Bob had been keen on a trip to visit Oronga Canyon for a while, and it had been a very long time since I had been there (2002), so we travelled up the Bells Line of Road and were soon walking along the ridge towards Wongarra Hill. We were following a climber’s track.
It was pleasant walking. A very hot day was forecast – but conditions up the mountains were mild.
On top of Wongarra Hill, we left the track and followed a fairly open ridge down towards the creek.
The descent was straightforward, except for some scrambling to get down a cliff near the bottom. It would have been a little easier to descend all the way down the small spur we had been following, as it later looked easy going all the way down.
Once in the creek it was reasonable going.
The canyon section starts not far above the junction with the second (eastern) branch of the creek. It is not a great quality canyon.
The short canyon section is easy walking all the way. No swims or abseils.
Just above the junction is a large overhang.
And I remembered the junction from the previous trip. I had been with Rik Deveridge at the time, and we had reached a drop at this point.
On that trip, we had traversed a short way on the true right and scrambled down. Now the scrub was much too thick to try this, so instead we traveled higher up near the cliffline, looking for a pass down near the Grose cliffs.
We found an obvious gully going down, which we could follow all the way down, back to the creek.
This took us to a large rock ledge poised above the Grose Valley. There were magnificent views.
Bob attempted to go back up the creek towards the junction, but found the way blocked by a small waterfall that was impassible. Back in 2002 there must have been a log here that we used to go back to our scramble down spot.
We had lunch at the ledge.
I have heard of some parties abseiling down the main waterfall, but it did not appeal to us. The slopes look very loose and covered in lawyer vine.
We then climbed back up the gully and with a bit of route finding, we soon reached the top of the ridge.
Horned Orchid
We could get a distant view of the waterfall at the end of Fortress Creek –
Further along the ridge, we were back on a climber’s track.
Part way along, we left the climber’s track, and turned off on another faint track down to the cliffs. We wanted to see a natural arch near the top of the Mirrorball climb.
The small natural arch is known as The Arch of Serendip.
It is an engaging feature.
We then climbed back up the ridge, and it was not far back along the climber’s track to Bob’s car.
The canyon had been like I had remembered, a bit underwhelming, but we had had an interesting day out.