Had a fantastic road trip testing out the Alucab and generally have a great adventure.
Thought I’d try my hand at an interactive map to tie it all together. You should be able to click the icons to take you to the blog post with more photos and stuff
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
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.
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.
The abseils are varied too, from easy slabs beside the flow, to stepped ledges through it.
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
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.
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.” — Phil Jackson
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.
There are 2 choices here, You can scramble over and say out of the flow or you can get frothed
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.
Next up is the abseil through another hole. This time we go through.
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.
25/01/2026
Kylie, Jason, David, Wisey, Rakesh, Tanya and meeeee
We had been tossing around what canyon to do today before settling on 1 none of us had done before.
We all pile into Jason’s ute and head across the range.
Ah shit, I meant to reach out to Tanya and Rakesh, Says Kylie. They are up here somewhere.
We pull into the car park.
Hey that’s Tanya and Rakesh…
5 become 7 and we waste no time suiting up and making our way down the creek to the first abseil.
I set up rope and everyone by passes it and scrambles down beside it.
I pull the rope up and follow.
The next couple of drops are a little lame. I’m starting to feel bad.
We had convinced Jason to do this one rather than one of his favourite, high adrenaline, high flow trips and this wasn’t really shaping up. but then we came to the first of the “Spicy Slots”
And the rest of use follow.
It’s a tricky start into the white noise.
Just as you are able to see again you realise you are about to drop behind a chock stone and you most defilately don’t want to drop down behind the chock stone.
It’s a battle to resist the push and swing yourself over.
You emerge back into the light then drop off the chockstone into the noise once more.
It’s a fantastic abseil
Everyone one is grinning.
there’s an 800m creek walk to get to the next bit. lets just go back up here and do that again. someone suggests
hmmmm we are here now let;s at least check out the bottom section.
Lucky we did.
The 800m creek walk isn’t too bad and goes quick and the bottom section is the best bit.
The creek has spit into 2 channels. A sloping abseil (New anchor has since been installed closer to the lip) brings you to the edge in between them
You step over the edge and both streams recombine.
On your head.
Hello Spicy Slot 2
The next 2 abseils come in quick succession
I scramble down the next one but signal up to the others that it isn’t worth it as there looked to be a nice exit from the ledge they are on.
The exit began on a steep loose scree slope but soon got steeper and looser before getting looser and steeper….
Other than the steepness and the looseness it was fairly easy going. The notes said to get to a certain elevation and then traverse around. While that would cut off some elevation gain it looked long and convoluted so we just went straight up and over a minor nose then dropped down onto the road not to far from the car park.
I nodded, pretending to be a hundred times more courageous than I felt. Lisa Tawn Bergren.
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.
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
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 forms in high flow at the base. Jason sets them both for us to follow
it’s a stunningly beautiful waterfall.
And the view back up to it from just downstream is iconic
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.
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
After the heat of Waa Gorge and Mount Kaputar we decide our best plan would be to get up super early and get the bulk of the Grand High top walk done before the heat of the day.
But first we have to get there. There was another feature just out of Coonabarabran we wanted to check out.
We pull into Hickey Falls, never seen them this dry before. Says a local lady we bump into.
The side trip to Hickey Falls meant we’d enter the Warrumbungles from the eastern side and the drive in is spectacular.
View after view.
We pull into the visitor centre to book into our camp we are thinking they are going to say we are nuts but when we mentioned we we planning the Grand Hightop Walk in the morning they just smiled and said, Oh lovely. You’d be best to start early in this heat.
Oh yeah we are going to start about 5 and try and get up to the breadknife for sunrise.
Oh that would be awesome…
Ok so we aren’t nuts. Or not as nut as when thought.
We pull into camp. We had picked our site based around the morning view
It took about an hour, though for the shade to disappear and we begged a change of site to find afternoon shade.
The afternoon is spent having a short section of song echo over and over and over and over.
It was a bit weird, at first I thought the grounds keep really likes his teeny bop but I go for a walk and there’s a K-pop or TikTok or whatever the kiddies call themselves these day <Old man shakes fist at Cloud> perfecting their dance moves to the song.
We are pretty much the only ones in the entire camp ground so good on them say I.
