It was nice to join a group of friends on a trip down Jugglers Canyon at Medlow Bath. In the party were John and Chuin Nee and their two young sons Jasper and Sebastian, Martin, Su Li, Brent, Keith and myself.
We parked at the end of the fire trail near the airport at Medlow bath and were soon on the track down to the start of the canyon. We soon reached the creek. The water level was high but not dangerous.
The canyon begins with a short abseil/hand-over-hand. Here we paused and got our gear ready.
We soon started descending.
Here Martin is assisting Jasper on the descent.
And then it was Seby’s turn.
We then continued down the creek to arrive at the first abseil. This is a nice drop down a waterfall.
The young boys were assisted down by their parents.
The canyon is quite spectacular at this point.
Now for the second abseil –
And a short hand-over-hand
For the third and last abseil, I usually go down the path of the water. But we thought that route may be tricky for the young boys so we sued the abseil from the side. A 45 m rope makes it down fine (doubled). The young boys abseiled down a single strand next to the first rope.
At the bottom of the canyon, we scrambled down to Greaves Creek and crossed over to the tourist track. The water level in Greaves Creek was very high – we had heard the dam upstream was full and overflowing.
After a lunch break, we thought it worth going downstream a short way to check out Beauchamp Falls. These falls are named after a “colourful” former Governor of NSW, William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (pronounced “Beecham”). This was the day when the black sheep of upper class English families were sent to the colonies.
The track down to the falls is dangerous in one place –
The falls did have a good flow.
We climbed back up via the old track, which is also quite dangerous, and follows a ledge closer to the falls. From that you can see the upper part of the fall.
We then walked back up Greaves Creek to the base of the Point Pilcher Track. The creek crossing were interesting.
On the way out we saw a few nice orchids and a great display of Flannel Flowers.
Flying Duck Orchid (Caleana major) –
Small Tongue Orchid (Cryptosylis leptochila) –
It had been a very good day out.
Hi David, really love your blogs. Do you happen to have any insights into what the bottom of Pilcher Track is like? I’ve seen mentions of there being some steep or exposed ledges but haven’t been able to find much online at all. Hoping to check it out in a few weeks.
Its mainly a very easy track – lots of switchbacks getting up through the cliffs and higher up. There is one short section with a slight scramble to get up onto a ledge. Easy for most people.
Thanks so much! Looking forward to checking it out.