Northern NSW Road trip 2026

Had a fantastic road trip testing out the Alucab and generally have a great adventure.

Thought I’d try my hand at an interactive map to tie it all together. You should be able to click the icons to take you to the blog post with more photos and stuff

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Endiandra

28/01/2026

Vince, Hywaida, Kris, Kylie and meeee

We had this one ear marked in case water levels were up. They weren’t up too much but we thought what the heck let’s do it anyway. None of us had done it before.

Making it more appealing was it was just a 15min drive from camp meaning a sleep in and trio to the cafe for coffee and stuff.

Notes say to park on next to the bridge and get in the creek.

We do our best billy goat gruff impressions. We are not trolls, honest.

A short walk down the creek brings us to the first abseil

TBH this one is a bit of a nothing abseil, but it does shortcut the top part of the tourist trail.

We get back onto the tourist trail and make our way down. There is a spot where it crosses to the left, now we are not sure if we were just a bit excited but it wasn’t over clear you needed to cross straight over and where we do cross doesn’t seem to be a trail. We make our way down stream a bit and I think I see a bit of flagging tape up the hill on the right.

The Kris and Vince see it too, or at least they think they do. we angle up to where we think the trail is.

No trail. We angle “down stream” a bit before deciding to drop back into the creak.

I put down stream in quotation marks because as we hit the creek and start “down” before Vince says

Isn’t the water flowing the wrong way?

We must have struck up the hill just before as a tributary came in and the main stream swung away.

anyhoo

We pop over the small ridge back into the right creek and pick the tourist trail up again and follow it down as the creek drops below us.

We take a guess at where the second drop might be and descend back down. Spot on.

Vince cleaning R2

From here down the drops come with just short walks between.

It’s a pretty creek and more canyony than I thought it would be.

R3

The abseils are varied too, from easy slabs beside the flow, to stepped ledges through it.

Kylie on R5
Vince R6

Vince on R7

Hywaida R7

Abseils 7, 8 , 9, and 10 were definitely the highlights though R8 has to be the slipperiest slab I’ve ever slipped slab down.

The infinity pool at the base of R8 is without a doubt the prettiest, most awesome natural cliff top pool I’ve been in.

And Absolutely none of us got a photo of it. we have to be fairly well gobsmacked not to get a photo.

Saying that I can see how it would be problematic in high flow.

R9 is the big one. 50m from an exposed, semi hanging anchor.

But it’s an easy run down a gentle slab

Can’t believe I took photos of this but missed the pool up top.

R10 is the most technical of the trip. It has a couple of over hung ledges right in the flow with some foot entrapment hazards to keep you on your game.

Kylie negotiating the second ledge. There a deep grooves here that just feel like they want to grab your boots.
All while copping a face full of white
Hywaida is in there somewhere as Kylie watches on
Kris basically walking on water
Vince on rope duties

From here there is a long creek walk down to R11, then a longer creek walk down to the bottom exit. We choose just to forgo all that and just exit from the base of R10..

It’s a steep narrow, not quite knife edge ridge, full of wait-a-while and leeches but it goes easy enough. and gets us back into the upper section from where we pick up the tourist trail back to the cars.

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” — Phil Jackson

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Bangalore again

27-01-2026

Hywaida, Kris, Vince, Kylie and meeeeeeeeeeeee

Kylie and I had done this one before and really enjoyed it.

It’s a fun little waterfall style canyon and the water was up a little today compared to last time so we were keen to see what it would bring.

view from the tourist lookout
We suit up on the open slabs and then make our way down to the first abseil

There are 2 choices here, You can scramble over and say out of the flow or you can get frothed

Kris Emerging from the white out

There’s a short drop on to a knub, From here there is the option to drop down through a hole behind the chockstone but with the water a bit bumpy we opt to go in front.

it was at that moment Gadget realised she was going first
Kylie leading us into the froth
the creek is beautiful and the water warm.

Next up is the abseil through another hole. This time we go through.

Gadget
Hywaida
Kris
Vince
and more pretty water falls come

we get to the infamous drop that goes down through a massive log, last time we have avoided the hazard using the bolted traverse. this time we followed Jasons advice and cross to creek right and abseils off a tree. Much simpler

And before long we are at the jade pool and exit stage left up a steep Ridgeline back to where we had dropped a car.

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polblue

25/01/2026

Kylie, Jason, David, Wisey, Rakesh, Tanya and meeeee

We had been tossing around what canyon to do today before settling on 1 none of us had done before.

