It teemed down overnight at camp. But our trusty tarp kept us cozy and by morning the sun was peaking through the clouds.
We had said goodbye to Levis and Monica and talked ourselves into another short canyon while we were out here.
Kylie, Jason and I had visited the top couple of sections of Popeye Canyon as a day walk a few weeks earlier which had some pretty bits in it, and so we were keen to have a look at the lower section.
I cooked up a plan to head straight down from camp to the grid reference that the Jamison guide lists as the start of Popeye (a kilometre or so below the upper section).
We start down a ridge in between two faint gullies. These soon join to become a stoney bottom creek that tumbles over a substantial cliff line. We only brought a short rope with us today so make our way a bit further long the left hand bank and find a way down into what we came to christen MCPCC. Mega Clear Path Creek Canyon.
heading out to enter via the upper section may have been easier.
Anyhoo we find ourselves in Popeye creek. It’s not looking like much but H and K don light wet suits.
Looks like there’ll be some more creek walking, I’ll suit up later, the rest of us say.
10 steps later, literally, like literally 10 steps babes, we round a bend and the creek drops into a tunnel like canyoney section.
This would be the theme for this section of Popeye. boulder hoping interspaced with tunnels and cavey bits. A few abseils and short swims
and awesome company
but not much quality canyon.
Plenty of weirdness thou
we head all the way down to the…… it hurts to say it…. Dingo *fugging* Creek for the final 10m of “canyon”
The plan is to head down said creek to an exit Kylie had mapped out opposite gateway canyon. I’m hopeful this section is similar to the bit below HITW and we can just float with the current.
There was a bit of floating.
A bit of boulder scrambling.
Some scrub bashing.
And lots of sinking knee, sometimes hip, deep into fine sand to have it defy the sand traps and fill the bestards.
I still have sand in places sand has no place being.
Still, it’s a wild and beautiful part of the Bungleboori system worth visiting. Once.
The bottom of Gateway canyon was a welcome site
The walls lining the creek had gone from broken slopes to towering cliffs and I’m wondering just how tricky this exit is going to be.
Surprisingly it’s straight forward, cutting back along a gentle ramp to a not too steep nose that avoided the cliffs altogether.
Nice one Gadget
All in all a fantastic weekend out in the wilderness with my kind of people.
Kylie, Kristo, Jason, Hywaida, Dave and meeeeeeeeeeee
This one had been on the agenda for a while.
Kylie had scoped out topos and satellite images years ago. Then it caught the attention of Laurie, the Victorians and others and the race was on.
I’m not sure who lead the first trip but they did a stella job. It then appeared in the Canyoning Around Victoria guidebook, Published by Rob and Sam. But being a little out of the way meant there hasn’t seemed to be a ton of repeats.
Our intel said to drop a rope to aid with the last little bit of the exit. Rope wiki said someone should descend it to make sure it’s in the right spot. But there was nothing to say what the right spot was. Asking previous parties gave mixed messages. Everyone said it was really obvious where to put the rope. Almost everyone said they put the rope in the wrong spot and had to free climb a bit…
The guide said the last 10m of exit was the tricky bit, ropewiki said setting a 20 or 30m rope in place to assisted existing would be handy.
Looking down the last 10m didn’t look that sketchy. We attach a rope to a tree and Me and Jason descend to have a look. There is another drop. Straight over is a 15-20m vertical face. Around to the right looks to be a grade 10 chimney. We put the rope to the right.
Again we descend. Straight ahead from here drops onto a narrow ledge that doesn’t look to go anywhere. Left is a scrambling climb from a large ledge. We drop the rope to the left so its now in a big zig zag.
One party we spoke to put a longer rope straight down from the top tree and prusiked up the vertical face. In hindsight this is probably the best choice.
The descent itself is action packed, 6 abseils one after the other, at most there is a small swim between them. At these water levels you are either in the flow or crossing the flow on all of them.
The first 3 pitches are the easiest and we regroup at the base of P3.
Top anchors were all good but with few repeat trips and snow melt we brought gear to replace things if needed. P4 drops to a narrow, semi handing belay above the 45m P5 money pitch. The plan is for Jason to go first with anchor gear, just in case, and a short rope for P6, and get himself safe. Then for me to follow with the long rope for P5. We had discussed leap frogging anchor duties to avoid 1 person exposed to the chill but the water, while cold, wasn’t as bad as expected.
P4 anchors are just over the lip for less rope wear and better pull down. Kristo secures himself on a semi hanging belay and off we go.
Jason signals that the anchors are good. I descend and replace him on anchor. The rest follow.
The bottom 3 pitches are fantastic, well they all are but the bottom 3 especially.
