Gerringong Falls - Reaching the Bottom

Part 1- Finding the Trail - 19/10/18

So last year on New Years Eve, Dad and I rode our bikes to Gerringong Falls. A few days ago he called me up saying he had seen on "the YouTubes" as he calls it, a track down to the bottom of the falls, which I had just assumed was a whole different track to the one we had taken to the top of the falls, knowing I would get around to going one day. So we made a day of it, and set of on our bikes along the trail riding to the top of the falls, this time in hot and sunny weather, with the path very wet from a weekend of heavy rain.
As we road I told him on the rock climbing documentary (The Dawn Wall) I had recently been to see up at the Uni Movies at University of Wollongong, and he filled me in on the video he'd watched showing a group of men wandering through a path after the falls and going down through a bit he claimed they called "The Chimney".

We soon reached the top of the falls and enjoyed a sandwich and the breathtaking views.

We continued around past the waterfall, following the water up until we found a small track through the bush to the left which we began to follow. The path was very overgrown, so we knew not many people had been down this way. We continued through until it opened up to a wider clearer section shooting off to the left or going right, back to the water. We followed it left believing it must take off down to a section of the cliff that you can descend down.

Random flower I saw on it's own walking through, I saw no other flowers like it.

Soon we saw a sight that confirmed to us we were on the right trail.

A national parks sign, going along the back of a property, for sure this had to mean we were headed the right way. Dad was unclear exactly, saying the video he saw was cut so he couldn't identify the way exactly. The walk along this path along the property reminded us both of the path to Missingham Steps at Carrington Falls.

The trees on our left broke away into a large expanse of marshland, while the trail up ahead was incredibly wet that we couldn't get along it without our feet and shoes sinking in and soaking our socks. I commented to Dad about how absolutely picturesque the farm to our right was and he agreed.

We soon came to the end and found that there was no clear path. There was no track at all in sight, and so we set off to our left hoping to find one as we crossed the swampy marshland.
We set of following two separate animal tracks. A rustling began at the bush in front of me. "Fuck a snake!" I thought before a swamp Wallaby quickly hopped out and away from me.
"I don't think this is the right way!" I told Dad.
"No, neither." He said and we set back. "Maybe it was one of those turns before we reach the waterfall? We can have a look down those?" He said.

Soon we were back at Gerringong Falls. I sat having a drink of water, watching a rainbow form off the top of the falls. Dad followed the edge around and disappeared for a short while. While I sat waiting I noticed a tick crawling up my shoe and promptly flicked it away.

This Lizard kept me company while I wondered where Dad had gone

Soon he returned believing he'd found a little gully around the side were it wasn't so vertical and we could perhaps make our way down to the bottom. We started pushing through the scrub until we found the bit me meant. "Maybe this is the way". I said, unsure as I had seen many photos of people on Instagram at the base of the falls, none of whom looked like this was a path they would be able to take. We crawled our way down the muddy cliff face holding on to whatever we could to stop us from sliding.

This continued going down and also around and we thought we just might be able to get down, until again we came to a sharp drop of, making us retreat up a bit and continue going around.

Dad pondered how many people if any had been down into this bush and seen the beautiful rainforest we were seeing. "Not many, if any at all" I thought.

We began the exhausting climb back up, digging our hands into the mud as we tried to return to the top.
As we finally hit the top and pushed our way through the bush I told Dad that we'd have to just find it another day as it was supposed to be a long way, and I was already out of water. At the top of the falls we looked and realised we had made it a third of the way down. Hot and tired we decided we'd jump in for a swim. Sitting and taking off our shoes we both found ticks buried in our socks, I had one in each sock while Dad had just one in his sock.
I told him about how I had been to Jump Rock that Monday with a guy from work (as we both had the day off) and about how we'd both had leeches, but that I had found a tick on the bottom of my foot on the Wednesday, that I'd had to dig out with a knife.

We jumped in and after a couple of unmanly squeals due to the cold we soon relaxed and enjoyed cooling off.

As we walked through to another section, just where this tree is:

Taken from older Gerringong Falls Post

We began jumping of a rock into a deep section. I told Dad about my phone camera being able to film in slow motion and we got some slow motion shots of us jumping into the water.

Upon watching the video back I saw how much weight I had gained since doing The Refugee Challenge in June, which was just another thing to make me feel down, as I was already feeling a bit depressed from Jump Rock on Monday, as I found it difficult to jump from Jump Rock, which I had done many times in my life. I couldn't figure out what it was, was the fear there because I was older? Was it because I had stopped doing so much adventurous stuff? While I did end up jumping, I still felt bad that it took so long for me to do. So having gained so much weight on top of this further lowered my mood, but also inspired me to get back into doing some exercise.

As we reached out bikes and started back along the fire trail, we stopped and turned in at the first path to our right, which ended up just being a lookout of the falls. We continued riding again, stopping and entering to our right into the next one. We found a few trails that looked like paths all reaching a dead end until we saw this.

"This look promising!" Dad exclaimed with glee in his voice. We followed it down until we found this.

