29-10-2017
Gaz, Jodie, Marchelle, Andrew and I
Some people like chasing the big epic canyons, and don’t get me wrong I enjoy the long, sustained canyons as much as anyone but I get just as much joy out of the shorter ones too. They all have their own uniqueness, beauty and share of challenges.
I suspose being surrounded by canyon country I don’t need to justify the long drive up from the cities so am happy exploring the smaller stuff too.
Today was one of those days where we’d combine a couple of the smaller pagoda canyons. The first one dry(ish) the seond one wetter.
I’ve done both before but I’ll have to admit I had completely blanked out the amount of tea tree needed to push through on our way up the ridge on the first one….. Shorts may not have been the best bet…
Anyhoo. We all meet up at the car park and head off.
Wild flowers were out in colour
And after a hot climb through some scrub we arrived at our first slot.
We wasted no time dropping in
Last time we bridged out and then abseiled in at a slightly wider bit. The flaring nature of the slot meant the abseiler invariably swung in and cheese grated themselves. I knew it was possible to walk the ledges high above the canyon floor. Tiny ledges, wet feet. It makes for an interesting traverse.
We all make it. Somehow.
Last time I did this canyon we followed the creek down a bit and then around for a short dirty abseil off a lower cliff line. But I had soem beta that a better option was on offer so we follow the clifflines around past some stunning views
Then scrub bash a bit before dropping in to a lost world near a trouist destination
Knowing how popular this spot is with tourist I was very careful dropping the ropes over, a carefull lower rather than a toss. Not a soul to be seen thou. It amused me a bit that on the way out we pass a steady stream of people heading in very all five of us abseiled down with only us as spectators 😉
We even had the place to ourselves for a selfie
Anyhoo, after a spot of lunch it was back to the car and bike for a bit of a drive to our next destination.
All in all an enjoyable day in the bush visiting two short but beautiful pagoda canyons
Party size: 5 all experienced
time: I have no concept of time….
Life is too short and the world too amazing to be bored
sleepwhenwearedead 
nice canyon. looks like an epic adventure.
LikeLike
Flynny, you’ve revealed in your tags that the two “pagoda” canyons are Honeycomb & Alcatraz.
I’ve done Honeycomb yesterday with Tim. Your final abseil was more likely closer to the tunnel, I dunno. But Tim told us to exit straight down for a spectacular 60m abseil in a clean vertical corner. The joy of sliding down that drop matched the joy of walking through the slot. We have also noticed a bird nest on one of the shelves opposing the “hairy” traverse. According to Yuri who’s been there in Feb 2017 I believe, it’s a lyrebird nest. Still sitting there intact, as Yuri captured it!
LikeLike
Nice one Christo. Yep I spoke to Tim and Kent when they pioneered that exit. The traditional final abseil near the tunnel is spectacular but there was always the worry of drawing unnecessary attention an also the fear of knocking loose rocks down on tourists below. NPs discourage abseils directly about tourist trails.
LikeLike