It teemed down overnight at camp. But our trusty tarp kept us cozy and by morning the sun was peaking through the clouds.
We had said goodbye to Levis and Monica and talked ourselves into another short canyon while we were out here.
Kylie, Jason and I had visited the top couple of sections of Popeye Canyon as a day walk a few weeks earlier which had some pretty bits in it, and so we were keen to have a look at the lower section.
I cooked up a plan to head straight down from camp to the grid reference that the Jamison guide lists as the start of Popeye (a kilometre or so below the upper section).
We start down a ridge in between two faint gullies. These soon join to become a stoney bottom creek that tumbles over a substantial cliff line. We only brought a short rope with us today so make our way a bit further long the left hand bank and find a way down into what we came to christen MCPCC. Mega Clear Path Creek Canyon.
heading out to enter via the upper section may have been easier.
Anyhoo we find ourselves in Popeye creek. It’s not looking like much but H and K don light wet suits.
Looks like there’ll be some more creek walking, I’ll suit up later, the rest of us say.
10 steps later, literally, like literally 10 steps babes, we round a bend and the creek drops into a tunnel like canyoney section.
This would be the theme for this section of Popeye. boulder hoping interspaced with tunnels and cavey bits. A few abseils and short swims
and awesome company
but not much quality canyon.
Plenty of weirdness thou
we head all the way down to the…… it hurts to say it…. Dingo *fugging* Creek for the final 10m of “canyon”
The plan is to head down said creek to an exit Kylie had mapped out opposite gateway canyon. I’m hopeful this section is similar to the bit below HITW and we can just float with the current.
There was a bit of floating.
A bit of boulder scrambling.
Some scrub bashing.
And lots of sinking knee, sometimes hip, deep into fine sand to have it defy the sand traps and fill the bestards.
I still have sand in places sand has no place being.
Still, it’s a wild and beautiful part of the Bungleboori system worth visiting. Once.
The bottom of Gateway canyon was a welcome site
The walls lining the creek had gone from broken slopes to towering cliffs and I’m wondering just how tricky this exit is going to be.
Surprisingly it’s straight forward, cutting back along a gentle ramp to a not too steep nose that avoided the cliffs altogether.
Nice one Gadget
All in all a fantastic weekend out in the wilderness with my kind of people.
I hadn’t done Banks Canyon since the last time I had done Banks canyon.
At that time we had followed Jamison’s guide and went up North East Canyon. We repeated that route when we visited Nose Dive Canyon.
This time we went directly across and found a rough trail up the major north south gully. It was a bit scrubby to start but once we gained the base of the eastern cliff line it was relatively easy going and lead us up to the even fainter trail in from Rail Motor Ridge.
While slightly longer I think this option was a bit quicker as it avoided problem solving some sketchy scrambles in North East and was relatively easy going.
Banks is darker and more constricted than Hole in the Wall and the upper section is more sustained, it just seems to keep going.
And being a bit less visited it has a wilder, more adventurous feel. There’s a bit of problem solving in terms of anchors and down climbs and duck under and squeezes. Which I love.
It starts Green and Lush
and soon drops into a deep dark hole
deep pools lead to tight squeezes
Blue Mountains canyons often have short upper sections that cut through the Banks Sandstone layer. These are usually low quality. Occasionally, though, upper sections, like the ones in Hole in the Wall, South Bowen or Bell are surprisingly high quality. But the upper section in Banks is exceptionally good. Thus the name.
did I mention tight squeezey bits?
There are 3 or 4 short abseils in the upper section, some with tricky starts, some ending in tricky to get out of (unless you are skinnier than me) pools. Some end in dark holes. Some all three.
We had slowed down quite a bit in Banks. Partly because of the problem solving, partly just to soak it in.
But eventually we emerge back into the light.
We are just about at the junction, says someone. We’ll start heading down.
I’m sure there’s another abseil. Say I. I remember a longer one.
We begin boulder hoping and get out on what appears to be a track on the banks.
I dont’remember this, says I
and soon the creek plummets below us and we are forced to back track as bit to get back in.
A tricky down climb later we come to the biggest drop of our trip. An 18m abseil into the wider, shorter lower section
Kylie makes her way down
The water is so clear
1 more abseil gets us to the junction with the Bungleboori/ Dingo Creek
What’s with canyon rocks looking like hulk smash fists?
