Bob told me about this one a while ago but I hadn’t managed to go for a look for it yet.
Apparently some time in the distant past they explored it, looking in from the top, then finding their way to the bottom. They thought it was 2 abseils and dragged logs in for anchors. Only just past the second drop where they expected it to open out was a 3rd drop… with no anchor point. Lucky they had some kids with them and they lowered one down to drag some more logs up to jam between the canyon walls.
Anyhoo me and Tal had nothing on so we decided to go for a walk to see if we could find it. Bob had given me some good directions but I still managed to swerve a little to far right trying to avoid the worst of the scrub, still thinking I was on top of the ridge so not checking the compass we ended up on a little spur.
Back tracking we regain the main ridge. Thinking Tal would be hating me for the scrub I asked if he just wanted to head back to the car or continue on.
Continue on says he.
We work our way down into the little depression that would eventually become the canyon but skirt around the side of it to get a look in from the top.
The veiws from the end of the ridge were outstanding.
Photos do not do this landscape justice, these pagoda cliff lines were 30-40m tall
We enjoyed a bit of lunch on top of a fantastic pagoda. Bob tells me there is a colony of Broad-Headed snakes that frequent this area and we spend some time peering into crevices but have no luck in seeing any.
With a little look around we spie a likely route back up from the valley below then head off to check out the canyon.
We hadn’t really planned to drop in today, just a scouting mission but we had thrown the ropes in at the last minute just in chase.
The short canyon looked as awesome as Bob had described, an arcing slot that dropped steeply through the cliff line. But it sounded like there was a bit of flow over the falls.
we make our way back along the tops and find a way to scramble down just as the canyon begines to slot up. A short way in there’s a down climb to a short pool. Crystal clear, deep enough to jump into but freezing cold. We back track slightly to see if we could get past on leadges and drop in on the other side.
We make our way along a serries of thin ledges but the further we go the less options to set up an abseil. We do, however spy the top of the first drop. The trickle of water in the creek srpays out from the wall. We’d definately be getting wet. We hadn’t planned on that so we deside to stick with plan A and back track out.
Know I know the way in and what to expect it will be on the list to do at a later date.
A slot I thought may give access back up but nope.
Looking back up to the start of the canyonLooking down on the exit portalHmmm to deep to wade, too wide to straddle
“You don’t have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.” –Annie Dillard
Julie invited me and Ed out on a trip out to one of the less raved about canyons on the Southern Bungleboori, accessed off Waratah ridge and we weren’t about to say no.
The original plan was to do 4 Dope but after all the rain the Julie suggested Dead Tree (AKA “Dead Log” in the Jameison guide) instead as 4 Dope required 1km of wading, swimming and, scrambling upstream to exit the Bunglebooori which may well be pumping.
I had previously read on Dave Nobles blog that he hadn’t thought much of the canyon on his first trip through (thou that was at a time when canyons like Rocky Crk, Crikey, Steep crk… were still being discovered) and while on a much later trip he was more impressed with it, of the 2 he still preferred 4 Dope. So even though Julie assured me she liked Dead Tree better I didn’t have high expectations for a spectacular constriction.
Whether it was these low expectations, the extra water flow or a combination of both I thought it was a great trip through a very pretty constriction with plenty of challenges to keep you thinking.
Anyhoo I get ahead of myself.
Oddly the Jameison guide suggests 1 day for 4 Dope but, even though it has a shorter walk in and out, suggests a “long day” for Dead ‘Log’ I’m figuring it must be slow going in the canyon so was a little surprised with reasonable starting time and we roll out of my place a little after 8.30am.
The Waratah Ridge car park was empty when we arrived (though had another 3 cars by the time we returned) and the walk out was fairly uneventful with a clear trail for fair way before we veer off the main ridge and head into trackless scrub. Julie is navigating and I enjoy just tagging along.
