Tim, Kent, Sheila, Marchelle, Ev, John, Doug, Craig, Pete and me
Nightmare canyon, it sounds, um, nightmarish but it’s a pleasant, if somewhat short, canyon in the Wolgan valley with some interesting abseils.
I’ve been enjoying heading out with Tim, Kent and their band of canyon addicts, they run great, well organised trips.
Anyhoo, it was back to the Wolgan and up everyones favourite little hill, the Pipeline trail
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You can’t walk up the pipeline without a side trip to the lookout. It’s the law.
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Hazard reduction burn late last year has left the ridge denuded of the usual nightmareish scrubAnd it wasn’t long until we drop into our creekTim leads down the second drop which looks delightfully…. I mean nightmarishly tightAnd it just gets worseHorrible Canyon formationThey look terrified don’t theyThe kind of absiel that wakes you at night in a cold sweatEv hugging the log for comfortWhat terror awaits us around this corner? Probably a demented clown or something, We’ll let the girls go first
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Marchelle disappearing into the abysys
Everyone knows lime green is Disney’s colour for evil
I have no wordsTim battleing a evil split ropeOh the horrorOne step closer to the edge
Total nightmareMy go nextActually this aint so badMore like a sweet dream really…
Well except when you plunge into the nut deep pool. My outie became and innie again.
Oh sure they pull Kent across so he doesn’t get wet… FavouritismOk The halfway ledge has it’s momentsLike the fossilised remains of this dragon
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But it also has it’s grandour.
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Then all too soon we are back in the valley at the ruins.
Party Size: big but all experienced and a rope for every drop
Time: 6.5hrs car to car
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views…” Edward Abby
Tim, Yuri, Scott, Louise, Peter, Sophie, Craig, Autal and me
Ah Windows 95, while Machintosh ensured “1984 wouldn’t be like 1984!”, Â Windows 95 took Graphic User Interface and plug and play and made it accessable to the microsoft masses who had thus far been stuck in MS-DOS. It may have been the first and last time people got excited about a Windows release.
Anyhoo.
Windows Canyon is nothing like that.
It’s more of an absiel trip with canyony sections and the access as well as the length and tricky starts of the abseils has probably kept the masses at bay.
We park up and do the meet and greet. This time around Tim is going to be ringmaster it’s his circus and we’re his monkeys and he rallys us up for the pep talk then we are off
Up we go. Out of the wind it’s a pleasant winters day wind jackets and thermals will soon be shedIn the spirit of adventure we opt to go a slightly harder route up that contains a little shimey up a rock climbAfter climbing up through the cliffline the cliff edge is a great spot to have a drink and a bite ot eatYuri on a brittle shelf way above the Wolgan
Don’t worry it is a bit of an illusion as there is another wide ledge just below and the pedistal is way more solid than it looks.
Autal thought he’d replicate Yuris photo and handed me his brand new TG5 camera. Now over night it was windy. All morning it has been windy. But we really didn’t get too much wind all trip, except as Autal approached the pedistal where a gust of wind plucked the beanie right off his head and made it soar.
Like wow, I’ve seen some pretty impressive paper planes in my day but nothing that caught on the wind like that beanie. Go little beanie. Go!
It went and went and went and went before finally dropping down into the tree line and snagged in a tree in the distance.
Bye bye beanie
Oh well a bit of scrub bashing later and we were in our gully
One of the impressive side slotsSophie in the tunnelScott leading one of the tricky to start abseilsCraig 1’s new rope gets a test out. Flynny’s rope law. New ropes always tangleOver the chock stone or under the chock stone?About as canyony as it getsCan you keep your feet dry?OK it does get a bit canyonyView from the lunch ledgeLouise absieling through the arch “Window”A window on the world. Louise setting up ropesA fine Window it isAutal through a windowAutal under the arch with a windowScott leading the last absielTim about halfway down the last pitchHomeward bound
Another great day in the bush with great people
Time: a tad under 5hrs car to car
Thanks to Tim for organising and making it run so effortlessly.
“Get out there now and make sure you become part of the glorious past in somebody else’s future!” Andrew Penny
sleepwhenwearedead 