The Angourie Walk is the northern most part of the Yuraygir Coastal Walk and the section I did is an easy 10k's from Angourie to Red Cliff campground. It passes through stands of coastal wattle and banksia, along soft grassy trails paralleling the beach and up over numerous headlands with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and the coastline stretching north and south.
There are a few meanders around the back of some of the headlands which take you through soft sandy depressions and paperbark swamps but these only add to the visual diversity and variety of the walk and they get you in amongst the birds, goannas and wallabies of which there is an abundance.
If you feel like it there are a few long isolated beaches that can be walked instead of the track. Some sections would only be wise to do at low tide as there isn't anywhere to go as the tide comes in. I walked one section of beach but couldn't seem to find firm sand, even down by the waters edge, so with my pack around 15kg and a lack of motivation decided to give it a miss and kept to the track most of the way afterwards. It seems the older I get the fitter I used to be
It was around 20 degrees and raining as I parked the car and the rain continuing in a steady line of squalls all the way in to the campsite. The views were limited, even from the cliff tops, which didn't allow for much photography but made for pleasant walking, adding nice colours and a nice calm mood to the landscape. Before heading off I made the stupid mistake as I reset my gps of selecting 'reset to factory settings' instead of 'reset trip and track data' losing my custom maps and a bunch of archived walks. I won't repeat the coarse words that were said...
As I was getting close to my planned campsite I came around a narrow corner in the coastal vegetation and face to face with a big muscular eastern grey kangaroo. I had my head down and hood pulled down tight so I didn't see it until the last second giving me an unexpected surprise. I didn't squeal like a girl much but decided to save face, when it leaned towards me and growled, and go the long way around. This turned out to be a bonus because the long way meant following the top of a cliff around to where I got to watch a pod of dolphins surfing - a highlight of the trip.
I woke to a damp crisp day on the Sunday and had an early walk over the nearby headland to watch the sun come up and take a few photos. There was a huge squall at sea and the view from the cliffs was spectacular. The red cliffs, blue ocean and soft red light streaming in below the clods made up for being awake so early.
It was a cool morning so I was relieved when the sun finally did show it's face and I could air my gear out. I had the eager attention of a couple of crows sitting in a tree nearby while I had a coffee and breakfast. After coming back from a nature call and seeing them fly from my gear which was spread out and up into the tree I had a bad vision so had to double check as I was packing that my car keys were securely clipped into the lid pocket of my pack
- Angourie Headland
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- The weather closing in
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- The Red Cliff
- i've holed a couple already! Still you could probably go through about 20 of them to the price of one alpaca (although that is not probably a very environmentally friendly option)…