Still, I do my best to get into their background and ape their moves. It’s how I roll.
Anyhoo
We were up at sparrows fart and hit the trail at about 4.45am
It’s a lovely morning for a walk.
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
yes, I just made a Hey Hey its Saturday reference…
I apologise.
We spend a bit of time here and a bit further up just watching the changing light and taking a gazillion photos
We scramble up to the tops, the last 100m or so of trail is under construction so it’s still a bit of a scramble.
Topping out the wind is intense.
We take the short cut back down past Balors hut and get back to camp just after 9.
Another hot day poking around town and that brings a close to our epic first road trip in the Alucab
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
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
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
It’s pronounced “Bunoo Boonoo” Thou tbh I had to ask Kylie how Bunoo was pronounced differenty to Boonoo.
One is “bun” and one is “boon”. She explains patiently to her favourite idiot.
Anyhoo
After a pleasant morning at Bald Rock the day has heated up and so we drive past the campsite and head to the main falls.
The road runs along the creek as it tumbles through a little granite gorge. It looks like it would have plenty of nooks and crannies to explore.
From the car park tourist trails lead to rock pools above the falls or down to a viewing platform over the main drop.
We head down to the lookout. It’s an easy 5min walk.
A 260m cascading waterfall tumbling into the steep sided gorge below.
Beyond the fenced path glimpses of old trails hint at adventure. If it wasn’t so hot or dry we may have been tempted.
Instead we make our way up to the rock pools intent on a dip.
The main pools at the end of the trail are beautiful, but why stop at there when there’s so much to explore.
We make our way upstream
You can see just how low the water is by the waterline on the rocks. But still enough for a cool dip on a hot day.
From here its a short drive back to the camp ground where we set up for the night then explore the camp ground
An evening storm is our first real test in the Alucab in heavy rain. Lessons learnt: the make shift rain gutter works well but even with it on leaving the door open wasn’t a great idea…
Next morning we get up early and head to BasketSwamp Falls for sunrise.
Kylie had gifted me a Potensic Atom 2 drone for Christmas and had been forward thinking enough to also apply for permits to fly it in various national parks we’d be visiting .
We were denied permission as the first couple because it was peak tourist time over the New Years long weekend but even then they encouraged us to apply again.
Most of our requests were granted though. There were a few conditions on the permits but they were easy enough to comply with
So if you are taking a drone it’s worth planning ahead and doing the right thing. There were also a few times where we had permission but opted not to put it up due to not wanting to disturb other visitors.
Can’t deny the awesome perspective you get with them though.
This was one of my first flights.
From here we’d be heading west into Queensland… sounds weird but the border does a little curve here. Bald Rock in NSW is North East of Girraween in Qld.
Ash wanted to head to Surface Paradise so we thought it might be nice to drop him off for a day out and drive up to check out a couple of the touristy waterfalls on Tamborine Mountain.
We knew Jason was up visiting family in Brisbane so we threw him a shout out to meet us there.
Our first stop was Cedar Creek falls.
This is another popular swimming spot and it has limited parking. We needed to park way back at the turn off (Junction of Tambourine Mountain Road and Cedar Creek Falls Road.) which gave us an extra 800m walk each way.
Locals at the end of the road had set up a paid (donation) parking lot in their paddock and the kids had an esky set up sell cold drinks. Kylie half jokingly wondered if said locals rushed out of a morning on public holidays and filled the car park up with their own cars before the crowds appeared. Clever them if so as their paddock was just about full.
And to be fair, imagine having this place pretty much as your private back yard extension before the crowds discovered it and the tourists (like us) rolled in.
From the car park a boardwalk style trail leads you down past a nice picnic area beside the creek then down to a lookout above the main falls.
The trail then continues down to the base of a lower cascade and a nice swimming hole.
There are two main pools accessible from the trail.
A series of other cascades and pools are off limits due to safety concerns and rangers were on and to remind people of the need to comply.
We have a dip and laze about then head back up the mountain to check out Curtis Falls.
There’s a much bigger car park here but it’s equally full, luckily people are leaving and we get a park close to the trail head. Winning.
There is no swimming allowed in this one but is a lovely walk along a shaded creek and a very pretty waterfall.
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