So with a group of 5, we hit the cold waters of the Nymboida on the 19th June, 2010. The water level was low with a reading of 0.38 on the Platypus Flat gauge which lead to some boney paddling, but nether the less it was a great day of fun. Cannot wait to get back on the water again…
KB Chute
Centre chute at Devil’s
And as always, a short collection of clips from the day…
After some knowledge from a Dorrigo local about the easiest access to Lone Falls (the lost brother of Dangar Falls) on the Bielsdown River, I decided to go and scout it out for a possible near future kayak descent. After finding the hidden track and proceeding down through the bush to the river I found a sketchy falls, with a difficult entry slide to drop with a nasty rooster tail directly on the lip. While here, I decided to make the most of it and jump off ‘Big Rock’…
Rapids above Lone Falls.
Entry to Lone Falls.
Sketchy slide to drop.
Lone Falls (nasty rooster tail).
View from below Lone Falls.
Video of the drop.
Jumping off Big Rock @ Lone Falls.
Stay tuned for further upcoming adventures.
We have had a fair bit of rain lately and after feeling particularly in the mood for some exploration, I decided to investigate what looked like a very large waterfall that I had found on Google Maps a few weeks prior. This drop is located in Northern Dorrigo, on the Little Plains Creek (a tributary of the Bielsdown River) that drops approx 120 meters in less than a kilometer.
After jumping through some barb wire fences, and making my way through some cattle infested farmland with the hope of not being held up by some angry farmer with a shotgun, I found a massive 2 part waterfall, that would be approximately 30-40 metres high (hard to tell without better inspection). Unfortunately I did not take any ropes, so I was unable to investigate more of the falls, and more so the pool below… I reckon with a bit more rain (possibly flood rainfall), this thing may go as long as it doesn’t land on top of shallow rocks. Let the pictures below tell the story…
Google map – satellite view.
View from the road.
View from the top.
Looking down the eye of the beast.
Map of the drop location.
Next time, I will come fully prepared to check it out in further detail. Stay tuned for more…
Dangar Falls, located on the Bielsdown river in the heart of Dorrigo is a 23 metre (75 foot) waterfall. For some time, I have been wanting to make the plunge into the pool below. With the arrival of my brother from South Africa and some jetty jumping prior we decided it was time…
The video
The impact was ‘hard’ – it really did hurt. With the bruises lasting for a good week, I don’t think I will be doing this again anytime soon.
- dis
After pre-ordering the Pyranha Burn almost 8 months ago and enduring the painfully long drive to Sydney to pick it up all I wanted to do was outfit and get it on the river. The whole reason for the purchase of the Burn was because I wanted something a little shorter, with some extra volume and rails for maneuverability over my Liquid Logic Remix 69. I felt the Burn was the perfect boat for this and with the changes as run-out in the new 2010 model, I was not disappointed.
The outfitting process took a couple of hours but in the end… perfect fit. I made the following adjustments to the original setup:
It isn’t as comfortable as the outfitting in the 69 (bad ass outfitting), however I can still sit in the boat for hours on end without any ‘leg sleeping’ so to speak… On the bright side though, outfitting the boat was a new experience as the 69 was ready to be paddled without any adjustments needed… god damn BAO (the outfitting for slackers).
Upon getting on the river for the first time, the first thing I noticed was how good the boat felt to paddle. It has great stability and was a breeze to roll. I had read that the Burn was a little difficult to roll but I did not find it any more difficult then that of rolling the Remix – hell the Burn definitely takes some effort to flip over compared to the ever so slight lean needed on the 69. The burn is fast, however it doesn’t come close to the speed I could generate in the 69. This is a good thing for me though, as I always felt the 69 was sometimes too fast (especially in some of those harder rapids). However, it does make those long stretches of flats quite a challenge. The burn turns with ease, holds a line very well and makes those difficult eddies without any troubles. The edge is engaged with only a slight lean which meant peel-outs and difficult ferries were achieved easily. This boat really snaps into eddies like a magnet on speed…
The only real negative I can speak on, is how the boat reacts with squirly water like those darn whirlpool eddies (tippy, tippy). However I see far more advantages of the planning hull of the burn to the displacement hull of the 69 – stability, more control and more confidence.
The plastic feels quite ‘soft’ to the touch compared to the ‘hard’ LL plastic, but any damage done is just as you would expect with any modern kayak.
The new Burn.
Damn, its sexy!
Sweet rails, definitely a change vs the rounded hull on the 69.
Black Connect-30 outfitting… Easy to adjust and modify.
This boat definitely matched the hype it has received and in my opinion is the best creek boat design out in the market today. I cannot wait to run some big drops – this will be the real test.
Brilliant stuff ‘Pyranha’. If you are in Australia you can purchase the burn from KayakingWorld – http://www.kayakingworld.com.au
- dis
After a period of dryness and lack of boating, the local region received a hammering of a rainfall over the Christmas break. For some time, I have been eager to run ‘Platypus Plunge’, an 18foot slide classed waterfall into a big pool that a couple of the boys had ran a couple of months ago after attempting to find the ‘put-in’ for the upper section of the Little Murray River as described on a local river guide. Upon a conversation to a local farmer, they were informed that Sandy’s Creek ran from Johnson’s Road into the Little Murray and held an 18foot waterfall that the farmer described as a must ‘portage’… As you can imagine the boys were eager to check it out and the waterfall they found is gold (a clean seal launch entry into a large deep pool).
Sequence of dropping ‘Platypus Plunge’.
After receiving a phone call from Stephen, one of my local paddling buddies and being informed of a plan to run this section, I was definitely in. After bribing my partner we strapped our boats to the roof of our cars and made the trip to the put-in on Sandy’s Creek on January 1st 2010. This section is approximately a 7km paddle made up of class III-IV rapids, that can be done in a couple of hours. There is one scary portage over a huge gorge that is found a few hundred meters downstream of where Sandy’s enters the Little Murray. Care must be taken here due to the size of this gorge and the millions of leeches that attach to your legs.
The gorge – a definite portage.
Sequence of another drop.
Map of the section.
A POV video of the trip.
* All photo’s are courtesy of Stephen Worley.
You can read more about this on Stephen’s blog at – http://paddleblogs.com/worleybird/2010/02/07/the-crew-chalk-up-a-2nd-descent/
- dis
