Yuraygir Coastal Walk: Lake Arragan to Brooms Head, NSW.

Yuraygir Coastal Walk

We have gradually been doing short sections of the Yuraygir Coastal Walk. We first encountered the walk back in 2013. I infamously fell flat on my face and dislocated my finger while walking the Angourie to Shelley Beach section but, despite that, we loved the walk so much that we vowed to do more of it as the opportunity arose.

In 2018 we did the Illaroo to Sandon section and the Minnie Waters to Wooli section from Illaroo Campground. 

In March 2019 we did two more sections from Lake Arragan Campground. We headed south to do the Lake Arragan to Brooms Head section (covered by this blog) and went north to do the Lake Arragan to Shelley Beach Headland section (covered in the next blog).

Lake Arragan to Brooms Head: Grade 4.

Plumbago Beach and Grey Cliff.

From behind our campsite at Lake Arragan Campground we walked south along Plumbago Beach. We scrambled up the distinctive grey cliffs and discovered some rook pools just waiting to be explored.

Grey Cliff.

Rock Pools

This part of the walk is absolutely stunning but please supervise children as the ill defined walking track follows the edge of rugged cliffs to the trig point at Red Cliff. 

Grey Cliff - Red Cliff.

Approaching Red Cliff.

Looking north towards Grey Cliff from Red Cliff.

Here we saw a couple of trendy Instagram types taking risky photos over the cliff. He held the back of her bustier top while she leaned out over the edge. I'm not afraid of heights but I wouldn't want to trust in the latest fashion to keep me safe.

Trig Lookout at Red Cliff.

Looking south towards Brooms Head.

Walking along Red Cliff.

From the trig the path briefly goes out to Red Cliff Road before descending to Red Cliff Beach. The beach is covered in distinctive grey and red stones eroded from the cliffs and rounded over time.

Red Cliff Beach.

The second half of the walk is along the beach to Brooms Head from Red Cliff Campground. We made our way down to the beach early because the steps near Red Cliff Campground are closed due to damage caused by erosion. Anyone doing the full Yuraygir Coastal Walk will need to arrange a boat to get over the river mouth, at the end of this beach, to cross over to Brooms Head. As we are doing the walk in sections we simply turned around and walked back to Lake Arragan.

The entry steps were washed away and the beach to Brooms Head was  badly eroded.

Eastern Grey Kangaroos can be seen grazing all along the coastal track. Grasshoppers seemed to be in plague proportions while we were there. Brown quail and feral Guinea Fowl were having a good feed on the grasshoppers. The Guinea Fowl would suddenly take off on a mad dash in pursuit of the grasshoppers and it was quite a spectacle to watch.

Eastern Grey Kangaroos grazing next to a Yuraygir Coastal Walk information sign.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

Brown Quail and Grasshopper.

Feral Guinea Fowl.

Masked Lapwing showing us its spurs on Red Cliff Road.

In the future we are planning to camp at Brooms Head to do the Brooms Head to Sandon section. Lastly we plan to camp at Red Rock to do the Wooli to Red Rock section. Maybe it would have been a lot simpler to have thrown large backpacks on and walked the 65 km one way but this involves arranging transport at both ends and organising  boats to cross three river mouths. We are happy to potter along and get there eventually. However, doing it our way, we will have to cover about 130 km because we return on each section.