Kayaking the Kangaroo River: The Best Way to See Kangaroo Valley

The simplest option, and the one to start with: hire a canoe or kayak on the bank near Hampden Bridge and put in within minutes. Operators run single and double kayaks, canoes and SUPs, with life jackets included and a quick safety briefing, so you can be on the water with almost no planning beyond a booking.

It’s ideal for first-timers and families — the staff point you at the best stretch for the day’s conditions, the doubles and canoes make it easy to take small children, and the half-day window is plenty to reach the quiet upstream reaches and back. On a hot summer weekend the hire fleet gets busy, so book ahead and aim for an early start.

Head upstream from the bridge for the postcard stretch — quiet water, overhanging casuarinas, sandstone walls and good swimming holes the further you go. It’s an out-and-back, so there’s no shuttle to organise and no commitment: turn around whenever you’ve had enough, and let the gentle current carry you back.

This is the stretch that defines a Kangaroo Valley paddle, and it suits everyone from solo paddlers to families in canoes. Two to three hours return at an easy pace gets you well into the quiet reaches and back with time for a swim, and an early start has the whole stretch close to empty.

The Bendeela area offers calm water and the valley’s best wildlife — wombats grazing the banks at dusk and rich birdlife along the reaches. A gentle paddle here doubles as a wildlife cruise, and timing it for late afternoon means you can finish on the flats just as the wombats emerge to feed.

It’s a quieter, more contemplative stretch than the busy bridge reach, better suited to a slow drift than a workout. Keep your distance from the wildlife, paddle softly, and you’ll often have herons, kingfishers and the occasional wombat on the bank to yourself.

Several calm, shaded spots upstream are good for a swim on a hot day — clear green water, a flat rock to sit on, and the cliffs for shade. They’re the natural reward at the far end of an upstream paddle, or a destination in their own right when the valley is baking in summer.

The important caveat is that there are no patrolled swimming areas anywhere on the river. You have to judge the conditions yourself, supervise children closely, and stay out of the water entirely after heavy rain, when levels and currents change fast. Treated sensibly, it’s one of the loveliest free things to do in the valley.