Obi Obi Gorge

Getting there:

Kondilla Falls car park and car park at Baroon Pocket Dam; you will need a pick up.

Maps:

Sun map Witta

Route/Trail notes:

Go down the Kondilla Falls track to Skene Creek where it is crossed by a bridge. Start rock hopping down the creek. Ignore any funny looks from other day walkers! Rock hop down finding the occasional foot pad till you reach a fence on the left climb through the fence and follow a footpad to a large rock where Obi Obi Creek joins Skene or vice versa. Keep going downhill on Obi Obi Creek, there is some scrubby parts. until you reach the Gorge be careful not to follow a smaller tributary creek off Obi Obi, it is on the left. You will come to the Gorge and this is where you start swimming. I took a surf mat to float htrough but forgot a large plastic bag for my daypack! The gorge is about 250m long. Keep following the creek till you reach a swiming hole and then a bend in the creek, The track to the Baroon Pocket Dam car park is found here.

Permits/Costs:

None.

Other References

Take A Walk in South East Queensland.

GPS Tracks

No GPS available for this walk yet.

Comments

Beautiful weather, lots of rock hopping.
Jen on 23 Nov, 2019

An amazing walk, but found the directions a bit unclear. I think the notes say that when you reach the junction of Skene and Obi Obi, continue heading down Obi Obi, but you are actually heading upstream from this point and the paths were non existent so it is just a matter of taking the path of least resistance. The notes in "Take a Walk in SEQ" say to head uphill as soon as you come to the large rock at the junction of Skene and Obi Obi, but that was near impenetrable shrubs so we had to bush bash for quite some time before finding any sort of a path. There was plenty of water running which was good, but it also meant that the swimming was a challenge heading upstream wearing long pants, boots and carrying a pack. I kept all my gear in a dry bag inside my pack and found that everything stayed dry and the air trapped inside also helped the pack to float. The highlight for me was swimming through the main gorge and seeing that waterfall from water level as you swim round the corner. A great walk for the summer months, I think the water would be freezing in the winter.

jgmansell on 10 Apr, 2019

What an adventure, the trail notes above were a little lacking in terms of the scale of the trek ahead. Aside from matching the direction (from Kondalilla to Baroon Pocket Dam) our walk turned into a mammoth slog. It was raining the morning my party did this hike so we didn't start at the bridge on Skene Creek due to the rocks looking rather slippery.

Instead, we followed the great walk trail for about 2-3 km before jumping into Obi Obi Creek after what we assumed were the main swimming legs.

That assumption proved very wrong as we ended up swimming for approximately 2-3km that day and this takes a looong time. So first and foremost, be prepared to be up to your neck in a creek for several hours, complete with hidden rocks to bash your shins on and slippery rocks to walk on underfoot. This may sound like a drag but it was great fun and very rewarding.

We started walking from Kondalilla at approximately 9.30am and ended up at the end near Baroon Pocket at about 5pm. That gives you an idea of how long it took to go about 9km up the creek.

Aside from the swimming (which was great fun and very refreshing) we realised it was taking a long time and decided to go land as often as possible but this was through bush with no trail so also be prepared to get scraped and bruised. This was accompanied by copious tumbles on the slippery rocks, I grabbed a handy stick which saved me on more than one occasion.

Having some kind of waterproof floating bag is a good idea as a backpack will inflate and ride up the back of your neck (which is what happened to me) and this makes swimming such long distances quite tiring. Would also suggest a cheap pair of aqua duck shoes ($10 ish) as swimming with proper shoes also weighs you down.

Once you reach the gorge however (which is towards the end) your hard work is rewarded as they are spectacular. This is a very unique walk, consider it Northbrooke's big brother as it is almost 2/3 hike 1/3 swim.

Be sure to take something to eat as it is a very long tiring swalk (swim/walk =]) but well and truly worth it. The scenery is fantastic and you are in a great part of the world (Sunshine Coast hinterland - what is not to like?) PS - would definitely suggest two cars as going up and back would be far too much for one day. We parked one at Baroon Pocket at the exit of the Great Walk and drove the other to Kondalilla which is about 10 mins away if that.

In summary: one of the most epic one day adventures you can have, would not suggest going in cooler months due to the swimming required, beautiful scenery and very rewarding.
Matty Vee on 2 Feb, 2019

Commenced in dark from Baroon Dam section. Obi Obi Creek flowing nicely after all that rain, YET made for quite slippery rocks !!!
Nice walk tho to the falls and back in cooler months or do one way with a pick up at the other end.....unless your doing part of the SSC Great Walk.
J on 21 May, 2017

Walked from Kondalilla to Obi Obi creek and back again. Beautiful waterfalls as the rain had provided alot of water!
No difficult parts just a long way; 21 kms clocked on Endomondo.
Was pretty tired and worn out but most enjoyable!
Training for Kilimanjaro
julieo on 1 Mar, 2015