I had headed up to the Northern Blue Mountains with Bob for 5 days of canyoning. The weather on the first day of our trip was cool and a little wet, so we chose to visit a short and fairly dry canyon. After that we planned to look for a nearby Aboriginal art site.
This turned out to be a good choice. It was a short walk to our canyon, and we were soon approaching the first abseil.
I had visited this canyon about twenty years earlier, and knew it was a bit of a tease. It starts off looking very good, but then hands all too soon. Still it is one worth visiting on a day like the one we had. Bob pulled out the rope and soon had it set up for the first abseil.
This abseil took you down into a really beautiful section of canyon.
A short way downstream was the next drop.
This was quite narrow, and we could not see the bottom.
The abseil took us down into a chamber with no suitable belly points, but fortunately the rope just made it down the full drop.
And then it was an easy walk back out onto the tops.
After lunch, we set off to look for an Aboriginal art cave. At first we walked through pleasant meadows full of wildflowers.
The Flannel Flowers were a little past their best, but were in profusion.
Then the going became very slow. It was quite scrubby – with a lot of thick post bushfire growth.
Along the way, we spotted a nice Hyacinth Orchid (Diposium roseum) –
We eventually reached the area where we thought the cave was. We soon found some overhangs.
Then we spotted a white hand stencil.
Nearby was a second one.
The cave was very extensive, so we had a good look at the walls.
Bob spotted another white hand stencil.
Near that one, I used software on my phone to stretch the images and soon spotted two more, but much fainter hand stencils nearby.
Original –
Stretched version –
Original –
Stretched version –
Original –
Stretched version –
And then back to the first spot, with the second indistinct print –
Original –
Stretched version –
Bob found one stone tool. This small stone had worked edges and was a rock type foreign to the area.
To avoid the scrubby way in, we worked out a better way back to Bob’s car.
This was slightly longer route in distance, but the going was a lot clearer.
And we spotted a single Flying Duck Orchid (Caleana major) –
Back at Bob’s car, we headed to our campsite for the next tree nights – at the Dry Canyon.