We wander out to the end of our ridge to a big pagoda complex that offers views out over the trackless wilderness of the Southern Bungleboori.
then we back track slightly and drop into our creek
Delicate irons stone structures
Themighty cliffs of the Bungleboori
Julie leading out across a small ridge
Doesn’t look like much ahead
Avoiding an abseil via a Plately pagoda and a slippery chute
Straight away we are greeted with a very pretty pool at the base of a small cascade. I set the little camera up in live comp mode and leave it recording as we don wetsuits and harness’s
This pool was crystal clear and looked fairly still but Olympus live comp mode compiles images in a basic histogram type thing that keeps adding the bright sections to the background image and them blends it all together in camera. The guide says it’s for getting good fireworks photos but it is great for waterfalls and foam/leaf swirls too. Here foam bubbles are captured in a slow swirl
Next up we are straight into a cool little tunnel.
Cool in more ways than one. brrrr. fresh
Ed follows Julie into the darkness
It was a short swim through darkness
What follows is a bit of a slog down the gully. It wasn’t too bad but lots of dead fall, peeled bark and washed down stick jams to negotiate between some slippery boulder scrambles.
And then the canyon closed in and we were met with a lot of tricky little down climbs and abseils that looked higher than they were. You’d be squeezing down a hole, trying work out how to get your foot over the next ledge by feel as you couldn’t see then you realise that ledge was the floor…
With the water levels up a little the waterfalls were all very pretty and a few of the abseils had you swinging under them. it was all very enjoyable.
Julie and Ed at the drop into the constriction, we ended up down climbing rather than roping upJulie making her way down a very slippery, dead tree/log with an old sling at the bottomAnother drop down a Dead Tree/log follows, this time it stops 2 meters or so from the water level so a rope is needed.The constriction was narrow, deep and dark in placesEd squeezes down an tight hole on one of the many awkward abseils.Canyon formation
Julie and Ed in the Canyon Formation
Canyon formation
Ed in the canyon
Canyon formation
Julie on another tight abseil with a tricky start
click images to enlarge
Ed on rope with Julie looking on from below
Canyon formation
I’m sure the little extra water flow added to the experience
Julie making her way through the canyon
click to enlarge images
Ed on rope, Julie on photo duties below.Ed watching Julie disappear down into one of the darker chambers
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Ed and Julie in the canyon
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Click to enbiggen
Julie on the final abseilEd on the final abseilJust above the junction with the ‘Boori
After the coolness in the canyon we scrambled up into a patch of sunlight to thaw out and grab a bite to eat and then it was back into the water and down stream on the Boori.
Type 1 fun*, says Julie as for the most part we lie back on our packs and let the extra current take us. Some short, shallow rapids were shot. Sure the video makes it look tame but it felt fast and fun at the time and sure beat wading up stream.
Julie letting the current do the work
We forgo the exit suggested in the guide and continue down to the one next to Arch canyon. This is a fairly easy pass with a bit of route finding but with slight side trips offers nice views over the arch, only slightly obscured by trees.
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click images to expanderise
Back on the ridge top it’s fairly easy going. The trail comes and goes from clear as clear, well trodden and defined to nothing but the scrub is sparce and we know we just need to follow the tops. Eventually we find the trail proper and it’s an easy march back to the car park.
A most enjoyable day
Party size: 3 all experienced
Time: 8.5hrs car to car
After all the rain there was a lot of fungi out and about and we spotted some nice looking ones. If you can identify any of them I’d love to see it in the comments below
Don’t eat the red ones: Boletellus obscurecoccineus willkilluious deadii
White ones. What ever you do don’t eat the white one. Glowious inthedarki deatheous
I thought these were fallen flowers
Deathiate bi beautii
Like fantasy castles waiting to launch an attack on your mind and kidneys
Tremella fuciformis, the white brain that will fry your brain. Like crystal meth but spongy
Smurfs disguised as ‘srooms. They are sure to kill you. evil smurfs
Shagadelic. 1 sniff and you’ll be talking to a great dane and eating Scooby snacks
If you peel it and boil it for 4hrs then tip the water out and boil it again it’ll probably still kill you
Tpye 1. Good old plain fun. Its fun planning, it’s fun doing and it’s fun looking back on. You really wish you were doing it now
Type 2. It was fun after the fact. You know once you’ve forgotten the 3km of scrub the scratched the crap out of you on the way to the fun and you have also forgotten also the 5000m of vertical you climbed to get out of the fun. You’d definitely do it again
Type 3. You claim it was fun. You tell your mates it was fun. But you’d would never do it again.
