Bob was keen on a last canyon of the season, and suggested we head up the Bells Line of Road and visit canyon we had both first visited back in October 2019. The canyon is a short distance from Bells Line of Road and is not that well known. Our earlier visit was just before the terrible bushfires of the 2019/20 summer and conditions then were very dry. This time we found the creek had a fair bit more water, although the canyon is so high up in the catchment that the flow would rarely get high.
We followed an access firetrail for a short way then headed off through thick scrub to the creek. we then followed it down to the first abseil. This is very short, but not long after this is a much larger drop.
Here is Bob on the second abseil. This needed two ropes (we used a 40 and 45m)
This abseil is the highlight of the canyon.
It is followed by a short down climb.
Looking back upstream –
Then there is a third abseil –
The pool at the bottom was shallow.
The canyon downstream is nice – with high walls, but is very short. There are no swims.
We then found the pass we had used earlier on the true right. We climbed out and admired the view.
After this, we had still had plenty of time, so we visited Mt Charles and looked for a historic camp cave. We probably did not find it, but we did see some old sry stone walling, part of the original Bells Line of Road.
And we found this old pick –
We did find this small overhang –
We then had lunch and headed back down the mountains.