canyon

Dove Canyon

| flynny101

10/01/2024

Gadget and meeeee

After delaying for a day to allow water levels to drop a bit we were keen as mustard to get into this little gem.

Dove Canyon is the quintessential Cradle Mountain canyon and the awesome folk at Cradle Mountain Canyons have done a great job at opening the canyon up and maintaining the entry/exit track as well as the anchors so it’s well worth booking a tour with them if you are in the area but don’t have gear or white water experience.

The canyon has several aquatic hazards to be wary of so most people would be best to book a tour, especially if you aren’t up on how to recognise, navigate and rescue out of that stuff.

Anyhoo. We got going early to get in front of the guide groups and after one of the easiest and prettiest walk-ins ever we reach the get in point.

These bags aren’t going to wet themselves. 🎥©️Kylie

We gear up, go over our notes and abseil in.

A gorgeous little creek greet us. The water was cold but not Bowen creek middle of winter cold so the seland 5mm jacket and John’s were prefect.

We make our way down stream. Already the water is more pushy than anything in the Blue Mountains at normal to high levels so we take our time with the down climbs and assess the eddies at each little jump.

One of the first little pools

Then we come to the first the first of the major obstacles

A five meter jump into swirly white stuff 🎥©️Kylie
You need to pick your landing otherwise it pushes you to the back side of the falls.
Did I say frothy white stuff? The waters around here are steeped in tannins. it’s good for you but froths up ©️Kylie
The Laundry Chute at the exit of the dark tunnel like “Pit” section. Such an awesome feature. Legend has it this is the funnest canyon slide in Australia.
Tea Cup falls has a powerful recirculation in it. If you don’t get it right you’ll get caught in the swirl. At the level we had it’s reasonably easy to escape if you know how but we set up a drogue just to practice the skill in a relatively safe environment 🎥©️Kylie

Once I tested the drogue and worked out the current Kylie just went for it

Then a couple of scrambles and one more slide on Horsey falls

It’s just a bit of fun 🎥©️Kylie
Good old fashion fun

All in all Dove is a beautiful little micro adventure at Cradle Mountain. Heaps of fun but you have to know what you are doing in water.

Once again a massive thanks to the locals for sharing their knowledge and to the crew at Cradle Mountain Canyon for care taking this little gem.

She taught me to relight, relight and relight again: the Avalanches.

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Machinery Creek

| flynny101

9/1/2024

Gadget and meeeeee

The plan was to do Dove today but big dump of rain had spiked the water levels and our local contacts suggested we wait a day for the levels to drop a bit. We were pretty sure they were being cautious with a couple of randoms asking questions but we were happy to take the advice and opted to do Machinery creek instead.

After parking at the bottom it took me a bit to work out the big obvious bridge wasn’t our bridge. The amount water flowing at speed under the big bridge had me a bit 😳

But the correct creek was a lot more enticing. The water was about 15mm off what we were told was the high level (interesting by the time we got back here it had dropped at least 70mm)

Our advice was if we didn’t have a second car to hitch a ride up the hill but there didn’t seem to be too many cars heading our way so we hoofed it up. While there wasn’t much verge at times the we had plenty of warning to get out of the way of the few cars that did pass us.

40 or 50min (or forever ) later we reach the Round Hill Cafe at the top of the hill. Surprisingly there was a little camp area there. Talking to the care taker we discover it had shower, toilet and kitchen area and was only $25 for a powered site! I know where we are staying tonight. Winning!!!

Anyhoo we follow the trail down past some old mine Adits to the start of the canyon.

Enticing. Not.

And soon we were suiting up in a little gorge.

After the slipfest in Urumbilum it took us a bit to trust our footing but the rocks here offered heaps of grip. And soon we were making reasonable time

It threaten to but never really canyoned up.

Still there were some very cool abseils in flow. It reminded me of the better of the Bungonia canyons with good water in it, though the abseils tended to be shorter .

The second abseil is the crux. It lands in an enclosed pool that in high water forms a powerful hydraulic with strainers in the outflow
Even at this level there’s a small recirc and once out of that the water is a bit pushy into those gaps .🎥©️Kylie

It is pretty but
The next few are fairly straightforward
It tries ever so hard to canyon up
The final abseil is the largest at about 30m and is a good finish to the “canyon” section
🎥©️Kylie

We grab a bit to eat in the sun then we’ve got a bit of a walk down stream to finish.

Again, after Urumbilum we are a tad nervous of what this will entail but it’s easy going all the way back to the bridge

Every song has a you that the singer sings to and you’re it this time: Ani

Big thanks to the locals legends who gave us tips and advice.

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Bangalore

| flynny101

31/12/2023

Kylie, Jason, Vince and meeeeeee

It might sound like a tacky German porno from the 80s but Bangalore is a fun canyon/wet abseil trip.