"I think this is the chimney!" Dad was saying. We agreed that we would return to climb down and make it to the bottom of Gerringong Falls.

"Oh look" I said, pointing out an arrow we'd missed as we were heading back to our bikes.

When we reached our bikes we noticed another thing we had missed. The tree right by had been marked to show us the trail.

We rode back to the van, talking to an elder couple from Kiama we had rode past in the morning talking a little we found out they had missed Hersey Trail and ended up just walking to some farm and had never ended up getting to the waterfall. They did tell us however that they had been to the Falls before so at least they had the adventure of exploring a new path.

We along passed two Echnida's on separate points returning to the car.

Upon returning home I tried to do my own research into reaching the bottom, finding that no one would give a clear indication of the way there not wanting it to be spoiled. This made me think about writing this blog, or whether it was the right thing or not. However, although I agree with not oversharing these sorts of places, I also don't think it's fair that people who do the right thing, leave no trace and respect nature cannot find our way. So I can only hope that the sort of people who'll travel the distance there, the sort who would read a blog instead of a facebook page or Illawarra Mercury article would be the sort of person who deserves to go, and will leave it as a beautiful untouched and beautiful place that inspires people to keep it hidden.

I then relaxed and played some Old School Runescape (in which my username is Steventure if you play) and then played some Pokemon Go while my Wife went for a jog as I was too exhausted from the day to do any jogging. I'm only mentioning this because if you haven't read or got any references in my other blog posts, you needed to know that I am a gamer and a geek as well as a lover of the outdoors and adventure. Later I headed to a friends birthday party, wondering when it would be that Dad and I would go again, and complete our trip to the bottom of Gerringong Falls.



Part 2 - Reaching the Bottom - 23/2/19

So after deciding that we would return as soon as possible to make our way to the bottom of the falls an opportunity came up at my work place, leading me into a new role indoors that ended up being 5 days a week. Not wanting to have to go on a weekend we delayed (as my role was just a relief position) going back, wanting to wait for a day off midweek to avoid any excess people as we often do with our hikes. However the position I was meant to fill for just 2 week kept being extended. While in the role I began getting quite fit, walking up and down stairs all day, but then it began getting closer to Christmas, excess drinking outside of work happened, including a beer advent calendar. Although I had some days off over this time we decided to wait until the school holidays were over. I began getting slightly lazy and taking elevators instead, and created 'Savtember'.
Needless to say 2019 came, then January passed and I decided I needed to get back into my adventures. After a fun climbing session at Hangdog Climbing Gym in Wollongong (or technically Coniston?) I called my Dad and said we'd get up at 5am that Saturday and just do it on the weekend.
And so with 5 hours sleep I woke up, and we set off. It was a quiet and misty drive up Jamberoo Pass, with not a car on the road, we passed 2 Lyrebirds on the side of the road before one ran out in front of the car, crossing the road. We soon passed another before having a Wallaby jump out in front of us crossing the road, had Dad been going any faster we would have collided with it.

Arriving we were the only ones there, and it was a cold and overcast day, we began the ride along Budderoo Fire Trail to the start of the track down and my arms were red and sore from the cold air hitting against me as we flew down the trail. We talked as we road, Dad telling me about his call to a lady from 'A Current Affair' doing a piece on tradies doing jobs and people not paying them and saying that he might be on the show. I told him about hangdog and how I wouldn't need the rope he was bringing to get down 'The Chimney', and that I would be able to free climb it. Finally we reached the location and left our bikes and proceeded through the bush. Every branch brushing against me splashing a cup of water onto me. As we finally made it into a bit more of open area I admired the mist rising from the valley below.

As we proceeded down through the little channel in the rocks, we started following a path straight down.
We followed this for a little bit unsure if we were heading the right way because the path looked so overgrown and in our memories we thought we headed left. So we worked our way back to the channel and then took the left and right turns both leading nowhere till we decided we were on the right track to begin with and proceeded down.

After a short while I saw 'The Phantom Knotter' as Dad had described when we had hiked 'The Castle'.

Finally we reached The Chimney, and there was already ropes tied and left there. I told Dad I wasn't going to use it, but we would use it to hand each other our backpacks down. So I descended.

Upon reaching the bottom Dad lowered the bags, before climbing himself with the rope to hold onto just in case. He agreed it wasn't too hard and he would try without a rope on the way back up.
So we continued down along the path, in new territory for the both of us after making the trip 2 times before.

The beautiful walk alongside the cliff-face heading down into the bush reminded us both of doing Missingham Steps.

Soon whatever path there was disappeared and we found ourselves scrambling through the bush. We soon noticed danger tap wrapped around trees, and assumed they were marking the way, so we began following them. We eventually came to a point where there seemed to be a clear path downwards, but the danger tape led away to our right. I followed the path down a bit and it stayed pretty clear. We ended up following the danger tape, along the way Dad saying that he thought the other way was the way most people came and this was someone marking their own path. He stopped to look at the danger tape which was RFS (Royal Fire Service) and we both mentioned that some trees on top of the other side of the valley looked like there had been a fire and if it was the RFS who had marked the path. Dad also said it might have been a rescue operation saying he heard something about people being stuck on a ledge, but he was unsure if that was here or not.