We all pile into Jason’s ute and head across the range.

Ah shit, I meant to reach out to Tanya and Rakesh, Says Kylie. They are up here somewhere.

We pull into the car park.

Hey that’s Tanya and Rakesh…

5 become 7 and we waste no time suiting up and making our way down the creek to the first abseil.

I set up rope and everyone by passes it and scrambles down beside it.

I pull the rope up and follow.

The next couple of drops are a little lame. I’m starting to feel bad.

We had convinced Jason to do this one rather than one of his favourite, high adrenaline, high flow trips and this wasn’t really shaping up. but then we came to the first of the “Spicy Slots”

Kylie and H opt to take the less spicy line ©Kylie
Jason goes full spice ©Kylie

And the rest of use follow.

It’s a tricky start into the white noise.

Just as you are able to see again you realise you are about to drop behind a chock stone and you most defilately don’t want to drop down behind the chock stone.

It’s a battle to resist the push and swing yourself over.

You emerge back into the light then drop off the chockstone into the noise once more.

It’s a fantastic abseil

Everyone one is grinning.

there’s an 800m creek walk to get to the next bit. lets just go back up here and do that again. someone suggests

hmmmm we are here now let;s at least check out the bottom section.

Lucky we did.

The 800m creek walk isn’t too bad and goes quick and the bottom section is the best bit.

looks nice and tame from up top

The creek has spit into 2 channels. A sloping abseil (New anchor has since been installed closer to the lip) brings you to the edge in between them

You step over the edge and both streams recombine.

On your head.

Hello Spicy Slot 2

The next 2 abseils come in quick succession

I scramble down the next one but signal up to the others that it isn’t worth it as there looked to be a nice exit from the ledge they are on.

The exit began on a steep loose scree slope but soon got steeper and looser before getting looser and steeper….

Other than the steepness and the looseness it was fairly easy going. The notes said to get to a certain elevation and then traverse around. While that would cut off some elevation gain it looked long and convoluted so we just went straight up and over a minor nose then dropped down onto the road not to far from the car park.

I nodded, pretending to be a hundred times more courageous than I felt.  Lisa Tawn Bergren.

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GLOUCESTER

24/01/2026

Jason, Dave, Wisey, Kylie and Me

Dr Forster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain.

He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle

and never went there again.

Ah English, where Forster rhymes with Gloucester and neither sounds like how they are spelt.

Anyhoo

What better way to pop my Barrington cherry than with a run through the upper section of Gloucester canyon.

Jason and Kylie had done it numerous times before at much higher water levels so today was shaping up to be fairy chill.

We had met Jason and Dave at camp the night before.

H had rolled in sometime through the night and we were all up early and eager.

It’s a short walk in and in high spirits we suit up and make our way down to the first abseil.

Kylie sets the rope and H leads the first drop
Jasons declares ropes are for the vanquished and jumps from a slippery stance
Kylie handling the rope duties ©Dave
The next one is fairly basic down beside a smaller fall

A short hop skip and a jump down stream and we arrive at what we are here for.

The Famous chock stone abseil.

But to get there requires a short abseil and traverse

On their previous trips the water levels had been too high to attempt this one and there is the option to scramble out and do a dry line from high up just down stream of the chock stones.

Conditions today however are perfect so Jason sets a line and I traverse out and set the main drop

Jason follows me out and leads the big one

There are two redirects in place on this drop. The first gets you out, away from a sloping ledge that forms just as the water funnels into a ferocious torrent, the second keeps you out of the hydraulic that forms in high flow at the base. Jason sets them both for us to follow

Me at the second redirect ©Dave

it’s a stunningly beautiful waterfall.

And the view back up to it from just downstream is iconic

There was a bit of horsing around

It was still early in the day. We were tossing up the idea of continuing downstream and completing the lower section. Jason had done it before and thought it was interesting.

The other option was to play around here.

It would be cool to get on top of the chock stone say Wisey.

There is the dry line option, said some one.

We scrmble up the start of the exit track and find our way across to the dry line.

It’s a bit down stream of the chock stones but I manage to swing across to the upper stone to help the following party with a stuck rope (Notes say to throw the pull cord over the chockstone. This lead to the stuck rope. If the flow isn’t too high just bring the pull strand down with you. it pulls fine.)

then drop in.

Jas, Wisey and Dave follow me. It’s a surprisingly fun abseil and we opt to run repeat son it for funzies.

©Jason

Then we head on out and enjoy a relaxing afternoon at Camp

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people: WC Fields

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