Waterfall Creek

Simon and I camped at the locked gate on Narrow Neck after our sunset shoot out at Anvil Rock. It was dark the next morning as we set off down the fire trail to try and find the lookout. There was a track in about the right place which went out to a lookout, but no rock formations, so we retreated. Further down was an old fire trail, but this petered out before the cliff edge. Back to the first track and a bit further along and we finally found the formations. Lots of cloud about, but a good dawn with plenty of colours. Once the sun rose things petered out pretty quickly, so we headed to Eaglehawk Lookout for breakfast, and then on to Kings Tableland.

From the top of Kedumba Hill we made our way down the ridge. The scrub was slow, but not as bad as it looked from the side of the road. A couple of minor clifflines needed to be negotiated before we were able to get into the creek.

Surprisingly, the creek turned into a shallow canyon, and then a long pool appeared. We stripped down for a potential swim, which turned out to be an actual swim, and plenty long enough for a cool day in autumn!

The canyon section ended fairly quickly, but another one soon appeared. This one had some wades but no swims, and was quite pretty, though again not that deep.

A little further down was one more cold looking pool, but Simon found a ledge that could bypass it, and we climbed down off the end.

From there to the main waterfall, it was mostly pleasant gorge walking. While not a stunning creek, the going was pretty easy and the creek fairly open. We started to get more glimpses of sky and then cliffs around us as the creek hit the main drops. We stopped for a quick lunch and then started the descent with a 30m abseil down an eroded face. This had been the subject of a major landslip in the not too distant past. Simon noted a tree with a sling around it in the rubble at the bottom!

The next abseil is the most impressive, 45m down a lovely waterfall in two stages. With some interesting technique, both of us managed to stay dry.

The last of the abseils was a 30m drop from well to the right of the falls. The next falls presented some challenges, but Simon found a climbing route down the slippery cascade. We were able to walk around the remainder of the waterfalls on the right, before the creek swung left and we climbed out on to the steep ridge on the right. I pointed out a bench just above us that looked like it would be easier going. It turned out to be an old road that led us back to the Kedumba Valley Road at the hairpin bend, avoiding steep slopes, bracken and lawyer vine. A handy find!

My shoes started rubbing on the long walk up the hill and I ended up doing much of the hill backwards! Otherwise, a good day out.