In recent years, a group of us have headed into the Northern Blue Mountains for an extended canyoning trip during the period between Boxing Day and New Year. It provides a good time to venture into some of the more remote parts of the Northern Blue Mountains for some canyoning.
Often, these trip have been exploratory – with the main aim of searching for new canyons. Sometimes they are a chance to revisit canyons we had found on previous trips or revisit favourite canyons that are more remote and hard to visit on weekend trips. This time the trip was along a fairly long route through very rough country. We planned to link together some quite remote canyons.
The party – Su Li, Sarah, Rik, Rob and Paul
Rik, had planned the route. He was joined by Rob, Su Li, Sarah, Paul and myself.
These trips have a number of challenges. Most of the canyons would require taking our full packs through them – so we had to go as lightweight as possible. But the canyons we planned to visit would have a lot of swimming – so many of us ended up taking wetsuits. Usually they are not needed on these remote trips. The country between the canyons was rough and quite scrubby – so we also needed to carry long pants, and some of us also carried scrub gloves and gaiters. This does not leave too much room for food or photographic gear.
Boxing day 2012 was a cold wet day. Not a day for canyons. This did not worry us too much. It was our starting off day – and required a bit of walk through scrubby pagoda country and negotiating some passes. After we left the fire trail – there were no more tracks to follow for six days.
Good navigation took us down our first pass into a large creek. Then we soon found a pass up through the cliffs on the other side. More pagodas to scramble over and then a scrubby ridge and time to look for a campsite. We found a suitable place – although it meant we were spread out a bit. Then we set up tents and tarps and headed down a nearby gully looking for water.
Around the campfire that night – we were satisfied with our position. The rain had stopped. Nearby was our first canyon. We hoped to visit it with minimal equipment the next morning.
The next day was fine, and so after a quick breakfast we set of with ropes and abseiling gear for the canyon. We descended through it quickly. It was pleasant with a few short abseils and swims. The canyon ended at its junction with a larger creek. It was here that we hoped to find a pass back up to our campsite. An easy ramp led to a large ledge. But the ledge soon petered out. We were fairly close to the top – Rik forced a way up a steep exposed slab. We followed. The rest of the way back to our camp was easy.
Then we packed up and set off once more through the scrub for our next canyon. We arrived in the mid afternoon. We knew this canyon was quite long and very deep, dark and wet. We abseiled in and spent the next few hours in one of the really great constrictions of the sandstone canyons of the mountains. Too dark and too wet for good photos!
At the end of the canyon, we again were lucky, finding a convenient pass nearby. Rather than camp in the cold clammy creek – we though it better to camp higher up on the ridge. The pass took us up to a large rocky outcrop. This turned out to be a nice place to camp.
Day three was also fine. Our day started with another scrubby walk across the ridge and into another canyon system. At lunchtime we reached our first canyon. This was one that I had found, together with a group of friends back in 1988. It has a series of dark tunnels and some great glowworm displays.
After that canyon, it was not too far to another canyon – this one was not extreme. It was more like a deep gorge broken up with short canyon sections. The canyon sections were all quite good but between them were some enormous boulder blockages. The route finding to get through them was quite challenging. Especially with big packs. There was also a lot of swimming.
At the end of this canyon we found a nice camp cave – big enough for all the party. It proved to be an excellent place to camp. That night we were enchanted by the blinking light of firefly beetles – Belisha beacons in the wilderness.
Day four started with some gorge walking while we looked for a pass out. The gorge was rough and slow walking – boulders and river gums, so we soon found a small gully that looked like a pass. It turned out to be an easy way out – and we soon climbed up through towering cliffs. Then more scrubby walking followed. Again, it took us till afternoon to reach our next and final canyon of the trip.
This canyon had three abseils down into a very deep and impressive gorge. Once in the gorge – the creek was immaculate. No scrub or boulders – just a nice open creek bed. Fast walking at last! We most of it was fast – there were a few swims and small waterfalls boulders to find ways down and through.
Lower down, the creek joined up with a large stream. It was here that we hoped to camp. But instead of sandbanks, we were met with boulders and scrub. It looked like it would be the same for a fair way further downstream. So we headed back up our creek a little way and ended up camping in tiny sites, very spread out in the rainforest. More firefly beetles and also some nearby glowworms brightened up the evening sky. It rained a little overnight.
Next morning, Rik was feeling a little crook, so after some discussion, it was decided to split up the party for the next part of the walk. Sarah, Paul and Rob headed off down the gorge while Rik, Su Li and myself climbed up a nearby cliff and went via a shorter but scrubby route.
On our way, near the top of the cliff, we found a new aboriginal art site. It featured three quite faint hand stencils. One of them was that of a young child. Then we had many kilometres of scrubby walking ahead. This was a good place for leather gardening gloves and long pants and gaiters.
We camped the last night on a large sandbank in a larger creek. The last day of the year and of the trip – was an easy one for us. We climbed out of the creek onto an open rocky area, and then waited for the others to join us. They did not take too long – and then we only had to walk a few more kilometres back to the cars.
More photographs of the trip are on my website here.