It wasn’t the first time adventure buddies had asked that question about today. Unfortunately for outdoor opportunities, I was
Oh… Wanna do a canyon when you finish?
Yes indeedelly doodally I do.
A few options were thrown about and we kept and eagle eye on the weather, both in real time outside and on windy.com.
It was a day of misty rain, squalls and sunshine. And storms were brewing across the northern Bluies
With that in mind we opted for a quick stroll through The Grand canyon.
At the right time on a bright sunny day Grand will usually dazzle you with sunbeams, at night it gifts you with glowworms and, in the soft twilight on a misty day its beauty is almost mythical.
Once again we were packing light and I didn’t take a camera so all photo credits to Madie.
Leo is a blur as he fixes the ropes
Me and Quinton making our way down stream
Lucie in the canyon with diamonds, or with Leo or sumfink. The little side waterfalls were magical
Not saying he is Jesus but that pool is knee deep…
We move like cagey tigers…. I mean, It is so wonderfully, wonderfully, wonderfully, wonderfully pretty
Yabbies and rainbow trout were spotted but no eels this time around
The good sort of isolation
And soon we reach the end and jog back along the top to collect the rope then make our way back up to reality.
Party size: 5
Time ~2hours car to car
It’s the grooviest thing, It’s the perfect dream:- The Cure
Laurence, Kylie, Heni, Peter, Richard, Kent and meeeeeee
A while ago Laurie asked me if I’d ever been down Wolgan Falls. He’d been trying to find away into the top and bottom for years but had not long taken up abseiling.
I hadn’t. A few of us discussed running a trip. Then life happened.
Laurie and others pioneered a route in and out. And began to run the trip regularly. I usually got an invite but it was mostly midweek trips and I never made it, until today.
As I head up to meet Kylie, she messaged saying she was running 10min late because there was a Koala crossing the road.
Best excuse EVER!
I was a little worried about the meet up as the others were coming in from the other side of the plateau.
In the end we all arrived at the car park at pretty much the same time and head off into the untracked wilds of the upper Wolgan river.
And all too soon it’s over. As we were preparing to hike out Richard tripped on a rock and pulled his calf muscle. A quick bit of bandaging and a make shift walking stick and he soldiered his way up the steep exit track
Kylie taking in the views on the way out
Group size: 7
Time: 4hrs very relaxed pace
Back at the cars it was still reasonably early so me and Kylie decide to do a quick dash through Alcatraz on the way back to her car
All in all another excellent day in the great outdoors with great outdoors people
Someone, somewhere thinks you are awesome. Hopefully you do too
So for her first and second trips I’d taken Izy through a couple of obscure “canyons” and while she enjoyed it and thought they were pretty they were more creek walks with abseils so I wanted to get her through something decent.
Next stop Hole in the Wall
Dick hadn’t done this one either and Russ is always keen.
The walkout was fairly uneventful though the usual clear trail disappears towards the end and we double check the map just to confirm we hadn’t gone to far left and missed the turn to the entrance.
A one stage we disturbed a reasonable size copperhead (well I think it was a copperhead based on its behaviour but couldn’t get close enough to see for sure or to get a good photo) and before long we were at the start of the upper section.
I’m always in two minds whether to suit up for this bit or not but it was a coolish day so far so we decide to don the wetties.
She is impressed by the first bit of canyon. I share a bit of a smile with Russ. This is just the warm up
We round the corner and enter the canyon proper
Hole in the Wall is definitely a stunning example of a Blue Mountains style slot canyon
Emerging back into the light, but only temporarily
I purposely forget how deep, dark and pretty the upper section of HITW is. So like a goldfish it’s a surprise every time
And then we are back into the light.
The wetties are starting to get hot as we make our way down the creek to the lower section and by the time we get there we are looking forward to the cold water.
We reach the plunge. It’s a relatively simple down climb. There is anchor set up, I guess for a hand line. I normally jump but it looks shallow today. I remember this happening after the big fire in the early 90s, with the soil loosened and not vegetation to hold it back a lot of canyons and swimming holes silted up with sand…
I tend to find glowworm displays are better late November through December but they still put on a good show for us today. Like previous pools the cave has silted up quite a bit. It makes the climb out on to the ledge a bit easier though how it will clean out with the lower exit now blocked I don’t know
Russ exiting the cave
Other than the glowworm cave, where we sat still for a bit, I hadn’t found it that cold but then we stepped out into the ‘Bungleboori/*hackspit*Dingo crk. It was a good deal colder so we waste little time make our way upstream to the exit.
Group size: 4
Time: around about 6 and a bit hours car to car
The higher we soar the smaller we look to those who cannot fly: Friedrich Nietzsche
Does the pope shit in the woods… I mean, Is a bear catholic… I mean… ah fuggit, yeah sure
It’s mid afternoon when we roll into the car park. It and every other car park on the Mt Hay road is jam packed. Oddly no one else is in the canyon though.
We start gearing up.
Did anyone bring quick draws……
Karabiners will have to do but that’s future us problems. We set off down the trail.
It’s a cracking day and a relief when we drop into the shade of the gully
I’d always abseil straight down the creek from a tree this alternative is nice and a bit quicker
Madie taking the leap on the 3rd “abseil”
Russ heading for the chock stone.
Leo heading down to join him
Russ and Madie Chilling out
Power Rangers
We had trundled through the canyon itself fairly quick, the water was chilly but the day outside was baking (well baking in the sense that we haven’t acclimatised to summer yet) so we spread out on the rocks below the final abseil for a snooze to allow the gear to dries out and the afternoon to cool down.
I’m not good at sitting still so eventually I gather my gear and begin the trek out, knowing the others will catch me soon enough. It was still a hot march up to the climb
Once there I grab Russ’ spare Biners and free up a couple of mine and lead on up.
The view from the ledge at the top of the climb in stunning afternoon light
Another quality afternoon in a quality canyon with quality people.
sleepwhenwearedead 