There is reportedly a tricky exit downstream but this section of the Bungleboori/Dingo creek from Banks upstream past Hole in the Wall to the exit is remarkably beautiful, especially in the soft light of a slightly over cast day. we go upstream.
From here we make our way back to camp to recover for Popeye
Kylie, Hywaida, Kris, Jason, Monhaka, Levis and meeeeee,
We were itching to just get out and soak up the bush.
We may have got soaked in the bush.
It was a drizzly start to the weekend but undeterred we found ourselves making our way along the entry route with overnight packs and a sense of excitement.
Kylie and I had been held up behind a traffic accident so Monica and Jason already had tents set up and camp established by the time we roll in.
We pitch our tarp, cook a warm meal and settle in out of the drizzle.
Levis arrives a bit later, the drizzle is a bit heavier so there wasn’t a lot in the way of introducing him to the gang.
Kris and Hywaida join us at the crack of dawn and we head off to visit Hole in the Wall canyon.
Hole in the Wall is a classic Blue Mountains canyon consisting of 2 deep, beautiful slots separated by a short creek walk.
Mon entering the upper constriction
The top sections contains some scrambles and wades between deep twisting walls, but no abseils
The bottom sections starts with an abseil into a very pretty pool
and then straight into the glowworm cave.
The glowworm cave is different every time I visit.
This time was probably the least spectacular display of worms. To be fair it was cold and wet outside, so potentially less insects to attract into their web, and it is early ion the season.
The hydrology of the cave also changes. The exit squeeze down to the left has long since collapsed. But what has been a deep swim requiring a difficult exit in recent years has silted up again resulting in a shallow wade.
Still it’s not as bad as it was in the early 2000s when you had to belly crawl in.
Then there’s the exit. Every year I think is this the year I’m too fat to make it. I’m not built for caving.
Jason in the green pool
Mon
Kylie in the lower section of the lower section
Levis’ mate Jackie
The final abseil
Lush green walls
And the final little waterfall before the Hole in the Wall of the Bungleboori
From here we head upstream.
Yeah yeah I know this creek has been officially renamed “Dingo creek” and has been since 2006 but that really is an unimaginative name for such a beautiful creek. On the old 1 inch to the mile Wallerawang map Dingo creek was marked as a small side creek (with an impressive rock arch). The major creek was Bungleboori Creek. The Southern branch that creek lower down was called Bungleboori creek, Nine Mile branch in reference to the Newnes Railway.
I’m assuming Bungleboori was the native name.
Anyhoo, we head upstream to the lunch rock at the usual HITW exit, we have made good time and enjoy a quick bite to eat in the drizzle before crossing the creek and heading up the other side for your next adventure.
It had been a hectic week, we needed to get out and wanted to do something neither of us had done before but had limited time.
What about Hand Over Hand? It’s suppose to be a short half day.
Kylie did a quick bit of research and noted the trace on ropewiki did not match the description on ropewiki. While the notes mention several exit options the main description was for the shorter exit. The trace was for the longer exit if you went down South Bowen.
TBF the South Bowen option would make a good short day trip but if you had just glanced over the description expecting a couple of hours then blindly followed the trace you’d be in for a shock.
With mapping apps like alltrails becoming more popular this is becoming a bit of an issue. There have been reports of people looking for the infinity pool at the end of Fortress or the bush walker route to Dalpura but unknowingly loading the GPX trace for the canyon trips instead and getting themselves into trouble.
Don’t get me wrong, Alltrails and other mapping apps are a handy resource, but like any tool you need to know how to use them.
A good tip is to start with the premise that you have no idea who uploaded it, what their skill and experience is (an easy rock scramble for a gun climber might induce a BLM (Bowel Liquifying Moment) to the average canyoner). You don’t know what information or directions they themselves were following or if they just stumbled along and got lucky. You don’t know if it’s their trace or one they got off someone who got it off someone who got it off someone. Hell, you don’t even know if they have actually done the route, it might be just a speculatively drawn line on a map.
So, load it onto your mapping app and have a good look. Does it look to follow the best contours? Are there other options? Why does it do that big zigzag at the cliff? And does it match your expectations from the description?
Cross referencing the track notes with other sources and trip reports will also give you a broader understanding of the trip.
Anyhoo, enough pontification. that side track was longer than the trip and maybe well over the top for experienced canyoners on a simple trip like HoH but it’s how we role.
