings. However a lazy meander down the river took in spectacular scenery and some fab wildlife. We did see two playpus, alas not up close, as well as a turtle, parrots, kookaburra and ducks, as well as some curious cows! The rapids were mostly low level given the dry winter although an overly-early set up for rapid 4 briefly caused us an undue amount of worry!

Nonetheless, we made the get out a few minutes early and had a fantastic time on the water in the sunshine, before being driven back to the centre for coffee. A superb and unexpected day trip 😊Read more