swimming

GLOUCESTER

| flynny101

24/01/2026

Jason, Dave, Wisey, Kylie and Me

Dr Forster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain.

He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle

and never went there again.

Ah English, where Forster rhymes with Gloucester and neither sounds like how they are spelt.

Anyhoo

What better way to pop my Barrington cherry than with a run through the upper section of Gloucester canyon.

Jason and Kylie had done it numerous times before at much higher water levels so today was shaping up to be fairy chill.

We had met Jason and Dave at camp the night before.

H had rolled in sometime through the night and we were all up early and eager.

It’s a short walk in and in high spirits we suit up and make our way down to the first abseil.

Kylie sets the rope and H leads the first drop
Jasons opts to jump from a slippery stance
Kylie handling the rope duties ©Dave
The next one is fairly basic down beside a smaller fall

A short hop skip and a jump down stream and we arrive at what we are here for.

The Famous chock stone abseil.

But to get there requires a short abseil and traverse

On their previous trips the water levels had been too high to attempt this one and there is the option to scramble out and do a dry line from high up just down stream of the chock stones.

Conditions today however are perfect so Jason sets a line and I traverse out and set the main drop

Jason follows me out and leads the big one

There are two redirects in place on this drop. The first gets you out, away from a sloping ledge that forms just as the water funnels into a ferocious torrent, the second keeps you out of the hydraulic that form in high flow at the base. Jason sets them both for us to follow

Me at the second redirect ©Dave

it’s a stunningly beautiful waterfall.

And the view back up tp it from just downstream is iconic

There was a bit of horsing around

It was still early in the day. We were tossing up the idea of continuing downstream and completing the lower section. Jason had done it before and thought it was interesting.

The other option was to play around here.

It would be cool to get on top of the chock stone say Wisey.

There is the dry line option, said some one.

We scrmble up the start of the exit track and find our way across to the dry line.

It’s a bit down stream of the chock stones but I manage to swing across to the upper stone to help the following party with a stuck rope (Notes say to throw the pull cord over the chockstone. This lead to the stuck rope. If the flow isn’t too high just bring the pull strand down with you. it pulls fine.)

then drop in.

Jas, Wisey and Dave follow me. It’s a surprisingly fun abseil and we opt to run repeat son it for funzies.

©Jason

Then we head on out and enjoy a relaxing afternoon at Camp

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people: WC Fields

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Girraween Underground Creek

| flynny101

Returning from The Sphinx as the heat began to ramp up a visit to the underground creek sounded ideal.

If nothing else the name was cool.

A short drive from our camp took us up into the surrounding hills. The car park is well signposted and gives access to both the Underground creek trail and Dr Roberts Waterhole.

The walk out to the underground section the creek is just over a 1km and fairly flat.

So what the hell is it?

This section of creek drops down through boulders into a a short section of old lava tube

If you find the top secret… I mean really obvious entry it’s such a cool feature
of course we spend no time scrambling down

It’s a short section but well worth exploring a bit.

Just upstream we scrambled up past this feature. Belatedly we found an easy trail that bypasses around the little cliff line up to a sunny platform that’s worth a look

iddy biddy baby canyon
iddy biddy baby water dragon

big dyke

On the way back we made the detour to Dr Roberts waterhole. It’s a nice spot for a dip.

We’d spend another night in Girraween before hitting the road and head towards Cranky Rock

Canyoning up north

| flynny101

01/01/2026

Kylie, Jason, Beck, Robin, Alex, Dane and meeeeeee

We were in northern NSW and it was too good an opportunity not to have a New Years Day play date with Jason and his QLD crew.

Every one else had done this one before but it had been on Kylie and my wish list for a while.

Pictures of it pumping in previous years had us frothing.

However, recent photos look like a trickle.

A storm the night before got our hopes up.

We meet at the top secret location (note: location may not be top secret) and skirt private property boundaries to access our canyon.

The storm had done nothing. Nothing !

The creek was dry as a nuns nipple.

Well not quite. There was water flowing, just

Jason wondering where the water went.
Alex on rope while Dane waits
Kylie thinking, well at least it’s a little wet
It might be a trickle but still pretty
Taking on Vecna
Robin wondering if he should avoid the pool or plunge in

There is a teeny tiny lathe you can unclip and jump from

Coming last I made an error. I didn’t unclip it just did the usual Empress release the brake hand and jump.

I knew my centre mark was just beyond the anchor.

I figure I jump out and when I reach the end it will pull the pull strand with me.

I’ve done that before, but I unclipeped first.

This time I’m sailing through the air, there’s “a bit” of a jolt snap the plastic lug it was tied to and the end of the rope recoils up And is now on a teeny tiny ledge 4metres above the pool.