Now onto the canyon.
We leave home at the crack of 10:30am and make our way across to park up at the start of the Mount Wilson East Power Line fire trail. A short distance down here and we swing down under the powerlines.
The description hinted at horrendous scrub in the creek so I had hoped to drop in a little lower. I choose a nose I hoped goes between two side creeks and we make easy time down to the cliff line.
Right creek looks like it cliffs out. Calls I
Left looks like it goes, answers Gadget.
I make my way across and scramble into the side of the side creek. In doing so I disturb the biggest copperhead snake I’ve ever seen. Chunky boi makes a bee line toward Kylie.
Snake coming directly at you! warns I
WTF! yells Kylie. But in long form. This is no time for three letter acronyms.
Snekie snek dodges her ankles and disappears into scrub.
Well that was fun.
We gain the creek. Scrub and dead fall awaits. We hadn’t saved ourselves as much creek bashing as I hoped but we make our way down to the upper section of canyon.
It starts with a bit of promise, with a crystal clear pool below a small down climb as the cliffs close in.
But to call it an upper section is a stretch.
The “canyon” opens back out and a short way down the creek the cliff open as well. There is what looks to be a gentle ridge entering on the left. In hindsight this could be a much better spot to enter. It’s not to far a divert if you want to head up stream to bask in the glory of the upper section and it would miss a 1km of creek bashing.
We all know I have a rep for horrendous scrub bashes to canyons of questionable quality but up until now even I was wondering if this one was going to be worth it.
Just downstream the bottom bit makes up for it.
Gadget above the first drop
One of the few keeper potholes in the Bluies.
There is a couple of ways to get out of the pothole. 1. Scramble out over the lip or, 2. duck under and swim through an arch
Water levels looks low so scrambling over the slippery walls may prove difficult and we couldn’t see if the tight duck under was clear so we opted to by pass over the top and abseil in the side.
Once down I thought I’d try the duck under. It’s a bit deep to be called a “Duck Under” it’s a full on swim under and it’s silted up making a tight squeeze.
yes I chickened out. Got my head under the arch and thought screw that for fun
pretty but
A lot of these little side canyons have 1 really nice chamber and that’s it. I was kinda expecting that to be the case here but what we got was a very beautiful series of enclosed dells. it reminded me a bit of an untouched deep pass.
the water clarity was amazing
and the canyon opens up. We are a bit above the junction with South Bowen but follow a break in the cliff lines up to the left where a rough bush walkers trail leads up back up to the powerlines near where we first dropped in.
Seeing places few others see and doing things few others do is what it’s about
About 3hrs car to car with a lot of photo phaffing
Popeye creek pops in and out of canyon sections along much of its course and it’s one I’d not done before.
A big Saturday trip had been foiled by thunderstorms and we just needed to shake out the cobwebs but couldn’t be arsed repacking ropes and stuff so thought why not have a look at some non abseil sections in Popeye.
Meeting at the crack of 10am, or there abouts we make our way in in no time.
We’d be entering the canyon a long way upstream of where the jamieson guide recommends but not too far from the increasingly popular Popeye falls.
The creek cuts a deep, promising looking cleft in the sandstone.
A short section of narrow u bends hide a pleasant little canyon.
There’s a bit of bridging to stay dry above the knees. But the water is a pleasant temp anyway
Not the figure 8 pool
It is very pretty.
Parts very similar to the Dumbano tunnels.
We are already impressed. the canyon opens up a bit and Waratahs line the banks.
Waratahs along a spur off Waratah ridge? Who would have thunk it
And soon we come to the falls.
Most visitors to here avoid the canyon bit and keep their feet dry by scrambling down the nose.
It’s a funky little waterfall through an arch in a side creek
We phaff about with photos for a bit, we have to pool all to ourselves., but then push on downstream to the next canyon section.
A bit wider and deeper it’s a nice walk through section
It’s nice
Again the canyon opens out. We believe it’s a 1km scrub bash down to the next bit so, happy with our easy day, we retrace our steps back up to the waterfall. A crowd of people are here now.
There’s an easier way in, says old mate sucking in a vape.
We came that way, replies Ellie very politely. We just had a look at some other stuff while out here.
We leave the guards and scramble out into the cliff top for lunch.
sleepwhenwearedead 