Creek exploration (13-14 Feb 2021)

The weather forecast was looking pretty ugly for Friday night – with the Norwegian forecasters predicting 37mm a few days out – the BOM forecast was a more “reasonable” 6-15mm. It didn’t sound particularly compatible with the exploration of a quartzite creek! After much agonising Plan B was enacted which involved a very late start by SBW standards – 10am! As hoped for the rain had largely blown through by the time we started – we didn’t really get much beyond spitting through the rest of the day.

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Climbing up through the burnt pagodas

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Crossing a void

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Lunch in the mizzle (with some views though)

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Afternoon excursion

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Pleasant creek

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Home for the night

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The other end of home!

Day 2 we revelled in the open walking across the Morton tops (whoever thought they would hear that phrase in their lifetime!) before we set off with day packs into a creek system I’d been wanting to explore for a while.

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Meadow walking across the tops

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Starting to look canyony

I thought we might by stymied almost as soon as we got into the creek, as there was a drop that needed a handline – at least at the water levels we encountered. Fortunately Tom was able to meat anchor the rest of the party allowing us to use a line with a few footholds, and then he reset off a natural anchor and had a more difficult descent (but he was the tallest in the group by a fair way). I headed down first to make sure we were going to be able to continue on without issue – which we were – other than getting waist deep wet!

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The others negotiating a small drop

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Bouldery section of creek

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Pink flannel flowers everywhere!

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Jon going the sloped route

For the rest of the creek any time we hit a drop that we couldn’t downclimb easily we were able to walk around the top of the creek and find a straight forward way back in.

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The guys about to launch (not)

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Tom about to launch again (not)

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Canyon!

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In the canyon

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Cascades

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Impressive country

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On a rocky ledge

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Tom kindly clearing the spider webs for the rest of us

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Lunch spot

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Swim time

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Nice section of creek

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Spitfire (sawfly larvae) – we saw a lot of these over the weekend

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The final creek crossing