blue moiuntains

Thunder

| flynny101

17/04/2026

wild_elly, dw3lla, freedom_runs, mshbee, estonian_pirate and meeeeeeeeeeee

Most people visit Thunder Canyon from the bottom, wandering up from the junction after absieling in from Claustral or Ranon.

After all you get to visit the best bit while also doing another of the Classic 3. The tops not worth it. Said they.

By they are all worth doing once say I.

We’d actually planned this several times. Once we canned it because Gadget and H couldn’t make it.

Then they canned it because I couldn’t make it.

Then we canned it because Jason couldn’t make it.

And we all but canned it this time because Kris and Muz were going to a running race.

But the race fell through so at the last minute Thunder was back in business. Baby!

We head out along the ridge with a couple of options of where we might drop in.

Stupidly I ignored my own advice about wearing long pants in favour of lighter weight and more room in the keg. This meant by the end of the walk in I’d have a bit less skin to carry out too…

About mid ridge we gain a rocky outcrop. The views were stunning and the walking a lot less cutty.

We have more scrub to push through but it’s not as bad from here out.

Finally we get to a spot we think we should drop in so as not to miss a short uppersection of canyon. We follow a minor tributary down hoping it offers an easy break but it cliffs out much too high for our ropes.

We push back out and gain a small nose that leads down, down, down, cliff out.

At least there are ledges below us that have decent trees to reanchor from. Still we seem to be a long way up.

We set a rope and I absiel down and spend a stupidily long time looking for options to get us into the creek. Problem is I can see another ledge below but still can’t tell how far down the creek is. It sounds like a fair cascade or waterfall below.

I have the irrational thought that we are directly above Westaway Falls. The eap shows them a fair bit down stream but I’m second guessing.

I call Jason down for back up. He shares concern about the water echoing below and whether we are missing a good bit of canyon. I show him a couple of options including one a little up stream.

I can see the creek bed there. Says he. He has better eye sight than me but I make out the rocky creek bed amid the dark shadows.

Come on down we call.

We get everyone down to the ledge and Kristo leads the abseil to the Canyon.

Oh Wow this looks like the start of Empress. he calls.

We’d gotten our entry spot on at the start of a short but pretty section, that as Kristo said, had the start of Empress Canyon vibes.

We make our way down stream. some tricky ledge walking and spidermaning keeps us dry for the time being.

The canyon opens a bit and we make our way down a pretty gorge. There’s some scrambling, wading and downclimbs. Basic good fun.

I have the anchor, calls Kris from down canyon right.

But there is an awesome looking slot up here. Calls Jason from back abit canyon right. We check out the slot. It looks great and jason is super keen to drop in but Kris has already set rope. Wait til you see this abseil thou, He calls.

We head down. He is right this abseil looks amazeballs.

Of course this means we’ll need to do a second trip to do the slot option.

Kylie fishing for glowworms
Ms H Bee dropping in

once down…

Glowworms behind waterfalls

While I have visited this section many times from below it always blows me away and coming in from the top was just a bit extra special .

And before long we come to the Claustral Junction. From here down the canyon is well known to all of us and the rest of the trii is prettt cruzy

Remember just like it takes 7 wipes to know for sure you only needed 6, you need to do the canyon yourself to know whether it’s worth it.

They are all worth doing once and I’d definately repeat this one.

BACK

Popeye Canyon Lower

| flynny101

23/11/2025

Jason, Kris, Hywaida, Kylie and Meeeeeee

Continued on from Banks Canyon

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.

just what the doctor ordered.

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