Day 1: 30/12/2021
I had been planning a week-long solo trip to the Blue Mountains Bungleboori region for some canyoning for a while now. An area I had never visited before and was keen to sink my teeth into. The plan was to head in on Tuesday but as they had had some recent rain, I decided to delay it a few days to let it calm down a bit. I left home at about 10:30 and 3 hours later I was setting up camp at Warratah Ridge. Plans for the days coming commenced later that afternoon. Tomorrow I was thinking of linking up Hole in the Wall and Popeye canyons.
(Roman Note: next time we are there we need to check out Bungleboori Crack 21**.)
Day 2: 31/12/2021
7:30 start. I was headed to Hole in the Wall. Halfway there I realised that the quicker way to link these two canyons together was to do Popeye first, so I changed my plans and headed into the bush. No track in so good navigational skills and planning are required for this one. Popeye was a great canyon! Lots of sections spaced apart, hence the name given (you pop in and out of canyon sections). A few small rappels involved. The guidebook doesn't rate it highly so probably rarely visited. Hence the tatty slings and rusted maillons. I left a few new shiny ones along the way for the next weary adventurer.
I had completed the canyon by about 11:00. “Wow! I’m making great time. Now let's go find this Hole!” I thought... Oh how very wrong I was. The description for finding the exit track on to the next feasible ridgeline was to head downstream on the Bungleboori. “Oh, a little creek walking and rocking hopping. Cruisy”. Do NOT underestimate the Bungleboori!!! This bad boy was rough. I tried to avoid swimming for about 15 mins but after a slip and a near fall I looked up to see the sheer 100+ metre smooth walls towering either side. There was no way to avoid it. I was going in the drink. 3 hours of swimming!! Every time there was a rock ledge to climb out of the water my sorry ass had to mantle with 60 metres of rope and a pack full of water. Very tiring, but the thought of being back on my feet again was worth it… or so I thought. A few metres then back in the drink again. At one point I was walking shin deep and the next thing I knew I was neck deep in a flash! “What the hell!” Maybe it was the shimmering light distorting the surface of the water or maybe fatigue, but I managed to find a hole just big enough to swallow me up! *sigh* “Add another mantle to the list”.🙄
I was looking for a big right hand bend in the creek looking at the map and after every half hour I was thinking I had to be close. After two hours of swimming I was feeling pretty hammed and slow and was considering that I may have swam right past the exit track. Getting a bit concerned now. A very shitty place to be benighted.
“Fuck it!” I thought. I was now just looking for any weakness in the giant walls that I could use to my advantage and bush bash to the nearest ridge line. Eventually I did swim right past the exit. Blink and you’ll miss it. But I took note that it could be a possible exit and doubled back. Turns out I was right. Hole in the Wall was going to have to wait until tomorrow. There is a short day trip via Scatters canyon that I stopped to consider on the way back but the rumble of thunder made me reconsider. “Tomorrow, after Hole in the Wall”.
Back at camp a little before 5:00. Not a terribly long day but the most battered and worn down I've ever been from a canyon. I will NOT underestimate the Bungleboori again!
I brought a couple CDs along because I knew there would be no chance for radio reception. I turned on the car stereo and Prince was playing! “No way! Reception!?”. Well, I figured I'd use my phone to save the car battery. When I turned it on I had received a whole bunch of missed calls and texts. “Whaaat!? How is this possible? Zero bars of reception!”. I have never been able to get reception out there. Well, I made a couple of phone calls and got through! “Awesome! I am still in contact with the outside world. Happy New Year!” Bizarre. I am still scratching my head about it but thankful I was able to touch base with mumsy and let her know I was safe at camp.
Day 3: 01/01/2022
I was quite confident with the route finding today as I had passed the entry point and spotted a cairn on the hike out the day before. As I descended to the valley floor I felt the unmistakable niggle I sometimes get in my left knee (skateboarding injury from taking too many big drops in my youth) and started feeling a little bummed I may not last the trip. But I suited up and dropped in anyway. This one is dark and cold.
Brilliant canyon! I had a little concern about the tight constriction talked about in the tunnel swim as I get a little claustrophobic (Screw cave diving).
Before I reached the constriction, I decided to switch off my head torch. I just knew there had to be glow worms. Magical! Brighter than the night sky last night and THAT! WAS! BRIGHT!
Now for the squeeze. Left (tight!) or right? (a little bit less tight). “Fuck it! I’m going left! I didn’t come all this way not to!” FOMO as my good climbing and canyoning friend Jen always refers to me as i always make us drop in just a little earlier than we should… Just to be sure.😂
Pack first through the squeeze, then me. Stuck! Breath out then ‘Pop!’! Fell out of the constriction and plopped into the pool of water on the other side like an unwanted turd. Piece of cake! What was I worried about?😆
Next an amazing 12 metre rap off shitty slings again with a rusty maillon. Who is going to reimburse me for all this gear I left behind? Karma I guess.
As I rig up the last rap before the hole in the wall, I feel the slings go loose.
Eh?! I look into the pool and suddenly remembered what I was told earlier from some previous canyoners. “The last rap is a bit sketchy. Slings wrapped around a loose dead log that you had to weight and chock up against the rocks whilst you are below it so it wont blow free”. “Sheesh! No one’s bolted this thing yet?”
Pack off again and out through the hole in the Wall. Back into the Bungleboori and about a half a kilometre swim to the exit route. Not so worried this time as it is the same exit as for Popeye and I knew what I was looking for.
As I passed the Ridge line that sends you off to Scatters canyon I heard the all too familiar rumble of the mountain’s mid afternoon storms and my knee was telling me it needed some rest. “OK knee. You win this time but you better bring your ‘A’ game tomorrow”.
Back at camp I decided that if my knee held out on the way to Scatters I might just push on to a less known and travelled canyon called Arch (because of the amazing sandstone arch that you pass through.
Day 4: 02/01/2022
Knee held out! But I knew it was going to be shot to shit after today.
The track runs out kilometres before you reach this canyon so more navigating. There is not really any beta on this canyon besides the mention of 4 raps. That was wrong anyway.
An underrated canyon. Probably because of its length. I enjoyed it but was a little bummed it was so short. A late 9:30 start and I had already finished it just before 11:00. “OK Scatters. Here we come!”
On the map it looks like a relatively straight forward ridge line out of Arch. Nope. Look for any weakness in the cliffline all the way to the top.
As I mantle a scrubby rock ledge about 20m off the valley floor I almost get tagged in the face by an Eastern Brown snake (the most deadliest of all in the region). I threw myself out of its strike and almost off the ledge only saved by a few tufts of straw grass and end up with my legs hanging in mid air. Needless to say I got my ass back on that ledge ASAP. A few less strands of grass and some unlucky canyoner would have found me face down washed up on a rock somewhere on the southern branch of the Bungleboori.
I was a little shaken after that and was jumping at shadows as I hiked out. As I pass by Scatters canyon ridge for the third time, guess what?... Thunder. What is up with this damn canyon!? Does it not want me there? My Knee was screaming at me and I decided to pull the pin and head back to camp. Just then I bump into the first people I had seen since I arrived. Two canyoners off to camp at the top of Crikey canyon and enter the following day.
The thunder intensifies as the first few drops of rain fall. It was a race to see who gets back to camp first. Me or the storm. As the skies get darker and darker I become slower and slower. “Fuck you stupid knee!!” I arrive at camp just minutes before the heavens open up. I drop my shit and jump into the Discovery just as the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard rattled me and made my skin crawl. “Screw this! I’m waiting this one out in the car!” I grab a beer, tilt my seat back and watch the lightshow, just praying that the hail doesn't get large enough to bust out my windscreen.
I check the BOM on my phone as I ride out the storm.
‘TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST. Severe thunderstorm warning for damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall’
“Now they tell me?”. They Weren't wrong.
30 mins later the sun comes out. I check the weather radar and see another cell approaching from the south. 30 mins later the skies darken and the clouds start rumbling again. I rush to get my awning set up so as not to be trapped in the car. As the heavens open up again I sit drinking my beer enjoying the show again, this time with cigarette in hand. I then remember the couple I had passed on the hike out earlier. “Poor bastards. That’s got to suck!”
I contemplate packing my gear that night for an early alpine start and try to complete the elusive Scatters and the drive back to sydney before nightfall as i need to be at work the following day. But i'm also getting the feeling that the mountains might be trying to tell me that I have outstayed my welcome this trip. I count my blessings and decide that I might be pushing my luck.
Day 5: 03/01/2022
I figured that half my worldly possessions are absolutely sodden and need drying out. Time to go home. I’ve had a good run.
I share breakfast and beta with four female canyoners that came in late last night before they head out to hole in the wall.
I pack my water laden gear into the Disco, say goodbye to the Bungleboori and start the 3 hour drive home.
“I’ll be back Scatters”
Do NOT underestimate the mighty Bungleboori!
Pics and vids to come
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