GLOUCESTER – 22 & 23 February 2025
After a request (at the last Calendar Planning Meeting) from Jim to do some multi pitch creeks in the Gloucester region … aka Leech Country. I reached out to some BWOC members so they could guide us to creeks not yet published. Brad and Coops joined me, Jim, Vamsi and Anna for this adventure – such an easy trip, would definitely do it again!
Most of us arrived at the campsite on Friday night – it had rained pretty steadily on the day, so I was a little worried about the creek levels, but when Brad turned up he said “no problem”. We all sprayed our shoes with insect repellant – there’d been a few leeches in camp already, and from previous experience we knew the creek we were going to was leech infested! I’d heard that leeches couldn’t get through panty hose, so, with half a dozen panty hose that I no longer had use for, I decided to test the theory – trying one pair first!
The walk in is pretty cruisy, half on a track and half off track.
And then off track for a while.
I remembered this creek as being only a meter or so wide. Obviously, a different creek LOL.
I picked up a stick from somewhere, I didn’t really want to get my pants wet but there was no option. (photo: Brad)
After a while, we made our way to the first pitch. Lots of instructions for Vamsi, his first waterfall trip, he took it all in his stride.
Anna descending pitch #1. there was quite a bit of water but you can’t see it in the shot.
Pitch #2, a much longer drop, around 50m+ – Coops was first over each pitch, Brad at the rear (with the emergency rope).
Jim going over the edge Pitch #2.
Vamsi going over the edge Pitch #2.
Brad, the last one down.
Getting to Pitch #3 was a bit of a challenge, lots of fallen trees with false floors.
Looking up Pitch #2.
Brad on Pitch #3, not the route we’d taken in the past, but definitely better.
Coops watching Jim descend Pitch #3.
By now we’re at the exit and negotiating our way to the climb out. The creek had taken about four hours car to exit, very easy, but we all had a great time, water level just right for a beginner.
After exiting our creek, we made our way to the Gloucester Falls lookout and then to the top of The Slot, so that those that wanted to could abseil down to the deep pool below. This is Brad looking at where we could deploy the rope.
The Slot (photo Brad).
Abseiling down. We had trouble getting the rope in the right location, it wasn’t until the last abseil that we had the rope where it should go to avoid this chock-stone (this wasn’t the right spot) – Brad doing the abseil.
Anna and I didn’t feel like getting really, really wet, so we opted out. When they’d all had a go, we set off again back to the lookout.
A late lunch at the lookout.
We headed back to camp, happy with the day’s event. I gingerly took off my shoes, socks and wetsuit to check for leeches … NONE! I think the others scored a few.
Jim had cooked us all Spaghetti Bollenaise for dinner (perfect), and we had enough wood for a fire. We were all in bed by around 9, getting a good night’s sleep for tomorrow’s adventure.
Next morning at 8.30am we headed back up the mountain to do the next day’s multi pitch creek. Dead easy walk in, took about 1/2 hour. We didn’t have any track notes so took 2 x 60m ropes to be on the safe side, probably could have used 2 x 40s.
Was very dark in the rainforest, despite it being a lovely blue sky above us. Coops rigging the first abseil.
Beautiful sunny day.
Vamsi on Abseil #1, it was a series of steps down the waterfall, dead easy but very, very slippery.
Brad on Abseil #1.
The fully run of the waterfall.
Sorting things out at the top of Pitch #2.
Brad deploying the rope.
Just to prove I was there, me taking photos.
Vamsi on the abseil. Having coached
Brad abseiling down. The rocks looked very slippery, so we all gingerly made sure we wouldn’t slip when placing our feet, but, surprisingly, it wasn’t as slippery as it looked.
Me on the pitch.
The anchor for Pitch #3 was in amongst some trees and it was awkward getting over the branches.
Jim on Pitch #3.
Pitch #4, about 45m all up, although the last part was like a slide.
Vamsi going over the edge, there was a small slot that the rope was going through, and the water caused a lot of friction on the rope. Also, I was worried that the knot in the rope would get caught in the slot.
Looking back at Pitch #4, interestingly, all but the first pitch could be reversed by climbing up the rocks (well they were slippery but Coops managed to go back and forth without incident).
I knew the exit was steep but figured I’d be able to grab onto trees and saplings to pull myself up. Sadly, the trees and saplings were few and far between, all that I had to pull myself up were ferns, the only thing they were useful for were balance. Laurie, the Gloucester Guru, had used this route a couple of times, so the ferns were compacted and dead, making the route easy to detect. Before long (around 1/2 an hour) we were at the top of Pitch #1 and then retraced our steps back to the cars.
The route (in) and out for the last half was nice open terrain, with lots of old fallen trees covered in amazingly verdant moss.
We were back at the cars by 2pm, a dead easy day, but loads of fun exploring a new creek and its waterfalls. Back at camp I checked the legs and feet and again, no leeches!!! Yaaay, I think the panty hose really work. I offered my spares to the guys but they declined (wonder why?).
Big thanks to Brad and Coops for joining us on this trip – only things that were missing were Brad’s walkie talkies, we could have done with them a few times, whilst whistle signals work, you can’t beat a walkie talkie.
Whilst I’d done Saturday’s waterfalls before, it was great to do them again, and Sunday’s waterfalls were new, I knew about them but didn’t do Laurie’s exploratory trips, so had “missed out”.
Great weekend, thanks everyone for joining me on this adventure.
Beautiful scenery! Leeches gross me out . Glad the panty hose worked!!!