northern NSW

boomerang and Hell Holes Falls

| flynny101

30-12-2025

Kylie, Jason, Jonathan and meeeeeeeeeee

We were up visiting Kylie’s cousin in northern NSW. Jason was visiting family in Southern Qld.

Seemed like a good opportunity to catch up to send some waterfalls.

Jonathan had fond memories of canyoning in the blue mountains back in the day but hadn’t been on rope for a while.

Wanna come. ask we

Absolutely, said he.

So we find ourselves heading up into the hills behind Mullumbimby.

First stop Boomerang Falls.

Kylie had abseiled them before with the Northern Rivers Bushwalking Club.

I first visited them with her a couple of years ago but we didn’t take ropes.

It a nice spot, not really canyoning, just a single drop of about 50m into a lovely plunge pool.

And with a quick walk in it was t to be a chill way to start the day.

Water levels are low, very low.

Everything is slippery.

We opt for natural anchors that would put us into the spray.

©Jonathan

We spend a bit of time making sure we get it right as the rock can be damn sharp in these parts. Canyon and rope bags are put to use as rope protecter, then I head on down.

Jonathan comes next.

It’s just like riding a bike. Only nothing like riding a bike ©Kylie
It’s a great pitch, slippery start to free hanging in the spray, finishing on a slab into the pool
the sun was in the wrong spot so these photos don’t show the amazing colours of this place.
and the water was warm!

As my old mate, Super Goose, likes to say “It’s like getting hit up the bum by a rainbow.”

Whatever the hell that means. He made it sound like it was good or lucky or sumfink.

Jason and Jonathan

What makes it even better is a quick and easy exit back up to the top. So Jason and I opted for a second run. TBH I could have done this one over and over

But we make our way back to the car and head across to the Hell Hole!!!

Apparently we missed Henrik and his mate by a day here which is a shame as it would have been great catching up with him.

Hell Holes is a little more canyon like, but still just 2 (or 3) pitches down a waterfall.

Again the water is super low so Kylie and Jonathan decide it’s not worth descending.

Probably a good choice.

But Jason and I think we may as well.

More of a questionable choice.

There wasn’t much in the way in natural anchors at this one.

Good Luck. It’s bolted.

Bad Luck. P1 is carrots.

Good Luck. We have bolt plates.

Bad Luck. We didn’t bring them with us this trip.

Good Luck. The carrots stick out a bit and I’m able to hero loop a sling.

Bad Luck. They want me to be crash test dummy….

And again the rock is super sharp so we opt to do the first pitch on isolated double ropes.

the anchor for P2 is solid though the top nut is starting to show signs of corrosion
the start of P2 is, um awkward. It’s a tight wedge with the rope trying to pull you into the wedge. I could imagine in high-water this would be very tricky indeed.
The water is barely a trickle.

You can do P2 all the way to the bottom as a ~52m drop. But the notes say it has a habit of trapping ropes so we had planned to split it into 2 and rebelay off the large ledge 2/3 of the way down.

Turns out my 62m rope was enough to double rope to the ledge which removed the risk of getting a knot stuck the wedge.

Looking over the ledge at a slabby P3 we opted to forego going all the way to the not so impressive pool and walked off the ledge river left onto the exit track, saving ourselves an extra 20meters of vertical to climb back up.

The exit back to the top of the falls was steep with lots of loose rock to be wary of, but it’s reasonably quick.

Back at the top we cool off in the pools and head on out.

All in all a pleasant day. Hell Holes isn’t somewhere I’d rush back to, but it was worth a look.

to top it off Jonathan made this awesome video of our day

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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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