TBH I wasn’t sure what to expect as I had heard it described as more creek than canyon and after yesterdays slip’n’slidefest in Urumbilum we were a little battered.

Once again the forecasts was for rain and severe afternoon storms but the river gauge was still sitting at around a modest 30Ml range and we knew it was more open terrain.

With Jason and Vince carrying the ropes and sharing anchor duties I got to play tourist and take a metric crap load of (mostly bad) photos.

I’m not sure where the creek walking rep came from as you are pretty much straight into it after hitting the creek.

Despite the creek being more open the abseils are in some nice flow. And at these water flows they were pretty chill.

And once again the sunshine defied the forecasts

Kylie in the froth
I always thought the blessed by good luck saying was “hit up the bum by a rainbow” but apparently smacked in the face by a waterfallbow works too.
Or maybe “whacked on the todger“
For an “open creek” it had some nice canyony bits.

The stench at the out flow of this one was spew worthy. Something very dead but yet not dead enough was caught in the log jam.

No drinking the creek water today.

Kylie into the cave
And out the other side 🎥©️Jason

Then we come to the one that contains the log you can squeeze behind but poses a big risk in high flow.

There’s a line of traverse bolts we decide to check out. Vince has never set a traverse before so of course we send him first (we did talk him through it)

Jason is shaking his head.

We normally just sling off that tree over there. Says he

And he has a fair point. The traverse is a bit of dicking around when the tree is far easier and safer to get to and (looking back from the bottom of the drop) gives a far better line anyway.

Moral to the story: Don’t just blindly follow the bolts kids. Sometimes there are better options.

Anyhoo it gave us a bit of practice on a traverse in a non threatening environment.

Vince and Jason at the anchor at the end of the kinda pointless traverse. The low flow line goes behind the log. The tree anchor comes down a much nice line just out of shot to the left (canyon right) and you can walk to it out of the flow easily

There’s an option to exit here. We opt to keep going as it’s a bit of fun

A short creek walk gets us to the next bit

Another odd traverse bolt to get out to a weirdly placed anchor. Jason bemoans the original bolt placement on the other side of the creek had been removed.

The new anchor appears to be for better pulldown but Jason says the other had no issues and was a funner line. 🤷🏻

And still the wet abseils keep coming.
So much fun

And just like that we are at the Jade Pool and our exit. There is 1 more optional drop we could do but as you just go down to come back up we decide to skip it and head out.

The track up is steep but a hell of a lot easier than falling over 2.5km of slippery river rocks.

If Rosewood is the Empress of the north. Bangalore is their Dione Dell (minus dry line options.)

Mr. Burns : You must find the Jade Monkey before the next full moon.

Smithers : Actually, sir, we found the Jade Monkey. It was in your glove compartment.

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Urumbilum

| flynny101

30/12/2023

Vince, Jason, Kylie and meeeeeeeeee

This cyclone might thwart out plans.

What cyclone?

Jasper.

Jasper has smashed far north QLD and the resulting weather systems are peppering the east coast with heavy rain events.

We keep an eye on the river gauges but the ones we are interested in are staying low.

A big storm rolled through the afternoon before and it seemed to rain steadily all night. The river gauge had gone up fractionally.

Drizzly rain was predicted all day with afternoon storms.

Jasons has done it before at batshit silly high flow so at the current water levels we knew had plenty of room to move and opted for an early start to get through the more committing sections before the afternoon storms.

We park the car, suit up and we are into the creek in good spirits. The drizzle has lifted and the sun is out. The rocks are slippery as a well oiled hag fish.

It was my first time meeting Vince in person but he slotted straight in to the group dynamic.

We get to the first drop. Setting up the rope I somehow ended up with an overhand knot around the anchor. I shrug at Vince. I’m really good at this canyoning caper, honest. says I

Luckily he laughs.

Kylie at the bottom of the first abseil
Jason getting ready to descend into the devilish slot. The water might be lowish but the excitement levels are high
Kylie heading down

The top bit of Urumbilum is spectacular and at these water levels it’s fun without being overly spicy.

A couple of the abseils reminded me of Danae but overall it had more of a more Kalang on the wet line in high water feel.

Vince having a shower
Jason on a more open abseil
Kylie cooling off
Vince and Kylie down below. It was suppose to rain all day. I’m getting sun burnt
Product placement fail.

Then comes a section of creek walking.

Did I mention it was as slippery ?

Slipperier than a greased pig on an ice rink.

The creek walking bit sucked fetid arse.

But then came the next bit.

Jason getting it
Last slot was schaaaa weeeeet. Would be epic in high flow 📸©️Jason.

