Enmoore had suggested a canyoning trip on Australia/Invasion Day. A few of us were interested in coming along and some canyons were suggested. Enmoore had suggested Koombanda Canyon near Bell, and I then suggested that we could visit the nearby Kangaroo Corner Canyon as well.
This turned out to be a good choice. It was forecast to be a very hot day – and both of these canyons have a short walk in and out. In the party were Enmoore, Wendy, Grant and myself.
We did Kangaroo Corner Canyon first. I had recently been down this canyon (in mid December), but was keen to see it again, to see If I could get some better photos. So I took a tripod. In the end though, the lighting was very poor in the canyon – too harsh for good photos. But its still a nice canyon to visit, and none of the others had been there.
On the way in, we saw a few nice Horned Orchids –
We soon arrived at the start of the upper constriction of canyon. This starts with the most technical bit – a chimney down into a deep pool.
This is the only compulsory swim in the canyon.
Below this a short section of nice canyon –
This canyon section soon ends, but after another few minutes of walking we arrived at the lower constriction.
This section is also very short, but it is very nice and ends in this great pool –
You can climb down the far side quite easily – but it was a hot day and it was nice to have a swim in the crystal clear water of the pool.
Next to the pool is a very shady overhang – this would be a great place to spend a few hours lazing about on a hot day. We had a hot day, but we had another canyon to visit. But we did stay for a while.
We saw this small frog – most likely a Blue Mountains Tree Frog.
Wendy enjoyed herself with some jumps into the pool –
Here we are looking at the small frog. But there is also an interesting geological feature – a “Joint with minerals (silica and maybe also iron) precipitated along it by groundwater” according to geologist friend Dan.
on the walk out we spotted this nice Phasmid –
Then we drove a short distance to the old Colliery and set off along the railway access road to a small knoll. Here we left the road, climbed over the knoll and down into Koombanda Creek. We found a shady place for lunch, but it turned out to be full of insects – small bitey flies. So our lunch break was shorter than usual.
Not far downstream, the canyon started.
I abseiled down first, but was a bit careless and food myself in a keeper pothole. It was rather difficult to climb out, so I pulled myself back up the rope and then bridged it. Here are the others coming down –
Not far downstream is the next drop. This is the highest in the canyon. We used Grant’s 30 m rope for this and there was a fair bit to spare. A 25 m rope would be fine, but that is assuming a long sling off a higher tree that we used is in place.
And then not much further down, the canyon ends with another small but awkward drop. Here we squirmed down using an old sling as a handhold.
From there it is not too far downstream to the old colliery and we walked out via the access road back to the car.
Back at the car, we thought we should have visited Koombanda Canyon first, so we would have spent more time at the beautiful pool at the end of Kangaroo Corner Canyon.
Thanks to Enmoore for suggesting the trip, and to Grant for driving us out and back. Also to Ken Griffiths for the frog id,