queensland Lost World Warning

[malram]

Hey guys,

I thought I should post this warning due to the amount of reports for Lost World recently.

I hit up Lost World yesterday arvo with a close friend and silly me didn't think hard enough about the possible consequences of the weather. A few showers I thought. No harm.

Anyway, it started pissing down while we were in the middle of the gorge on the rock ledge. It turned to an oil slick. We both were wearing Dunlop Volleys which IMO are one of the best shoes for rocks, wet rocks due to the soft rubber compound they use on the sole.

We were stuck, high enough to not feel safe to slide into the creek, without mobiles unable to move along the rocks as you would just slip, and not just slip a bit, I mean.. slide.. all the way down and not knowing the depth of the water below it was not an option we wanted to take.

I knew it would be slippery wet but this was just horrible. Try covering your feet in soap in the bath and this would best replicate the grip we had. It tooks us 2 1/2 hours to climb up using the slightest of crevaces in the rocks into the grass area about 50m high (this grass grows in loose rocks, which had no quarms with fallng out underneath our feet) and try and work out way across till we found some safe divets in the rock that we could work our way down until we were close enough to the water to feel safe enough to slide down and grab onto a tree that was overhanging the water to break our fall. And even then I cut up my legs, banged my knee and am very sore for it.

Even after rereading what I just wrote I don't think I can explain how much of bad situation we were in. There were times where I was panicking and I've been in some pretty hairy situations before.

A warning, do not even ATTEMPT to do Lost World if there has been rain or is due for rain- many times we were close to sliding 30m+ down the face and if it wasn't for us working together, taking our time working out our paths and realising the importance of getting it done before dark it could have been a very cold, lonely night out in the range.

I'm going to give the appropriate people a call today and ask them about the possibilities of putting up signs advising of the dangers.

If this stops even one person from being put in the position I was last night I will be a happy man. I was packing it and had great fears for my safety and hope noone has to be put into the same situation.

I am a very sore, mentally and physically exhausted man today and lost alot of sleep last night running through what COULD have happened last night if I had slipped.. very stressful.

Anyway, prior to this we had a good number of failed hookups and one small spangled.

Mal

[ryanyoung]

That is a bad situation to be in mate. Part of my prep for trips like that is to always check the weather previous to/and during the proposed time I will be there. Many of these spots flash-flood in no time at all. There was a post on here last year about this sort of thing, and someone put up graphs on just how long certain creeks/rivers take to flood. Scary stuff.

Valuable lesson to learn though, and the hard ones are always the ones you remember.

Glad you're safe.

Ryan.

[Guest]

Thankyou so much Mel for the warning, i was looking at going tomorrow there for a fish as i have never been there before. Now i think i will wait a few weeks for the rivers to calm down. In New Zealand i was in the same trouble as you were but lucky enf i had Westpac Heli to pull me out of the bush. Life is more valuable then catching a fish..YOUR A LUCKY MAN

Thankyou for the prior warning, you probably just saved someones life on AFO

[rayke1938]

Quote from Werewolfs post 8 days ago.He nearly went for a swim and turned back.

" In the canyon to my dismay the rock was like wet tiles, on a slope... "

There is very patchty telstra next g reception in the george any others forget it.

You always have to check local conditions and what is happening in headwaters before entering any watercourse or below any dam area.

The area below Moogerah can turn nasty very quickly if there is a storm over the dam when it is full as the dam immediatly starts to spill. If the storm is up in the headwaters a bit it takes a day to reach the dam and the rangers will not open the gates to the lower picnic area but if you come in from lower down you are in trouble.

The Stanley is another stream that can get sudden risesw in it from rain in the headwaters.

Cheers

Ray

[Funfisher]

Could be an idea to pack some rock boots the metal spikes should sort out the slippery stuff. But as always better to avoid the situation in the first place.

[Terry H]

Lee and I were walking across the rock face when it was wet.

If you find yourself on the rock, try your best to keep to the red stuff. The redder the rock, the grippier it will be. Even when wet, some of the rocks there are as grippy as asphault. The brown/white coloured rocks are somewhat like ice rinks.

Its no fun sliding down the rock face, and I went for a couple of slides a good 5 metres down the rocks, gear in hand. It isn't pretty.

[chaujern]

sounds like a bear grylls adventure ...

glad to hear apart from a couple of cuts and bruises, all is well ... quick thinking on run

[malram]

Lee and I were walking across the rock face when it was wet.

If you find yourself on the rock, try your best to keep to the red stuff. The redder the rock, the grippier it will be. Even when wet, some of the rocks there are as grippy as asphault. The brown/white coloured rocks are somewhat like ice rinks.

Its no fun sliding down the rock face, and I went for a couple of slides a good 5 metres down the rocks, gear in hand. It isn't pretty.

Yeah it was well beyond that, all rocks were bad even the moss/green free ones. All the water was running from top the range. Was like a constant slippery slide.

[Swagger]

Lee and I were walking across the rock face when it was wet.

If you find yourself on the rock, try your best to keep to the red stuff. The redder the rock, the grippier it will be. Even when wet, some of the rocks there are as grippy as asphault. The brown/white coloured rocks are somewhat like ice rinks.

Its no fun sliding down the rock face, and I went for a couple of slides a good 5 metres down the rocks, gear in hand. It isn't pretty.

Spot on. We found the red rocks to have much ore grip

Malram,

We too experienced a similar fate, but luckily for us we only made it in about 20mtrs before decided to cross the creek and go bush. I know what you mean by hairy situation and gripping on the slightest crevace, not as bad as yours though!

I did have 1 bar of optus reception at times in the gorge area. Always carry my mobile in case of a disaster

[rosstralia46]

good work for putting the word out there mate howd the fishing go btw

[T Fisher]

thanks for the warning i am weary of going to my upper breamer and local spots as these creeks can also rise quickly and a bush bash soon turns into a mud slide

[wrenchman]

I was out there on the weekend , deffinately slipper place .. i tended to head up the face going across ,, then i thought $hit its a long way back to the water if i go A over T ,,so on my way back i stayed as close to the water as i could where i could,, you still have to go up pretty high in one spot .. i did run into some young fellows that said they had come from a camp area down stream ,, place called Yarramalong ... so i guess if your are down stream of the gorge and the weather turns bad you could atleast go to yarramalong ,,be a bloody long walk back to the car park at Haig Park ,, but you wouldnt be risking life and limb ..

as for a sign ,,i remember seeing the sign at the end of Haig Park saying No Entry or some such thing ...

[Manni79]

Lee and I were walking across the rock face when it was wet.

If you find yourself on the rock, try your best to keep to the red stuff. The redder the rock, the grippier it will be. Even when wet, some of the rocks there are as grippy as asphault. The brown/white coloured rocks are somewhat like ice rinks.

Its no fun sliding down the rock face, and I went for a couple of slides a good 5 metres down the rocks, gear in hand. It isn't pretty.

Totally agree, the red rocks were most grippy!! you will also notice that there are parts of the rock wall the look like mini waterfalls, if a down pour comes you could be in more trouble than just slippery rocks !!

Good thing you got out ok mate