This was a very hot day in Sydney and almost as hot in the Blue Mountains, so an ideal day to visit a canyon. Bob had not been to Bowens Creek for a long time, and thought that a visit to the lower constriction of the north branch would be good.
So we headed up to Mt Wilson and out to the carpark near Wynnes Rocks. We noted a sign saying that the land here has recently been sold. Perhaps in future we will have to park a little further away?
We then set off, along the fire trail to the anthill marking the turnoff and then steeply down into a nice rainforest gully to Bowens Creek. We headed downstream past boulders and scrambled around Hanky Panky Falls to find ourselves at the top of the first abseil. We quickly descended that and the second abseil into the cool inner sanctum of the canyon. And it was cool!
Being a small fast party (for most of the trip) meant that Ia had enough time to take a few photos in this nice section of canyon. The walls are high and the canyon formation is quite spectacular. But on our visit, the light was very contrasty and you had to be careful to avoid any directly sunlit section of the canyon from your photos. It was also quite gloomy in the canyon.
I have always struggled with getting good photos in this canyon. Another visit is warranted in better conditions for canyon photography.
After the coolness of the canyon, it was a stark contrast to walk out into the heat of the ridge. It was hot and quite windy, but at least it was not too humid.
On our way up the track, we passed a huge number of trigger plant flowers. Most of them were just buds, and they will certainly present an amazing display in a week or two. Where the track meets the firetrail, I had noted a number of flying duck orchids on previous visits. Again, we encountered a large number of them – all clustered in a fairly small area. It was interesting to experiment setting off the mechanism to make the “head” spring into the “body” of the flower. This is normally triggered by a visiting saw-fly and is an amazing mechanism to aid pollination.
More photos from the visit are on my website here.