And now we just need to walk down the creek. How goods this we think. A down hill exit to the car shuffle….

Did I mention how slippery it was ?

It was slipperier than the worlds slipperiest thing winning first place at the world slippery championships.

Never have I fallen over so much walking down a creek.

Fun times.

practice your flow state by getting into some dangerous positions: Andy Anderson

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South Bowens.

| flynny101

02/12/2023

Jason Muz and meeeeeeee

When I first did a trip through the upper middle section of South Bowen creek with Ed I thought it was a spectacular canyon and I’ve been meaning to repeat it ever since.

But, despite having a look through the exquisite upper section I haven’t revisited this section until now.

Jas scrambling into a side canyon
Muz abseiling into Bowen creek
Almost plate size

We took a quick look up the Corkscrew section.
©️Jason

We then make our way down stream. There’s a bit of creek walking down through pleasant coachwood forest before it drops into another dark canyon section.

Jason and Muz making their way down the canyon
The cool misty day made the light sweet

It was every bit as beautiful as I remember but now there’s nothing left to do but to scramble out

We are not nouns we are verbs. Stephen Fry

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Crikey

| flynny101

18-11-2023

Continued from Bubblebath

We have a lazy start to the day.

We weren’t expecting the others until 9:30 at the earliest and given our slow going on the ridge we decided to wait til 10.

A couple of cooeees and we thought we heard a faint reply. I slip up the gully a bit to guide them down. More cooees and whistle blasts but no response.

Back at camp we scratch a note in the dirt and head for Crikey. it’s 10:30.

We cross the ‘Boori (dingo creek) and start making up way up the opposite gully. It’s full of dead fall and scrub. It’s slow going and we’d already had a late start.

I spot a break in the cliffs and decide to try to climb out. Kylie is skeptical but we escape the gully and make heaps better time along the ridge.

Dropping into the creek at Kent’s entry (well downstream of Jamieson’s grid reference) we encounter walls of dead fall. So much.

It was a real punish. by the time we get to the canyon we are bruised and bloody and just a little over it.

There are several breaks in the cliff further down. I’d suggest future party’s explore their way down the spur and drop in closer to the canyon proper.

Anyhoo Crikey is deep and dark and our timing wasn’t conductive for photos but Kylie managed to get a few crackers

We reach the ‘Boori…. Bloody “dingo” creek.

We are bashed up and exhausted from battling the dead fall, sticks and scrub.

My memories of my previous trip to crikey was some hard going up the creek to get back to camp.

We have lunch and start making our way up stream

Somehow we pick our way up the banks and avoid strenuous swims or boulder hopping.

It’s about 4:30 when we reach the base of the pass up to camp. We strip out of the wetsuits, wash down in the creek and dry off in the sun before making our way back up.

Below camp we call out and are delighted to hear Dick reply.

Camp.

Unfortunately Sunday morning dawns with me and Kylie having grumbling in our belly’s.

I’m careful where I collect water from and have never had issues before but that’s all we can put it down to.

A bit of running off into the bush and we decide it’s best to skip canyoning today and head back to the cars.

It’s a shame for Dick and Monica to walk all the way out and miss the stunning canyons but it is the wisest choice.

It was a tough walk out. Kylie did it real tough. She’s a trooper.

We have a tough next couple of days. It hit us hard.

Anyhoo

There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

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Bubblebath

| flynny101

17-11-2023

Gadget and me

We were planning a weekend out on the B̶o̶o̶r̶i̶… I mean *hackspit* Dingo creek.

The others were meeting us in the morning but we headed out Friday afternoon

We made good time along the fire trail but slowed a bit navigating the twisting ridge as the faint trail came and went.

We got to the camp around 5:30. Dumped gear, set up camp and headed up for a quick run through Bubblebath Canyon. AKA Froth and bubble canyon. (There was difference of opinion in the first descent party over the name.)

Not wanting to put wet gear on in the morning we went light. I knew it was short so we decided to brave the cold.

Dropping in
The water above the canyon was surprisingly warm.
Gadget at the start of the good bit
Bubblebath is a beautiful little canyon. It’s a bit underrated compared to some of the others. The late evning light didn’t do it justice but it’s one of the more beautiful ones out this way. “Mini Crikey”as Kylie called it.

The deeper we got the colder the water got and we lost the light just before the end.

Getting to camp we rug up and settle in for the night.

Morning in camp.

How many worlds are in your world? Andy Anderson.

Continued to Crikey

Or

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CE4Y Sickline 8.7: First impressions

| flynny101

Swiss based CE4Y burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with a range of canyon specific ropes made from more technical fibers than the polyamide (Nylon) used in most standard ropes.

The ropes are aimed at being more cut and abrasion resistant while still being light weight.