Up I jug to retrieve it.

Lessen learned, double check your centre mark, especially when doing abseils exactly as long as half your rope. And keep an eye on your end of rope markers

I have marks at the 10 and 5m points to let me know I’m getting to the end. I didn’t even look for them. Dumb arse.

Anyhoo all good, no harm, rope retrieved. Let’s never speak of it again.

One more abseil and she’s all over.

Beck doing it in style
Only slightly rinsed but Happy canyoners

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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 bags and rope bags are put to use as rope protecters, 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 with 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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Whirlpool

| flynny101

20/12/2025

Gadget, Wisey, Brooke, Clare and meeeeeeeee

There’s some great side canyons along the Wollangambe with the most popular ones clustered around Mt Wilson.

Of those accessed from the Fire Shed there are a couple of outliers that get less traffic due to being a little harder to get too.

Whirlpool canyon is one of these.

Expecting a stinking hot day and a long scrubby walk in we meet early and head off.

The others had obtained a GPS trace of the entry, I had my usual plotted way point for the canyon start and sometimes/usaul/mostly wackily off gut feel…

Banter made the walk in pass in a flash, well not really but it was surprisingly simple, even if I did get completely turned around at one point, thankfully Clare and Kylie kept us on track. Though when H suggested we try a short cut I was all in.

It was also relatively scrub free(ish)

Slipping down H’s side gully hoping to cut off a fair bit of the GPS trace.

And soon we find ourself at the start of the canyon.

©️Kylie

We weren’t expecting much out of this one but a short abseil gets us into a surprisingly nice slot.

Kylie sussing out the first abseil

There was some interesting anchor set ups and a couple of the abseils have very tricky starts. This problem solving aspect is part of what I really enjoy about canyoning.

Don’t get my wrong, on popular trips where hordes of foot steps compact tree roots and pulling rope after rope wears grooves in the rock well placed bolts are a Good Thing (TM) but they do take something away from the overall experience of problem solving. That’s probably not a major draw for most, but for me it’s a big part of it.

Anyhoo that’s off topic.

Back in the land of dodgy anchors, we check each one carefully (as you should every time). Replace what needs to be replaced and carefully consider the remnant dodginess

The canyon starts with a crystal clear pool snaking through a beautiful twisted hall. Just moments before this shot Brooke was battling diner plate sized spiders like a knight slaying dragons ©️Kylie
The canyon had some pretty sections where the slot would close in
More monsters!
The water was so clear and the yabbies plentiful.
Happy canyoners
A couple of the abseils involved awkward over hanging ledges and careful rope placement was needed to protect from dragging across sharp edges .©️Kylie

Before lone you could feel the warmth chimneying up from the ‘Gambe

H leads the way down the last abseil and soon we reach the Junction with the Wollangambe

But the day is not over. Our exit is about a kilometre and half downstream.

Having pretty much traced this enigmatic river from its source at Clarence to below Mt Irvine on various trips over the years I reckon this bit is the most stunning section of the ‘Game

Deep walls and beautiful pools.

That’s said it’s not easy going with deep sand and boulder hoping between long swims zapping your energy after an already longish day .

Having less foot traffic it’s also a lot slipperier in spots.

Just before our exit we catch a group from the central coast who had completed Geronimo.

We chat at the exit, cooling off at the sandy beach before making our way back up to the shed.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day but it was also a long day for a shortish canyon so I wouldn’t rush back to repeat the trip.

Whirlpool itself was nice and as stated it’s a beautiful section of the Wollangambe so worth doing at least once.

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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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New Zealand South Island Road trip 2025 – Aoraki

| flynny101

From the Clay Cliffs we make our way up to White Horse Hill campground which is nestled below the towering peak of Aorali/Mount Cook.

White Horse Hill is a paid ground. During the winter the main toilet/shower blocks are closed off as the frequent negative temperatures lead to burst pipes and what not. What you are left with is two of the smelliest drop toilets I’ve ever encountered, And I’ve done long weekends at Newnes Camp ground in it’s heyday.

Take the biggest breath you can here and hold it as long as you can, a young whipper snapper was heard giving advice to her younger brother…..

Don’t let that put you off though, the scenery is well worth a skinny loo or two.

We roll in late afternoon and set the camp up. The temperature is already -2ºC and falling. The little diesel heater fitted in the van is amazing.

As night settles in and the temp plummets to -8º we decide to brave it for the sake of the most amazingly clear night sky.

Clicky Clicky to see full photo

The next day we head out on the Hooker Valley Trail.

Normally this gives the closest access to the base Aoraki the general public will get and also views over the proglacial Hooker Lake, complete with icebergs, however only a short section of the trail was open at the time of our visit due to track work and a bridge being washed out.

the short open section did, however provide great views over the Mueller Glacier and it’s lake.

