The canyoning season has started late this year – at least for Bob and myself. The cool weather has not been that encouraging. But, with a warm day forecast, Bob suggested visiting Wotta Canyon in the Blue Mountains. It is short canyon in a tributary of Birrabang Creek. I had been down Birrabang Creek many ears earlier, and had not really encountered any sections of canyon of great note. But perhaps it was time for another look? So I suggested we go down Wotta and then walk down to the junction and exit by walking up Birrabang Creek.
This turned out to be a good plan. We had a nice day out. It turned out to be a fairly short day, and we were back at Bob’s car in the earlier afternoon.
Bob parked on the Bell Road near the Mt Wilson turn off. We then walked out the old fire road towards the top of the canyon. On the way, we spotted a couple of orchids. Here is a Beard Orchid – Calochilus sp. –
We also saw a lot of Waratahs, mostly a bit old –
Our second orchid – a Leek Orchid – Prasophyllum sp. –
There were lots of Fringe Lilies. Here is one –
And another Leek Orchid –
We left the track and walked down an open ridge towards out canyon.
Not far down the creek was the first drop. This needed a short abseil.
The water was quite deep – a very short swim. Then the next drop, using an existing sling around some Grass Trees. The belay seemed OK.
This was another very short drop. Bob unclipped where you can see him in the photo above and down easily climbed the last bit. We could have used the rope (40m) to get down both drops in one go.
The third and last drop was not far downstream. The belay for this was a sling around some tree roots. This meant a tricky start.
From here, we could see the canyon ended a short way downstream.
We then waled down the creek, scrambling down the odd waterfall and clambering over logs to reach the junction with Birrabang Creek.
We then headed upstream. It was easy going along a nice open creek.
There was never any really constricted canyon, but it was a pleasant walk.
At one point, we met a party from the Bush Club heading downstream
We continued upstream. We had to wade in a few places – never more than knee deep. Although we ddi need to scramble up to higher ledges to avoid deeper sections.
We continued upstream to the junction of two branches. Here, we stopped for lunch, and then a short way up the eastern most of the branches, we found a rough track that led onto the ridge. Once on the ridge, it was easy walking back to the Bell Road.
On the way, we spotted a single Flying Duck Orchid – Caleana major –
The most unpleasant part of the walk was the last bit – walking along the Bell Road to Bob’s car. Along the way, we spotted another species of orchid. An Onion Orchid – Microtis sp. –
This had been a very pleasant day out. Wotta Canyon was nice, bit very short. It is similar to the many small side canyons of major creeks (eg the upper part of Bell Creek), but Birrabang was pleasant and better than I remembered. Doing both worked out well.