The beautiful Coorabakh National Park is an hour’s drive from our home in Port Macquarie. There are countless amazing places to visit in the National Park, with our favourite being Waitui Falls. Its an incredibly picturesque region, great for photography, fresh water swimming and exploring.
Getting to Waitui Falls
From Port Macquarie it took us around an hour to get to Waitui Falls. We took the Pacific Highway until the Johns River turnoff, drove through Johns River and up through Hannam Vale until we reached the falls.
I’d pre-programmed the falls into Google Maps which was good because I lost reception basically as soon as we hit the unsealed roads and also because there wasn’t any signs near the waterfall. I’ve heard from a few people that the locals take the signs down as they don’t want it to get too busy and to be honest, I don’t blame them!
The drive to the falls was pretty east, the road was unsealed, dirt road for quite a while however it was fairly smooth and as long as it wasn’t too wet, it would be fine in a 2WD, so we were very comfortable in Dan’s 4×4 ute. If you’re in a rental car, be sure to check with your cheapest car rental company to see if you can take your car on dirt roads.
Exploring Waitui Falls
It is just a few minutes stroll from where we parked our car, down through the bush to the falls. It’s just a short walk around the falls and from the car, but I would definitely wear joggers and not just thongs as it the ground is quite uneven and slippery when wet.
At the top of the waterfall is a creek with plenty of smaller swimming holes which would be perfect on a nice sunny day!
Waitui Falls isn’t the biggest of waterfalls, but it is a beautiful waterfall surrounded by lush, green bush. The water was crystal clear and quite enticing, even on a dreary, wet day. I can’t even imagine how beautiful it would be in the sunshine.
Swimming in the Falls
I’d worn my swimmers but when we arrived at the falls it was drizzling and cold so I decided against swimming. Once we got to the base of the falls and the ‘beach’, I felt the water and it was chilly but nice so decided we’d come all this way and I would be disappointed if I didn’t swim! The water was actually so lovely and it was wonderful to be swimming whilst it was raining.
I’ll always be a beach girl, but I do love swimming in nice, clean fresh water as you always feel so refreshed afterwards! It wasn’t even cold when we got out, I think because the area was so protected from any wind.
So make sure you pack your swimmers and a towel!
Waitui Falls is a gorgeous place to visit and whilst it would be beautiful all year round, I definitely think that many places are worth visiting in Australia in the winter. We are blessed to have great weather all year round and during winter you’ll often have Waitui Falls all to yourself.
This post was written in collaboration with Ace Rent.
All words are our own.