Hole In the Wall, Dingo Crk/Bungleboori (part there of), North West and Banks Canyons. Trip report
Party: Edwin, Tal, Meggs, Ben and me
The last time I had done Hole In the Wall canyon Alicia Silverstone was Clueless, Tas Pappas was king of vert skateboarding, Michael Jackson was weird but not yet totally creepy, hypacolour Tee shirts and hammer pants were cool, clear cola was a not so distant disappointing memory and the internet 2.0 was so fresh people still didn’t really know how to do interactive (any git with a website was considered an expert in their field, cough cough mummble)
Oh, and you could drive all the way to the faint foot pad that lead the way in.
I had done the canyon a few times. First time was with Mandy, Scott and Gav(?). I remember needing to shimmey into the tunnel section and then it being a tight squeeze up and over the rock jam to get out. Next time was a few years later with Mandy and Della. This time we we able to walk into the tunnel section and there was a narrow but relatively easy squeeze down to the left through the water under the rock jam. 3rd time was seconding a commercial party. We didn’t make it to the tunnel section. A massive storm hit us in between the 2 canyon sections and we beat a hasty retreat in rapidly rising water. I had a couple of bad experiences guiding that year and that topped it off, no more commercial guiding for me.
Anyhoo, time to revisit the Canyon. Gaz and Bryson couldn’t make it but the rest of the crew were keen. Since the last time I had been through the Wollemi Wilderness area had been declared which meant it was going to be an extra 30min walking either way. With HITW being a relatively short canyon I hatched a plan to link it up with Banks Canyon to make the walk more worth while.
Neither I nor any of the others had done Banks Canyon before but I had memories of people discussing doing them as a double back in the day.
As the weekend neared we started gathering some more info. of course I consulted both Dave’s and Tom’s pages and both indicated that, while a big day it was comfortably doable. Of course they aren’t your average joe canyoner
Other info trickled in
AD couldn’t come but said he remembered doing Banks on it’s own years before and remembered it being a massive day. I was stuffed afterwards, says he
Edwins mate did the trip a week or two before. 8hrs car to car with a party of 2.
Someone else said they did Banks on it’s own, no faffing about 10hrs car to car…
I started to think we might be biting off more than we could chew. As usual we decided to bite anyway and chew like hell.
Well not exactly, we decided to get an earlish start and set a cut off time. If we weren’t at the exit point on Dingo crk, AKA Bungleboori North, by 12 we’d give up on Banks and set it aside for another day.
A guy from work, Dave asked if he could come along, he use to be in Ramblers and wanted to get back into canyoning. I gave him the run down. We’d be leaving my place at 7 at the latest and needed to be efficient on the raps.
6:40 I get a text Dave was just leaving home he’d be 20min late. Now I’m normally accommodating but we didn’t know how long Banks was going to take. I had stressed we didn’t want delays… Sorry Dave, we left without him.
I know the plateau reasonably well but I hadn’t been out to the end of Waratah ridge for a long time and with the pine forest heading out now logged it all looks a bit different so I printed out Toms turn by turn, km by km, guide and promptly left it on the breakfast bar. I took the right at the fork knowing that they both go to the same place but thinking for some reason R was quicker if you had a vehicle with a bit of ground clearance… Needless to say a little bit of consultation over the map was needed before we reached the car park at around 8am. Meggs did point out that was twice I’ve gone wrong on fire trail recently.