To achieve this the sickline 8.7 uses a UHMPE (That’s dyneema to us uncouth types) and Polyester sheath and a Polypropylene core.

I’d have to say I was a little skeptical for a couple of reasons.

  1. Previous ropes I’d tried with a polypropylene core I found to be a bit bouncy. CE4Y counter this with stating the sick line is super-static with less than 1.8% stretch.
  2. Both Dyneema and polypropylene can be a bit melty, so they aren’t recommended for abseiling on while dry. This kinda limits their use in a lot of blue mountains canyons which often need a dry abseil to at least get into or out of them. All that said CE4Y claim “tests have shown that abseils up to 50m on dry ropes with a standard sized figure-8 kind of device can not damage the rope fibers due to heat generated by the friction of the abseil device.” and the old option was to throw your rope in a puddle before setting up the abseil
  3. Price

But curiosity got the better of me and I thought I’d give one a crack

Here’s my first impressions

Cost: At around $390au for 60m It’s not cheap but not the most expensive either, being a lot cheaper than the CanyonLUX for example.

Specs: CE4Y lists the rope specs as

ModelBreaking StrengthWeight
Sick Line 8.720kN42g/m

So on the weight and strength you’d give it a tick with it being in the ball park with the premium canyon ropes.

Colours: To paraphrase Henry “Modle T” Ford, You can have any colour you like as long as its a weird rose taupe speckled with blue.

First use:

After the obligatory tie it on to something and run a descender over it a few times I took her out for a spin in Empress

My first impressions.

Handling: It’s soft and supple, knots easily. Not much else to say really

Control: She’s fast!!! Damn fast.

Other reviews I’ve read suggest it will calm down a bit with use but at this stage, a few trips in, I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners or people using a standard figure 8 or hydrobot style descender. You definitely want options to quickly add friction on the go. An experienced friend had a few issues with getting the right friction on a pirana. Finding the different settings either too quick or too slow and not so in between

Saying that, with the right amount of friction on my CRITTR (more than I’ve used on any other rope ever) it ran nicely through the hand and CE4Y were not lying on the super-static call, it felt solid and smooth.

Anyhoo, for now I’m liking it. Once you get the friction setting sorted it feels smooth and not too hot on your hand (I don’t like wearing gloves) and the weight factor is a plus but it needs more play dates before I settle on my final call in a long term review.

Stay tuned.

Or not, go make up your own mind. I aint care, I’m not your mum.

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Long term review

Surefire Saturday

| flynny101

14-10-2023

Jason, Kris, Hywaida, Kylie and me

It’s been a while since I’d done Surefire.

For the others it would be their first visit.

A quick reccie on the bike a couple of days before suggested that while the old road was ridable there were a lot of trees down and the regrowth was so crazy at times I couldn’t see my front wheel.

So rather than risk derailleurs and spokes we’d be hoofing it out and back.

This meant a 7km walk out. TBH pushing through the overgrowth seemed a lot less tedious than marching along a flat boring fire trail… but I’m weird like that.

Anyhoo

After the Navman took the others down the wrong fire trail and we waited in confusion, before finally going looking for each other. we all managed to somehow find phone reception at the same time…

This meant a late start and some talk about changing plans or cancelling altogether

There wasn’t much arm twisting and we press on.

It takes us about an hour to get to the turn off then another 30 or 40 minutes to get to out the ridge and down to start of the canyon

The creek drops dramatically into a nice canyon but then drops again and rounds the corner
Sunbeam or tractor-beam?
The drops come in quick succession and most have awkward starts or tricky pull downs
It’s deep and narrow
Kris getting his squeeze on
I’m sure we down climbed this last time but the walls were smooth and glassy and slippery as snot this time around
wonderfull canyon formations
Once down the drops there’s a long flat section that’s just beautiful

We follow the impressive canyon along the flatter bit and find a spot where it begins to open out for lunch.

This was going to be my first time out the “standard” exit. We’d have to retrace our steps about 300m back up through the lower canyon section and exit up a side canyon

This would involve

  • Climbing up some tree roots
  • Then up a steep, slippery ramp using some slings.
  • Up more tree roots. These ones feeling like they are coming loose
  • Up a tree and bridging across to a dodgy slope….
  • Then a long walk up a beautiful gully , under amazing overhangs and beautiful coachwood trees

And finally 7km back along the old firetrail to the car.

Yep it’s a big round trip on flat, boring fire trail to get to and from the canyon.

but I reckon it’s well worth it and you could always combine it with Heart Attack (less worth the walk out to do on its own IMO) or camp on the ridge and explore some of other little canyons out that way.

Party Size.5

Time: 8.5-9hr car to car.

Work hard. Dream big. Don’t be an arsehole. Mike Shinoda.

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