Claustral Canyon Photographic Trip 9 – 10 February 2019

For a fair while I had wanted to do an overnight trip to Claustral Canyon. The extra time should allow for more photographic opportunities. Albert was keen to join me. We headed up Bells Line of Road in Albert’s car and parked at the Claustral Canyon carpark. We were not the only ones! There were 16 other cars there. But we had plenty of time, so it would not matter if new were held up by other parties at the abseils.

We set off around 10 am. Checking the logbook revealed that the last party to leave before us headed off at 8:50 am, so we should not have any problems with canyon congestion. This proved to be the case. We reached the abseils about 11 am. On the way, we had overtaken a party of 4, who were doing an extra abseil to get to the top of Calcutta Falls. We had taken the much faster, usual scrambling route. At the abseils there was another party led by Adele. They said they had waited for the party in front to get through. Not long after, Adele’s party were down the first drop, and we could proceed.

We had a single 25 m rope which was not only long enough, but much easier to deploy than longer ropes. It was all we needed with only two people. We were soon in the Black Hole of Calcutta. It was here that the serious photography begun.

We then very slowly moved down the canyon. Sometimes we would pause and go back up a section again if we thought the light had improved. The canyon lighting was nice, but not sensational. Some parts were gloomy and other parts were lit with nice soft reflected light. I though the recent hot weather, high humidity and recent rain may result in some sunbeams. We had some, but not the continuous ribbons that you sometimes get.

Several other parties passed us was we photographed including Kylie, Ryan and party who had entered the system via Ranon Brook. And later we saw a big party from Wagga Wagga led by Henry, a Claustral specialist (he visits the canyon most weekends in summer).

When we eventually reached the Thunder junction, we had a quick lunch break and dumped our gear. There was a very brief shower (right on time – it was forecast for the early afternoon and only lasted about ten minutes) and we then headed back upstream for more photography. The lighting was quite different. Not significantly better, but better in certain places than it had been. We had plenty of time for photography.

A little after 4 pm it was starting to get too gloomy in the canyon for photography. We returned to our packs and then started setting up our camp on a high ledge a short way down from the Thunder junction.

We were surprised to see a party of two heading down the canyon below us around 4:40 pm. Fairly late. Its a fair walk to get out.

After dinner, it started to get dark, and this was the signal for us to head back up Claustral Canyon for some glow worm photography. At first, the glow worms were hard to spot, and those we did see did not look too bright. But as the darkness became fuller the glow worm display became magnificent. It was like being in the centre of a galaxy of stars. Quite amazing.

The next shot was taken with some light paining with a head torch.

We then returned to our camp. Next morning, we got up fairly late – we were waiting for the lighting in the canyon to improve. The first party came past very early – around 8 am. Another party came through as were packing up around 9 am. The canyon at that early hour was very gloomy, and these parties would have had a relatively dull trip compared with what they would see leaving later in the day.

It was too gloomy by far to go back up Claustral Canyon or Thunder Canyon, so we set off downstream – down a lower section of Thunder Canyon to the usual exit at Rainbow Ravine. On the way we had to pass through the Tunnel Swim. It was back at its shallow level.

We soon reached the exit. It was a shame to see an arrow scratched into the moss on one of the rocks. What a terrible bit of vandalism in such a beautiful place!

More photos and larger ones are online here.