Next we return to the van and duck over to the village for a coffee. While there we dropped in to the Department of Conservation information centre.

Wow!!!

What an amazing free resource. If you were in the area and the weather was bad you could easily spend a whole day in here. There are displays and videos and more lots more.

But today was a blue bird day so we have a quick look and then head over towards the Tasman Glacier.

Here you can take helicopter tour or a boat tour on the lake. We opt to just do the tourist walks.

Sitting between NZ’s two tallest peaks the Tasman is New Zealand’s largest glacier, being up to 4km wide and 600m thick in places. It had remained a fairy constant 28km long through out its recorded history up until it starting to retreat in the 1990s. It’s currently 23km long and retreating on average 180m/year.

Looking up the lake from the tourist lookout the glacier is’t much to look at. Compared to the white snow and crystal blue ice on the Franz Josef, the Tasman crunches up and contains a lot more rock and minerals (Glacier flour), giving it a dark, almost dirty appearance. Without the information sign at the I doubt most people, me included, would pick it out in the distance.

The lake, however is stunning.

The Blue Pools. When named they were connected to the glacier and very blue. Now they are cut off they are more a stagnant green.

Back at the van we start heading back down the valley.

On the way in I’d caught a glimpse of Wakefield Falls. It caught my eye on the way back out.

Is that waterfall frozen?

Looks like it.

It’s difficult to come to terms with scale here. That waterfall tumbles 230 vertical meters.

We pull over for a better look.

Na, it’s flowing. Looks like a cracker of a slot it’s tumbling into.

Should we go for a look.

hell yeah.

I grab the camera and off we go.

There is what appears to be a former tourist trail that comes and goes through the scrub and scree.

Did I mention it is hard to come to terms with scale here? It becomes apparent it’s further than it first looked.

Belatedly I realise in my excitement to get going I failed to grab my puffer jacket and beanie. This is how silly tourist get themselves on the news kids. Luckily not today though

Halfway up we meet to Russian(?) guys coming back down.

Did you get to the waterfall? ask we

Yes yes. Beautiful. Very careful. Very careful.

We push on. We reach the end of the flatter basin and the terrain gets steeper and looser. We had been yeeting up but slow here. A rolled ankle, rock fall or dislodging the scree here would be bad indeed.

There is still a fair way to go. Says Kylie. We should set a hard stop point.

Good idea.

It had been about 2:15pm when we left the van. We decide at 3:15 we need to turn around to get back prior to loosing the light.

I think we gained about 200m of elevation from the road. A bit after 3pm we get to a point where we had a a reasonable view into the slot where 3 streams of the falls converge.

We are so close. Another 10-15min and we’d be at the base of the falls. but hard stops are hard stops and but I know by the time I get the camera set up and get some shot we’d be close to time so thats what we do.

I’d guesstimate the bottom tier you can see here is about 50m tall

We get the shots and video in and scoot back down.

Part way down we come across this old information sign. Weird spot but I guess the old tourist track came up to this vantage point.

Explaining how the moraines pushed up by the glaciers formed dams in the rivers as the glacier retreated. or sumfink

Back at the van we chug down the road making for a freedom camp at lake Pukaki

Good ol’ henry Deane and thomas Penrose

| flynny101

04/05/2025

Jason, Russ, Vince and meeeeee

I always enjoy discovering there’s hidden canyons in areas I thought I knew fairly well.

Suddenly finding ourselves with a spare day we organised a last minute semi exploratory trip to a little canyon none of us had been to before.

Vince had prepared the lidar maps which suggested the constriction would start a bit further downstream than the spot I had selected to enter.

The one source I had said the lidar hadn’t picked up a small cliffline near the creek. says I. I’d hate to miss something.

So we bush bashed in to the spot I had picked. Somehow picking a path to the only 2 cliff lines in that area, luckily there was a path down in-between the two outcrops that look surprisingly like a butt on the lidar. We went down the crack.

The first part of the creek was a bit of a scrubby dub dub with 1000 fallen trees to clamber over but then it opened up a bit

I’ve visited worse creeks
A nice spot for a dip on a warm day. Today was not warm.
and soon it dropped into something that looked very canyon like

A slippery scramble down brought us to a deep, crystal clear pool. Vince spidermaned across. Russ and Jas follow.

This is going to be a test for my shoulder.

I manage to bridge out but as I try the next move I feel the shoulder giving way….. In I go.

It was refreshing.

It should have been a simple bridging exercise.

