Kayaking the Bellinger River is One of NSW’s Underrated Day Paddles

With the mist-shrouded Dorrigo Mountains and famous Old Man Dreaming as your backdrop, this day paddle of the Bellinger River takes you through rainforests, past willow-lined banks, red basalt outcrops, and farmlands where you pause your paddle for the cattle.

 

We Are Explorers acknowledges that this adventure is located on the traditional Country of the Gumbaynir people who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them as the Traditional Custodians and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

I recently moved back to the Bellingen Shire where I was lucky enough to grow up, but it took a weekend on the Bellinger River to really drive home how lucky I am to live here and that my region is one of the best paddling destinations in NSW (in my biased local opinion).

The river connects all the major towns of the area. It winds its way from the freshwater springs and waterfalls nestled in Gondwana rainforests in Dorrigo, to the foothills and swimming holes of the verdant Bellinger Valley, through farmlands and rolling hills to the ocean at Urunga. The river is the lifeblood of the Bellingen Shire and I paddled it from mountains to sea.

Without kayaks or gear of my own, I opted to spend the day paddling just one section of the river with some experts who know its bends like the back of their hands – Bellingen Canoe Adventures.

Quick Facts

Distance: Approx. 11km
Duration: 3 hours (with plenty of swim stops!)
Nearest town: Bellingen
Skill level: Beginner-Intermediate

How to Get to the Bellinger River

From Sydney to Gordonville Crossing, where we put our kayaks in the river, is around a five hour and 45 minute drive or around ten minutes from Bellingen.

It’s possible to start paddling from anywhere between Thora all the way to Urunga, however in total, it’s a 20-30km trip and is recommended only for experienced paddlers.

Read more: Remember to Leave No Trace

Skill Level

Beginner-Intermediate

The section we paddled was beginner friendly, but the Bellinger River has many points where you can launch a kayak from and enjoy a paddle as long or as short as you wish. Just be aware that some sections do have rapids (varying from a little fun to some seriously spicy ones), which would up the skill level to intermediate.

Being a subtropical temperate, the region experiences a lot of rainfall and quite serious flooding so it’s paramount to check river conditions and seek local advice prior to heading out. Even if the current weather is good, previous weeks can leave areas dry and unpaddle-able or too high and filled by dangerous currents and debris.

Bellingen Canoe Adventures offers canoe hire (alongside information on the best places to paddle) and a range of different tours based on skill, weather, and river levels at the time. Have a chat with the friendly team and they’ll help advise you which canoe trip is best for your skill level.

Be warned! There is a chance you could end up in the drink!

Essential Gear

• Sunscreen and make sure to top up after every dip (I learnt this the hard way)
• Hat
• Sunglasses (best with a strap in case you capsize)
• Water
• Phone (with a waterproof phone case to be safe)
• Kayak and life vest* (if you’re doing it yourself)
• First aid kit
• A lifejacket is NON-NEGOTIABLE as the river conditions change rapidly and even when it seems calm, may have dangerous undercurrents and debris.

What It’s Like to Paddle the Bellinger River

Embarking the day with an 8am start, myself, my old school friend (and fellow local) Chloe, and a friendly family of four met the lovely owners of Bellingen Canoe Adventures, Jody and Dan.

We all drove to Lavenders Bridge in Bellingen, which would be our end point and proved to be a great place to cool our sunburn and aching arms afterward. Then we jumped in the bus and headed to Gordonville Crossing, roughly a ten-minute drive from Bellingen township, to launch our kayaks and start our paddle.

The Bellinger River begins at the springs in Dorrigo Mountain but the paddling fun begins around Thora. Prior to Thora, the river is making its way down the mountain in the form of various waterfalls within Dorrigo National Park.

After securing our life jackets and setting sail, Dan gave us an incredible rundown of the geography and history of the river, sharing the ancient Dreaming stories of the Gumbaynir people, as we paddled under the looming gaze of Old Man Dreaming’s mountainous profile.

What first hit me was just how much the river landscapes shifted around every corner. We started with farmland surrounding us, where verdant green pastures juxtaposed the brilliant blue of the 19-million-year-old Dorrigo/Ebor volcanic mountain ranges.

With the shallow crystal-clear water beneath us, the colourful rocks shone through, broken up only occasionally by the startling vibrant green of riverine seagrass. At times it grew deeper and we used our paddles to see if they’d  touch the bottom… They didn’t.

Before we knew it, we were passing kilometres of tall, sparse Bunyan pines, with rocky shorelines where the debris of past floods still lingered. Cows stood in the shallows watching us curiously, mooing when we got too close to their calves.

Shorelines dripped with greenery, wild bushland dotted with trees and plants of seemingly every variety – cabbage palms, ferns, weeping willows, with leaves and roots outstretched toward the water.

Paddling underneath we tried, and failed, to avoid branches to the face and the river cackled with laughter – our own and probably a secret chuckle or two from the river itself.

The weather was perfect after a few days of light rain and the sun shining above us. The river ebbed and flowed as they do and the water changed from gloriously calm one minute to some slightly bumpy (but crazy fun) rapids the next.

In the blink of an eye and turn of a corner we approached shores that are iconic to Bellingen and I knew we were nearing the end of our journey.

We passed swimming holes and rope swings I recalled from my childhood days and yet couldn’t find again on a map if you paid me. We found Dan’s favourite stopping points and pulled up our kayaks for a water break (to refresh our insides and outsides) and even did a section of body rafting (floating kayak-free) down rapids, with a few bruised butts and a lot of laughter.

Read more: Staying Safe Around Swimming Holes and Waterfalls

The river provides moisture for our local produce, water for our cattle and native animals, a leisure activity for locals and tourists, and most importantly a spiritual place to connect with nature and what is ultimately our lifeblood – water.