Despite what I said earlier about water temps, I ain’t going to lie. Even with a spray jacket I was bloody cold by the time I got to the bottom of P6.
All pull downs were simple and hassle free for us, potentially with long ropes you could combine pitch 4 and 5 though the guides say there are lots of nubs and cracks that ropes could get jammed in so that may not be the best idea. These cracks are also a foot entrapment risk so take care.
Climb out as soon as the steep cliffs allow, is a bit vague. 50m down stream of the waterfall. Was more helpful.
We were about 50m down stream. A slabby corner crack looked scramblable. Scoping from the other side on creek, braving the scree slope of death Kylie spies and easy spur another 10m down though.
Guide mentions gaining a spur. We took the spur into a gully (if you could call it that) so far matching descriptions. to another spur to gain a ramp leading back towards the top of the waterfall. Well there looked to be a ramp there, it would be a scramble to get up on it but we head up.
Scrub was hectic. Every step forward was a punish. The ramp went up but it would come to an option of narrow, loose traverse that didn’t look like it went or a dodgy scramble bordering climb. Time and again we’d force our way up or along only to get cliffed out and need to retreat a bit and try again.
It was steep and loose and slightly terrifying.
It was energy sapping and soul destroying.
We were a long way up and had been forcing away towards the top of the falls, but it still seemed so far away.
Eventually after getting cliffed out again we retreated back slightly. There looks to be a ledge just below us. Said someone. Kylie and Kris find a way down to it. It might go.
Kristo pushes on.
Some time later, It goes calls Kris.
They had finally stumbled across the right ledge. We still had scrub to fight through and we still didn’t know for sure it was the right ledge.
I see the rope. called someone.
Releaf.
We emerge from the scrub only to find a gully between us and the rope. we drop in and discover we are at the base of a climb and the rope is at the top. Hywaida goats up. When it comes to exits it gets to a point where she transforms to superwomen.
Kris goes next, taking a rope to join to the one in place.
Dave disappears to the left and as Kris drop the rope Dave appears next to him. It’s an easy scramble around the corner. says he.
From there its 3 easy scrambley pitches which we punch up using our crolls on the rope as a safety, but tbh despite some grade 10-12 moves its the least exposed stuff of the entire exit.
3hrs later the battle to escape Landers was done.
I’m not 100% sure we won.
The Beast
There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler’s mind: Douglas Adams
A bit of an idea for those wanting to set a fix rope for the final bit of the exit
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.
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
Styx will be doable, says Leo over diner, a fairly ordinary steak at a fairly extraordinary price.
I’m excited as we head to find a camp.
Stix is the one I wanted to do when I suggested the trip.
But also… I don’t know. I’m not as excited as I should be. I’m feeling a bit shit.
Saturday dawns bright.
Me not so much.
I crawl out of bed and spew.
I struggle to walk down to the others. I’m going to have to tap out. Says I
I think you should harded up, says Madie. Then looks up. Oh, you look like death.
Thanks
Here, she hands me some pills. I take them and take a sip of water. I spew.
Yeah I don’t think you should come says Leo.
I find a tree to lay under and try not to feel too sorry for myself as the others head off for an amazing adventure.
At some point through the afternoon I scratch something out of my itchy ankle.
I think nothing of it.
I’m not in much of a state to think. I don’t even think to be worried the others are running late until Russ gets me a message over his InReach to say they are ok and have just reached the exit.
It’s almost dark.
Some time later they arrive back in camp with tales of amazing adventures.
I ain’t even care I missed it… but I take the first bite of food I have been able to without spewing
Next day I wake feeling a little worse for wear but much better.
Belatedly I realise I’d started picking up almost as soon as I scratched whatever it was out of my itchy ankle.
I can’t be 100% sure but I think I’d had a reaction to a tick. It was dumb luck that let me scratch the little fecker out without doing more harm.
Anyhoo I still haven’t made up my mind if I’m up to canyoning today.
We’ll do Rosewood, says they. It’s an easy half day. It’s like the Empress falls of the Northern NSW. You’ll be fine.
Well alrighty then
19-03-2023
Kylie, Madie, Leo, Russ, Jason and meeeeeee
I’m glad I listened to them. It’s pretty with action packed abseiling at the end.
The moderate water levels made it hella fun too
Suited up and excited for a cruzy day Still there were some water hazards to negotiate
And some fun abseils
In a very pretty setting
With a little spice to keep us on our toes
And the final abseil down Cedar Falls was pretty nice.
Zero leaches or ticks were taken home by Flynny this day.
Winning
the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible.” – T.E. Lawrence
sleepwhenwearedead 