I proceeded taking pictures occasionally at one point walking through, at one point almost losing my footing on some leaves covering loose topsoil, I moved away, and not a second later my Dad had stood in the same spot he saw me almost fall and instead took the fall himself.

Besides being covered in dirt he had cut up his leg, arm and hand.

Soon we started getting glimpses of the stream through the trees, and finally made it down to the pristine flowing waters.

We soon began the walk along the stream, slipping, sliding and scrambling along rocks and boulders making our way towards the falls.

We could have stopped and swam at any spot along here, all areas were beautiful and untouched wilderness. Behind me I heard Dad slip and fall on the dark moss, sliding and soaking his shoes and I made a joke about how he kept falling on this hike. Not five minutes later I myself took a huge fall, reaching out with my right arm to brace my fall and half landing in the water, only to develop a huge bruise on my upper leg just next to my butt.

A lot of this was swapping and changing between virtually climbing along like monkeys on our hands and feet until we reached a wall leading up and we could see the base of the falls. The danger tape led around but we headed straight towards the rocky walls, climbing our way up.

As we began getting closer, I actually felt a tinge of sadness. We first came to Gerringong Falls in 2017, before returning in 2018, now it was 2019. 3 different years to reach this point. It was bittersweet as I loved the drive and enthusiasm of wanting to reach a destination, and wondered what would be next.

We soon came into the open from under the tress and had our first clear view of the waterfall.

We climbed over the rocks in front of us and got our first view of the beautiful pool below. A really breathtaking location.

Truly like something out of a fantasy, and in our own backyard. We made our way around noticing a giant cairn made up behind the waterfall. We both took turns standing under the majestic falls, feeling the absolutely freezing water splash over us.

As Dad walked over he, of course slipped and fell. We sat and began to eat our lunches, with Dad trying to coerce me into jumping in, and although I wanted to, it was absolutely freezing cold, and told him I would have on a hot day. As we sat eating I noticed a cigarette butt at my feet.

This absolutely infuriated me. We were in an pristine, unspoiled, beautiful, natural area, and someone who made the effort to come here didn't care enough to even take their rubbish with them. I was annoyed, and again had second thoughts about writing this location. But then I thought I can use this to highlight and call out THESE sorts of people. If you can take it in with you, FUCKING TAKE IT OUT. If you're with friends and you see them do this call out their behaviour. People need to learn empathy and value our natural areas, because this is a complete disregard.
I finished my wrap and picked the cigarette butt up and put it in my wrap packet and into my bag. As I sat appreciating the view and trying not to let anger sour what was a remarkable place, I looked up an noticed this:

"Maybe someone tried to make it down that way?" I said to Dad.
"Maybe it was the RFS, or from a rescue?" Dad replied. Either way we don't know and might never know.

Dad finished eating before convincing me to go in. He had brought spare pants to swim in and decided he wasn't going in, so I put them on and jumped under the icy cold falls.

After my stint under the waterfall I decided it was far too cold to be swimming and dried off and got changed again.

Soon Dad, in an effort to convince me to go in stripped down and took a dive in himself. The peer pressure worked and I got changed back into his swimmers and took the leap into the water. He said the water tasted funny and I told him that the water at jump rock tastes the same.

After our swim we dried off and I decided to walk around the back of the falls and down to the left to just see what was there before we headed off.

It was just a little rocky opening surrounded by the bush, that looked like it couldn't been the filming location for a Dinosaur documentary. I sat and watched some Tadpoles in a pond before going back and meeting Dad to begin the trek back. As we headed back we began climbing the rocks before realising we'd have to go down and climb some different ones as the ones we had climbed had nothing but a big drop down.

We climbed back down to the fall before ducking and going through a little tunnel, where I took my final shot of the falls, before we climbed back down to the stream and started our way back.

I had entertained the possibility that the cigarette I found at the pool had maybe been from someone at the top, but on scrambling our way along the rocks I found another one.

I opened my backpack and again took someone else's filthy rubbish home with me.

We soon reached RFS tags heading up in the scrub and Dad decided to follow that while I said I would continue to follow the stream. This went on for a while and I began to suspect I had went past the spot we had initially came out. I soon noticed small cairns and began heading up through the scrub calling out to Dad (who couldn't hear me because he had water in his ears). He eventually heard me and called out and I climbed my way straight up and we eventually met up and followed the marked path out. Eventually we made it back to 'The Chimney' and I climbed up.

After seeing me do it, Dad agreed it didn't look too hard, and managed to climb up himself with no rope, pretty good for a 65 year old with a dodgy shoulder.
We made it back to the bikes and began the ride back to the car, the way back uphill and taking longer, I found this more difficult than the entire walk as I hadn't ridden a bike since the last time we came and it was using unused muscles. Dad commented on how long it would take if you walked the entire section of the fire trail, I wondered too then figured I'd find out when I came back to do the whole thing on foot, which I would do, just because I'm a completionist.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven