Hole in the wall and the Bungleboori

[Vern]

Flash flooding in a canyon has always been a concern of mine, especially when the rain is torrential and the trees around you are bent over like they're made of playdough!

Rod and I camped in the car park overnight to get an early start but woke to find that Bruce still wasn't there. After a lengthy breakfast I decided to go to the pre arranged alternate meeting spot and sure enough I found him waiting. He managed to forget his directions that I had emailed him and he couldn't find us. At least it gave him some time to sleep which was a good idea since the 4 canyons we decided on doing were going to take more effort than we anticipated.

Celebratory cubans

We headed off toward the Hole in the Wall canyon. One I had definately heard of but hadn't done before. In fact I hadn't done any from the Newnes Plateau before In my haste to get going quickly and make up time I took a wrong turn and it took me about 400m before I realised. We back tracked and found the correct path and made our way into Hole in the Wall canyon.

The plan was to do Hole in the wall, drop the packs, do Banks canyon, and head down stream to camp in the Bungleboori where we would camp. The next day do Crikey and Froth and Bubble canyons and head back to the cars. That was all without knowing what the terrain was like and without knowing any tracks other than what I'd read on line. And assuming good weather all the way...

Hole in the Wall canyon

Hole in the Wall was great. It had deep slot canyon sections with abseils, swims, jumps, climbs, and cave sections. There were trout everywhere. I tried to catch a few in my hands and given a little more time I'd be confident that I'd catch one. A bit small for eating though! Can't say I saw any crayfish though which I found unusual.

We arrived at the cave section and donned the head lamps. Part way through I looked down from a rock ledge and though thought I could see solid ground. The only thing that gave it away as being water was the bubbles popping through the mass of sticks and leaves. There was no water to be seen and it appeared as though this section was like a filter for the creek that retained all the stuff floating on top...including spiders! Rod and I both though it looked like the trash compactor from Star Wars and expected to be eaten by some unseen creature down below.

Hate to be here when it floods!

After some internal monologue I convinced myself to go for it and man'd up and jumped in. My head was instantly under water and I popped up through the top and pushed through the stick and spiders to the other side. There were two ways out that I could see. I tried one and found that I could squeeze through but only when I breathed out. There was no way the packs were getting through there. So I headed to the other side and tried climbing up. There were no footholds as the rock was overhung just below the waterline so climbing up was a challenge. After grunting my way up I found that a small cave section lead to a way out. I set up a sling for the other two and we hauled packs and climbed our way through. We were pretty cold from all our time inside the cave and longed for the sun. The glow worms provided some comfort and were a first for Bruce who was pretty excited.

A short abseil

After heading through that section the sand in the creek became so soft that occassionally we'd sink down to our knees. At one point I had to pull my way out because I couldn't move my legs. I'd never had the quicksand experience in a canyon before. Continued....

[Vern]

Snake!

We had a great day for it and despite the cool water the sun was shinning nicely. There was a snake out sunning itself that positioned itself nicely where Bruce was going to down climb. We moved around it and soon after popped out into the Bungleboori. The canyon took longer than expected and we'd decided that to do Banks on the same day would be too much. We headed down stream and Rod and I made good use of the lilos easily carrying our packs down the longer swims. I had payed Bruce out for bringing his self inflateable 3/4 length mat instead and soon after had two sticks pierce my lilo. Now it was just dead weight

Rod liloing the Bungleboori

We arrived at the camp site which was amazing at the exit of Fortitude canyon. I was apprehensive about the sleep that night but managed to sleep soundly despite the lack of air cushioning me. Maybe it was the hip flask of port that helped out!

Cave camp

We woke the next day and the daunting task of putting on wet wetsuits soon became a reality. I made a trip up into Fortitude while we were there and got some happy snaps. We then headed on down the Bungleboori still unsure of what we were doing that day. The travel along the Bungleboori was slower than we expected and the next thing we know a clap of thunder rang out through the canyon. The sky was still sunny and not a drop of rain. The cloud soon came on and with it some torrential rain. I mean it was absolutely bucketing down. The sight of the bent trees that we were navigating through didn't fill me with too much confidence and I was keeping a keen eye for exit points. It was still some time before the known exit point oposite Crikey canyon. And just when you thought the rain was bad enough it started to hail. It was freezing and hypothermia wasn't too far off I'd guess for at least one of us who had a sleeveless wetsuit

We made it to the exit point of Froth and Bubble canyon and for a brief moment the sun shone. We had some lunch and I went scouting the cliff line. There seemed a likely exit up next to the canyon and we packed up and headed out. (The thought of doing another canyon given the time and the rain was a bit too risky). A few turns here and there and a bit of scrambling and we were on top of the cliff line.

