Dorrigo

Endiandra

| flynny101

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.” â€” Phil Jackson

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Bangalore again

| flynny101

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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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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