Anyway. It’s along walk in but the track is now very well defined and it’s not hard walking out along the ridge line.
Edwin saves energy by levitating down the entry trail
About 1 hr later we reach the junction with the exit track, swing right and make our way down to the start of Hole in the Wall. We decide not to suit up yet and enter the dark confines of the upper constriction.
The first section is narrow and twisty but doesn’t drop all that much. We get wet up to our wastes and manage the few little drops without difficulty
DCIM166GOPRO
We make good time and it’s only 10am as the gorge opens back out and we make our way down to the lower constriction
The walls close back in and we get to the first abseil. Ed declares it can be jumped. We suit up and have a quick bite too eat. The plan is for a few little stops for food rather than 1 long lunch
I’m looking at the pool at the bottom of the drop. The clarity of the water makes it look shallower than it is. I can see a bit of a rock ledge poking out at the right and a big log on the left but the glare of the sun makes it hard to see how far they stick out. The bottom looks rock. I normally don’t balk at jumps but…
It’s deeper than it looks just aim for the center, says Ed. I’m still dubious and decide to down climb. It’s an easy scramble and I check the depths, it’s over 6foot. From the top it looked like 3… Ed and Tal jump. Ben and Meggs decide to rope up and hand over hand.
It’s jumpable, says Ed
The bottom section of HITW is spectacular. An abseil or two later Meggsie calls back up. Does anyone have a torch? This next bit is really dark. Didn’t you bring torches? No. I said you’d need water proof torches. No you didn’t. It was in the text message. I didn’t read that… you’ve done this before. I can’t remember what I did yesterday.
Oh well 2 head torches between 5 people was going to make the cave section interesting. And didn’t it what.
I have never seen so many glowworms in a such a small space. It was, like, totes amazeballs. I’m hoping the go pro is sensitive enough to pick them up as with torches off it really was stunning.
The duck under down to the left is silted up again so it’s up and through a tight squeeze. Either it’s getting smaller or…. It takes us a bit of time to get every one through
1 last abseil and we’re out of HITW and into the wider Dingo crk (Ok, so it’s been marked as Dingo crk since atleast the 74 edition maps but its still hard not to refer to it as the “Boori”).
DCIM166GOPRO
As the guys wade up the gorge I decide it would make a great foto so I take the go pro off the chest strap, switch over to photo mode and click away, then as I go to put it back on the chesty I promptly fumble it and drop it in the dark waters…
Now when I needed a new case I thought the “stealth” case looked cool. I’m now regretting the decision to go the black case that hides the flashing red light. Duck diving in I can’t see jack. Char from the fires two years back still pools in black clumps in the depths. It was dark in the gorge with dappled sun light reflecting off the water. I fish the head torch out, still no good. Damn. I wonder if another party will find it some time in the future.
Giving up I continue up stream, and kick the bloody thing in a wide section 10m up stream of where I dropped it. The Go Pro gods are smiling on me.
I worry we haven’t made as good a time in the lower constriction as I was hoping but as we reach the exit point up stream I check the time and it’s 11:55. we make cut off with 5min to spare. Sorry again, Dave but at this stage I’m glad we didn’t wait for you.
A quick lunch and we consult the track notes for accessing Banks. Cross the river head up on ledges and around right to a gully 50m down stream. We’d spied the gully on the way up and wondered if it would be easier just to wade down stream and access it. The notes hinted at a need to traverse around a bit higher up so we cross over and there are signs others have done the same. Then the faint trail goes no where and turns back down toward the water, 10m down stream of where we’d just crossed.
We wade down and climb up to the right of the gully. There doesn’t seem to be any easy, safe paths up to the base of the upper cliff line but we skirt up the side of the gully regaining it just above the “impassable waterfall” The pass up to the start of North West canyon is a razor grass shrewn scrub bash. Once in NW is easier going. it’s a reasonable little canyon but nothing to write home about. It does how ever give us access up through the cliff lines. The heat up top was oppressive after the cool of the Canyons
I’m getting tired, says Tal, can I wait here instead of doing Banks?
