1/11/2020

Rus and me

I’ve been meaning to check this waterfall out for a while now. There’s been a couple of rainy days over recent years where me and Mandy thought about heading up for a look but each time we opted for something different.

Then on Saturday afternoon we found ourselves with nothing to do and decided to go check them out.

I had a rough grid reference but was pretty confident on the nav would be a simple matter of following the lay of the land and so didn’t bother taking a map or compass. Bush fires have denuded the landscape of the scrub the guards and hides it’s secrets. How hard could it be?

We hit the cliff line above the main creek but we are slightly downstream of the falls. A side gully forms a little canyonette and looked offer a way down.

Halfway down it tumbled over a 10m drop… I hadn’t brought ropes. We back track and slip over the ridge, where we catch our first glimps of the falls, and peer down into the next gully

The Falls are pumping nicely after a week of drizzly rain. From out limited view it looked like there might be a canyonette above them. That’s par for the course in this area, a short pagoda style canyons leading to interesting waterfall abseil.

Anyhoo my interest is pipped. I slip down this gully to check if it goes. The ledge the other gully drops over is a steep slippery ramp here. I’m confident I’ll get to the bottom of the falls.

A clap of thunder shakes the hills.

Many moons ago me, Mandy and our old mate Della were caught in a monsterous hail storm exiting coachwood canyon. Lightning crashed down on the ridge top all about us and we were smashed with hail. Mandy has hated being outside in storms ever since.

I retreat up the hill and we make our way back to the car.

I suggest to the awesome canyon fam that it would be worth checking out someday and the gully I scoped would make a good exit. Russ says he is keen.

Come morning. I had a bunch of stuff I needed to get done yet somehow it all got done much quicker than expected. Then it dawned on me, today is someday!

I message Russ to see if he had plans for the afternoon. He didn’t. He did now.

Again I didn’t have a map or compass but felt I had a good feel for the terrain.

Heading off into the not so dense scrub I picked a line along the ridge I was sure ran between the exit gully I scoped yesterday and that creek containing the falls. I was half expecting a little canyonette and maybe a small cliffline to negotiate. We found neither and before we knew it we were standing in a pretty gully on top of the falls.

There were a few options for anchors so we picked the one that offered the best chance of putting us through the waterfall. Now to see if the ropes would reach.

I proceed down to the large ledge. Unfortunately this anchor puts me beside the impact zone… For a bit. The further down I go the wetter I get.

Landing on the ledge there are several options to rebelay but they all look a bit boring with questionable pull-downs. I signal up to Russ to payout more rope

I bridge across a small slot then drop into the full brunt of the fall for the final 12m. It’s a fun abseil.

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Exhilerated and refreshed we slip up the exit gully and back to the car. It was still super early so we topped it off with a quick dash through Alcatraz.

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Party size: 2

Time: East Creek 1hr 20 Alcatraz 1hr 15

If there were no obstacles in the way to disrupt and divert their flow waterfalls would never be so pretty which just goes to show with the right attitude obstacles don’t break you, they make you

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