Wooli to Corindi River
22 km (309 km) | 6 hr
You cannot step in the same river twice. ~ Heraclitus
I start before sunrise with a NPWS boat across the Wooli Wooli River – this is a more significant crossing than The Sandon, but once again mobile phone details are available on the NPWS website. The boat captain also mentioned that he is able to arrange a crossing of the Corindi River at Red Rock which might be worth enquiring about. This last day of Yuraygir is quite tide dependent so depending on your starting point and the day’s tide you might be grateful for a boat at Red Rock.
The first part of the Day 4 walk is wild and remote – stunningly beautiful, but probably the only slightly tricky bit of the whole Yuraygir walk; nothing too difficult just some climbs, a few slippery bits, some sharpish rock platforms and the occasional need to make a ‘high road or low road’ decision.
It was a joy for me to finally arrive at Freshwater Beach and a comfortable stroll along the sand followed by a short trek over the headland to the campground at Pebbly Beach. Then a thigh deep wade across Station Creek and more pleasant sand walking past Barcoongere.
A cooling southerly was blowing up, Red Rock was a vermillion sentinel in the distance, and I had a superlative hour or so of iconic beach walking with everything ‘just so’. And then, as happens in life, the cooling southerly became a gale, the cloudy coolness turned to driving rain and when I finally reached the Corindi River it was peak high tide.
Of course, I could have waited a few hours for the tide to recede, but being on an exposed sandbar in the middle of a southerly gale, with warmth and civilisation in sight made the prospect less than ideal. I put on my swimmers and navigated much of the way over the river on sand bars with my pack on my head, disturbing some slumbering sting rays in the process. Finally, I gave in, inflated my pack raft in the wild winds and put my gear inside while I swam the final channel.... It would be possible to swim the deep channel with your pack finely balanced on your head – not ideal but definitely not impossible. As noted above it is possible to arrange a boat passage across the Corindi River when you arrange your Wooli crossing. All that being said, at a lowish tide on a normal day the Corindi River should not be too difficult to cross chest deep.
I should mention the Woopi Connect App. It provides an on-demand public transport service in the areas north of the Coffs Harbour bus network. It works like Uber but at public transport prices. It is a great option if you are completing the Yuraygir walk at Red Rock but want to get to, say, Woolgoolga to connect with long distance transport.