You could mate but you’ve done the hard work and you’re on the wrong side of the Valley. We have to go back down into ‘Boori and up the other side to get home.
Ooooh. OK, we don’t have to bash back up that gully again? Cool I’ll do Banks
We scramble down into the next gully and suit up again. Squeezing into his wetty Tals zipper lets loose… He’s going to have a cold back…
Banks is interesting. Cutting through the upper layer of Banks sandstone, the walls aren’t that deep but it is consistently narrow. There is a lot of sucking in stomachs, squeezing, dragging packs behind as there not enough room for both you and a pack. Even the go pro chest mount had to come off. The abseils in the constrictions are short but interesting. The one into the dark is technical and cool. Duck unders where you have to pass short under water tunnels to get through and one or two tricky down climbs that look like some parties rope up for… The water isn’t flowing as much here and after the crystal clear water of HITW it’s a little stagnant and pongy in places.
Then the creek opens out and it boulder hopping and route finding. 2 final abseils. Nice simple and longer than the others.
and again we’re at Dingo crk, AKA the ‘Boori. Wide and majestic, one report said. A disappointing boulder hopping scrub bash said another.
I’ll go with the former. Wide and majestic. The long swims are very reminiscent of floating down the Wollemgambie, ‘cept you’re going against the current, you’re not on a lilo and you’re pretty shagged from an already big day. Our passage was disturbed by a baby brown snake casually swimming down stream. I would have thought the coldness of the water would have it seeking the nearest rock, log or human to scramble out into the sun but it swam on looking for adventure down stream.
Meggs and Ben saw another sunning itself on a rock not far on… the rest of us missed it.
There wasn’t much boulder hopping in this section but it was becoming more strenuous. In about 40min we were back at the point where Hole in the Wall enters.
The crack in the towering canyon walls where Hole in the Wall flows into Dingo crk, AKA the Bungleboori North branch.
Another 10min up stream to the exit. It’s amazing how much harder this section was the second time around. Obviously after the big hike the legs were starting to get weary but the long swims also took their toll on arms and shoulders. Scrambles that had been simple the first time around seemed to be overly complicated and taxing this time.
I don’t think there is a single submerged rock or stick in this section of creek I didn’t bash my knees, shins, nuts or all 3 on.
We make the exit, hang suits, ropes and harnesses out to dry a bit and then stuff ourselves with chocolate and energy bars. After a bit of a rest make our way out. Its a steep haul to start then a gentle winding trail out along the ridge. Views over the cliff lines are stunning. It’s not a hard walk just a constant one foot in front of the other that seems far longer than the walk in.
So there you are. We managed to do it. I was impressed with Banks but don’t think I’d do it as a trip on it’s own. Going in through Hole in the Wall wouldn’t add much more than maybe 2 or 3hrs to the trip.
So the details are.
Groups size 5, all experienced and capable abseilers, thou we do still help Tal and Ben rope up. Ages 50something 40 something 20 something (or is that 30 somehting) and 2 teen somethings
None of us had done Banks before
Left car park around 8am. Got back around 6. We had a few more delays in HITW than planned and took a fair bit of time finding our path up through NorthWest canyon to the top of Banks Canyon. I then stuffed around a bit trying to fix Tals Zipper before heading in.
We weren’t rushing but didn’t faff with photos and looking about about either. We kept a reasonable steady pace. The trip was around about 20kms and contained around 1000m of elevation gain. It’s a big day but doable if you don’t have any major dramas along the way
We had a 20m rope and a 50m rope. The 20 was enough for all but 3 of the drops, the reason we took 2 was a) I like a back up spare and b) we had planned to stack the abseils in Banks sending the first person down with spare rope to set up the next drop to save time. We didn’t end up doing this as we weren’t that pushed for time.
sleepwhenwearedead 