Lunch in the sun :)

From here we gps'd our position and compassed out to the ridgeline using the compass. We bush bashed and treked our way through the scrub and the going was pretty slow. I didn't want to tell the guys that it was likely we'd be heading out in the dark of night but that seemed a posibility. We had only done one canyon (Two I guess if you wanted to count the Bungleboori) and we were soaking wet and tiring and the thought of telling them just didn't seem that appealing. To my amazement I found a goat track on the ridgeline and soon realised it was an actual track heading exactly where I was. This made the going quicker and we eventually came to a track head. We turned right and eventually joined back onto the same track we walked in on and then back to the cars.

The trip was a great experience even though we hadn't done what we went there for. Thanks to the three canyoneerers who helped with info on the trip: Dave Noble, Tom Brennan, and Fatcanyoner...your websites are a great resource!

A few more pics from the trip are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/taspicsvns/

[FatCanyoner]

Now you need to go back again and actually do those canyons. Crikey is one of the best you will ever do. Banks and Nosedive are great. Froth and Bubble is short but much better than it gets credit for!
The 'Boori is a cruel mistress. It is one of the things that keeps me going back out there. Pretty much from the moment you head downstream of Fortitude you can expect slow, hard going. Your description is exactly in line with my memories! Next time try looking for a relatively easy pass near Fortitude that takes you to Crikey. It is a lot faster than the creek walk!

[tom_brennan]

Dunno. From Fortitude junction downstream to the passes on both sides took us about 75 minutes. So you would probably save at least that much time by finding a way out near the Fortitude junction. But...then you have to take full packs through Crikey, and back up the Bungleboori. As it stands, you can leave your packs near the bottom of the pass and just take a small amount of gear.

[Vern]

I think I'll have to head out and do those canyons for sure. Hauling packs through the canyon definately slows the pace. I like to take a bit of time in them though to savour the moments. Long enough to enjoy it but short enough that I don't get hypothermia Probably more chance of me doing them as day trips though. Really keen to get out and do Crikey. Is it better to go at Crikey from the Hole in thhe Wall car park or coming at it from the North side?

[FatCanyoner]

I wouldn't do Crikey as a day trip. The distances are just too great. One option would be to set out on an afternoon, do most of the walk in, then do the canyon early the next day and walk out. That would be much more comfortable. It is probably easier doing it from the north (Railmotor Ridge), but be aware that the pass up / down from near Deep Pass is a little challenging to locate, especially from above. There is a reasonable foot pad following Railmotor Ridge as far as you need to go, although it does have a few twists and turns, so you need to be fairly careful with your navigation (especially if you are unlucky like I was and have rain / mist).

[tom_brennan]

If you're just doing Crikey, it's probably much of a muchness. It's about a day and a half whether you come in on Railmotor Ridge or Waratah Ridge. As Tim says, the passes aren't that easy to find from the top, particularly if you're unfamiliar with them. My preference would be to do 3 or 4 canyons as a weekend trip. You could do a shorter weekend trip eg Froth-and-Bubble/Crikey if you were less sure of your speed/route finding.

Hole-in-the-Wall/Banks is a good (solid) day trip.

[DaveNoble]

Crikey is not too hard to do in a day - but you do need an early start and you need to move fast with no pfaffing (camp near the Pine Plantation). You can do it either from Deep Pass or Waratah Ridge. If you go via Waratah Ridge - then you can also do Froth and Bubble Canyon on the way - it doesn't take too much extra time and there are some convenient passes nearby.

But as Tom mentioned, you do get more bang for your buck by taking weekend packs and camping either on the ridge or in the Bungleboori and doing three or four canyons. But to do this - it helps to be familiar with the area and the canyons. Knowledge of passes and routes is useful. Even the way to get through some of the boulder sections of the Bungleboori is useful to save time.

If you do a two day canyon trip - then it is essential to go light weight!!! The packs in the photos looked huge. Your pack should be not much bigger than a daypack.

Dave