By the time we reached Imbil the weather was looking a little better, and i was looking forward to the clouds taking some of the bite out of the heat later in the day.
By some miracle i managed to get to Imbil early again! We headed out through Bella Creek towards Borgan Road-
And with considerably less water in Yabba Creek than on our last visit (one of the crossings was completely dry), we took the vehicles all the way to the start of the "road" towards the gorge.
As the first creek crossing on the gorge road contained a lot of very large rocks, we agreed it would be wise to get on the mountain bikes straight away.
The road started off quite pleasantly, but soon faded away to one or two tyre tracks at best, nothing at all at worst.
We soon passed the abandoned shed and tractor-
and shortly afterwards reached the pretty crossing where we had turned back last time.
There was no turning back this time, and we made our way further up the valley, crossing Yabba Creek several times more.
There was a remarkable amount of damage like this on each side of the creek, caused by feral pigs.
Eventually things got too rocky and overgrown for the bikes to be of further help, so we stopped for some food and left our steeds propped against a rock.
The next section was particularly difficult, we followed a rocky flood channel for some way before we were forced to push through the thick vegetation near Yabba Creek itself.
Progress was slow, but on those occasions we could see more than 50m, we could see we were making our way around a huge 180 degree turn in the valley. I had expected that this would be the point where we would leave the valley floor to climb up onto the Black Gully Pocket ridgeline, but the lower slopes of the ridge appeared all but impassable due to lantana.
As we neared the end of the turn the rocks in the creek got a lot larger and the vegetation receded, encouraging us to keep going.
At this point Andy got all excited about some fish that he could see in the crystal clear water. Apparently they were Sooty Grunter, and apparently that's a big deal or something. While he frothed at the mouth over that i kept pushing on, and as we came around the final 90 degree turn the heart of Baiyambora Gorge stretched out ahead of us.
Scrambling over and between the rocks was just as difficult and time consuming as battling through the scrub, but it was a lot more enjoyable.
Due to the angle of the terrain, it was very difficult to judge the best path ahead, so often i would try one side of the creek while Andy took the other. We usually both got through at about the same pace, but on one occasion he was presented with a jump too far and decided to swim across instead. (Unfortunately i'm not able to embed Facebook videos on here, but you can watch the video whether you're on Facebook or not)
Andy got through the creek without being eaten alive by the Sooty Grunters, and we pushed on.
We could see another sharp turn in the gorge coming up, and Andy happily declared that the waterfall would be around it. I said nothing, but my spirits were flagging as i was sure we would still be quite some distance from the falls, with time fast running out.
But what do you know, i was wrong...
What we were looking at (with unrestrained astonishment) was Stehben's Chute, part of the lower half of Yabba Falls and nearly 65m high. The scale of the place was hard to comprehend, and no matter what i tried i simply couldn't capture the way it dwarfed the two of us.
Ideally we would have climbed up the side of the chute past Heaven's Gate to get a view of the Top Plunge, but it was already midday and i was supposed to be back at Coolum at 4:30...
Interestingly, the nature of the rock around Stehben's Chute is such that climbing up it would be a breeze with handholds galore. That will be the next goal.
After a well earned rest and plenty of photos, we started back down the gorge. I tried to keep the pace high but Andy's legs aren't made for this kind of lark. To be fair, i was a bit sore myself, and i could feel a decent chunk of skin missing from one of my toes.
As we came back across the "pretty crossing" we heard a noise in the distance. We soon realised it was dirt bikes, and they were obviously on the gorge road. I took off after them as fast as i could, partly out of concern for my own unattended motorbike, and partly in hopes of interrogating the riders about the southern approach to Borgan Road.
I flashed back to my (deeply unsuccessful) days of racing XC, but while the spirit is willing the dad bod is very, very weak. Even though the dirt bikes had been through so recently the mud was still stirred up in the creek crossings, i wasn't able to catch them. At least it meant i had a bit of time to catch my breath before Andy caught up (although not as much time as i should have had, given he was on a CX bike and crashed twice).
As we climbed up out of the Yabba valley on Borgan Road, i spotted a suspicious looking stick across the road, and once i got a bit closer i made it clear to Andy that i was NOT riding over that thing.
That aside, the drive back to Imbil was uneventful, and after a stop at the General Store we went our separate ways, both intent on finding enough alcohol to numb our aching legs.
While i'm over the moon with that effort, i'm not finished with Yabba Falls yet. It will be a while, but Them Thar Hills will be back in the near future.
Fair Winds,
LDR.