Couldn’t support my own weight

Not overly deep or consistent but a canyon non-the-less
With some very noice sections.
the next pool looked less avoidable
Even Russ suited up and swam through
Jason decided to give traversing along the side a go. And very nearly made it.
And more pleasant canyon follows
Getting down this tangle of rotting logs and loose boulders was one of the biggest challenges of this little canyon.
And soon we came to the tributary we had planned as our exit.

A little bit of scrambling and a tad of scrub bashing and we were back at the road and quickly headed back to the car to pick up the ropes and harnesses then head off to visit another little canyon not too far away.

Everyone’s favourite squeezy canyon
Russ sitting on everyone’s favourite dodgy anchor
Jason on everyone’s favourite cheese grater abseil
Everyone’s favourite Go/No Go gauge. Don’t go down go over!
Everyone’s favourite helpful team mate
Everyone’s favourite return to the big wide world.
a noice ramp back up through the cliffline.

Then all the was left to do was to bash some more scrub to the main trail and a 3km walk back to the car.

Searching is half the fun. Life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt: J Buffett

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Stalactites and Scrub fights

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Kylie, Jason, Jen, Kirstie, H, and meeeeeee

Anyone want to come on a trip that might be a big day of scrub bash to a poor quality canyon? Say I

Hell yeah! says the above awesome folk.

It’s been a hot minute since I’d organised a semi exploratory trip to a canyon I’d not visited before so it was about bloody time I got out of my funk and Kylie might have gave me a bit of a nudge.

The entry in the Jamieson guide labels it “Ashcroft Ravine” with the description it includes the best bit of Wentworth Creek. There was a reference elsewhere of “Cut-throat canyon.” None of it was clear on what was what and where was where but anyhoo.

The little information we could find suggested the first part of the creek (Variously marked on maps as “Franks” or “Franki”) was a viscous scrub bash so we substituted that for a slightly less scrubby bash down a ridge to drop in right at the start of a canyony bit via 2 short abseils.

Straight away it was more impressive than I was expecting and every bit as slippery.

No scrub in sight and a pleasant bit of canyon greeted us
It was dark and cool but pretty
The canyon section only went a short way before opening into a beautiful, more open gorge

And that would be the theme of Franks(i) short, South Bowenesk canyon sections and more open ravine.

With some tunnel sections and squeezy bits along the way
And it kept going
Very South Bownen like in spots
With tunnels
And happy smiley faces

We made it to the junction with Wentworth creek and had Elevensies.

Wentworth creek put me in mind of the end of Bell creek or sumfink big and grand.
And soon we came across one of the features that when I heard about them really piqued my interest

Tucked away in alcoves along the walls are a series of Stalagmites and Stalactites. In sandstone! I’m assuming there is a drip line passing through an ironstone layer high in manganese or some such, but if any geologist out there have a better explanation please leave a comment.

Older flowstone covered in moss and algae
They were awesome and more numerous than I had expected
On we went and the gorge continued to be impressive

The banks opened out a little and we alternated between traversing high on banks and wading down the creek depending.

Just before the tributary we had marked as our exit Jen and Kirstie spotted a ramp leading up in roughly the right direction that looked like it might bypass one of the 3 climbs Jamieson described.

Kylie and Kirstie scouted up while the rest of us got changed.

It’s bit dodge but it looks like it goes, Called they.

Be careful, called us.

Before long the agreed whistle blasts came to inform us it did indeed go.

We were now in the exit creek but soon came to the small waterfalls that would be the main challenge of getting out.

Reports I had been able to find described a climb on the right.

Jason running out of handholds and grip on the left while Kylie tries the tree roots on the right. ©Jen

Kylie gets up to a series of fractured ledges that looked doable but sketchy and dropped a rope down. Jason and I ascended up to her.

The next section looked shit and we weren’t sure what was above. Kylie stood on a log to step up to the next ledge but the log snapped with a thud.

In the meantime the rest of the group were looking for other options.

Back to the left might be doable. Called they

The lidar looks better on the left. Says Jen

I’ll drop back down and check the left option. Said I

Kristie leads me back around bulge and across a very narrow ledge. A short slab climb (maybe grade 7 or 8 but very exposed) presented itself. Up I went. A narrow ledge ramped up below the cliff line.

It goes. says I.

We got a rope up and the rest followed.

It had taken us about an hour and a half to work this puzzle out but once solved it was simple enough.

From there is was a trudge back up to the top of the ridge and back to the cars.

William Charles Wentworth, Billie C-Dubb to his mates, was a statesman, pastoralist, newspaper editor, politician, author, reformist, and advocate.

That’s the type of stuff people could achieve before TV or social media.

That and having 10 kids (Seven daughters and three sons.)

Who Frank, Franki or Ashcroft were I have no idea.

But the creeks named after them are both worth an explore.

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