creek

Popeye canyon, upper

| flynny101

02/11/2025

Gadget, Jason and, me.

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.

It’s a beautiful day.

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Wild Swimming in the Wollemi

| flynny101

16-05-2025

Kylie and meeeeeeeee

Our weekend plans had fallen through so we thought we’d go in search of some waterfalls neither of us had been to before.

Kylie suggested a spot and during research got a tip off that the fire trail out to them had recently been gated.

So we put the mountain bikes in to help eat up the kilometres.

Not only are the swimming holes spectacular this could now be my favourite fire trail ride (Did I just say that? what have I become?) I have a feeling the guy who did the road work is a mountain biker. Each waterbar seemed to be a perfectly shaped step down. Even though recovering from a shoulder injury meant I couldn’t take to the air it was still a blast.

Anyhoo, that’s not what we are here for.

20min later we are stashing the bikes in the bush and heading down a steep trail cutting through subtropical rainforest quiet different from anything you usually see in the upper mountains..

This brings us to a pleasant creek and we head downstream.

the stunning cliff lines close in ©Kylie

And we reach the top of our first waterfall

It really is breath taking
stunning

We play around here for a bit then continue down stream.

At the junction with the next creek is another spectacular pool.

It’s a beauty

We slip up to a large rock shelf above the falls to find a bit of sunshine.

The shelf was riddled with keeper holes. ©Kylie
beautiful

We have some lunch and a splash then make our way out.

The Haul up the hill is steep but interesting enough that I wasn’t in a world of suffering. And while I thought the ride back to the car might be tough it was just as much fun as it was coming in, with some pinches to keep you honest.

On the way back we spy some interesting mushrooms.

So of course we had to head back in the dark to see if they still had a shine.

It was faint, barely able to be made out with naked eye but some long exposures brought up their beauty.

Click to enbiggen

Ghost Mushrooms produce bioluminescence for around 22hrs a day. And for 14 of those hours you would think they are just another mushroom. People are like ghost mushrooms, if you can’t see their glow you are looking at them in the wrong light: C Flynn

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Claustral capers

| flynny101

03/02/2024

Leo, Madie, Brook, Achi, Toni and meeeeeeeee

Cruisey social trudge through Claustral?

Sounds ace.

In the spirit of cruisey we push that start time 30min later..

That might have been a mistake. As I role up the mountain it seems like every second car in NSW is trying to get a car park at the trail head.

Are you with them? Asks old mate pointing at a large group as I step out of my car.

Not me.

Come on boys let’s get going. Says he. Oh which way is it?

I point old mate and his 2 sons(?) in the general direction.

I notice Leo T marshalling the aforementioned group. That’s a relief. A commercially guided group that all bought their own cars making it seem like it’s a bigger group than it is. I know Leo is efficient and quick with his groups so not too fussed there .

Another group jumps out of their car and heads off to beat the rush.

Madie and Leo arrive and introduce another two of the people milling around. Achi and Toni are with us. Excellent.

Everyone ready to go? let’s get going before anyone else shows up. Says they

Um we aren’t due to meet for another 10 mins and Brook’s not here yet. Says I

Bugger say they.

Another group of 4 arrive. Leo knows them from rescue they banter about getting the jump on us and head off.

Brook arrives. Ok let’s go.

A quick walk becomes a slow jog becomes “keep up!”

Oi! I was promised a cruisey social trip.

By the time we get to the wetsuit change spot we’ve over taken all the groups who started before us.

As I always say, it’s not a competition. Unless you are winning, and right now we are winning.

Winning

Ok get changed and get into it. We’ll slow down when we get to the abseils.

Thank fugg for that.

The “black hole”
Overcast day meant sunbeams were unlikely but oh the ohm-bi-aunce

Obligatory Hulks fist photo
Obligatory Pride Rock silhouette photo ©️ Maddy
©️Maddy‘s boot
Doop da do

Still winning we make our way down the canyon and because half of us haven’t been here before we take the detour up Thunder canyon as well.

I mean, why wouldn’t ya?

We enjoy the 2 glowworm caves then make our way back to the junction and then down to the exit.

©️Maddy

Despite the three thousand two hundred and forty eight cars at the car park we haven’t seen any one in the canyon since one of the groups got to the top of the first abseil just as our last member was roping up.

We figure most of them would have leapfrogged us while we were in Thunder but we catch back up to the group of 4 at the exit and have a chat while we dry off and have a bite to eat and it appears no one else is in front of them.

then it’s up, up and up.

There’s still a gazillion cars at the car park

And while winning is winning, my legs don’t work anymore.

we farewell Achi and Toni then head for a well earned beerio

Part size 6

Time 5.5hr car to car mixed pace.

When you’re dead, you’re dead. Guy Martin

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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

Back.