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
Many years ago I helped carry a girl with a broken leg out of a little known canyon in the Newnes state forest. For the life of me I can’t remember how I got involved in that but I remember asking her party what the canyon was like.
The pools were really pretty, says they. But not worth the scrub bash
Certainly the scrub hiking back up the hill was not pleasant that day.
Figuring that may not be such an issue just now I thought I’d go for a look and the above named legends decided to join me.
Beforehand I asked my mate/guru, Bob if he knew the creek, he mentioned there was an old 4wd track right down into the creek and he use to take his kids down there to teach them to abseil and go yabbying in a pool in an erosion cave but he hadn’t followed the creek further down.
Now I may or may not have misinterpreted the track notes I made from the aforementioned party’s description and so we may have taken far more rope than we needed. Where I wrote Second abseil 50m down creek. I should have wrote 50m further down creek to 2nd abseil… Carrying 100m worth of ropes where the longest abseil was less then 10m may have been overkill…
Anyhoo
Despite some dire weather predictions it was a glorious spring day, mostly, and after Dick and Libby met at my place we swung over to pick up Izy at the crack of d̶a̶w̶n̶, I mean 11am
I chose not to take the 4wd track that goes all the way into the creek as one on the opposite ridge should give us a sorter walk out while still getting us within a few hundred meters of the start of the canyon.
It also gave us great views
Bungleboori Pagodascapes
Libertybell zenning out as the creek starts to look promising
‘Tis just a downclimb
Dick on another down climb. It would be a fun slide into a crystal clear pool except the pool has silted up with sand
So far it’s a pleasant, canyonish creek. Unfortunately it’s about now my camera battery died and I realised I left my spares at home. Everyone else had left their stuff at the car as it was going to be a short one….. Thus we’ve no photos of the best bit, 3 abseils in a very short but very pretty canyonette.
The fires had taken out any decent anchor trees so the fiddle stick came in handy on the first two. 1 off a big log over hanging the drop and the other off a rock wedged low down for a short abseil to a ledge and then a jump into a stunning pool
The third drop proved a bit harder to find an anchor. I was searching in the creek for a suitable rock or some where to wedge a log when Libby says What about that!
She is pointing to a stone pillar in a small overhang up on a ledge just down stream of the waterfall.
We slip up to check it out. Some delicate traversing along the narrow ledge gives me access to the pillar that is in an alcove above a wider ,dirter end section of the ledge, It is about 30cm in diameter and looks and feels nice and solid. I give it a test and drop on in then dig out phone to grab a few final photos.
The little section on top of this was quite stunning. Pity it wasn’t 3 or 4 or 5 times longer. Again this pool was full of sand, that you sank waste deep into. I remember a lot of pools silting up like this after a big fire in the 90s. took a couple of years an some big rain events to clean them back out
The girls were happy with it thou
A final bit of canyon like creek
And then it’s up the hill, across a narrow saddle and back to the car
Did I mention the pogodas out here are awesome
So it’s still early and we decide to leave the wetsuits on and drive across to drop into Alcatraz
all the alcatraz photos are copywrite to Izy
yours truly
That log is new. must have been somw powerful flow to get it down
Libby!
The tops are still desolate and care needs to be taken not to create undue erosion damage
Party Size:4
Timings: First one 2hrs car to car
Alcatraz: ~1.5hrs car to car
You can’t please everyone, unless you’re an avocado: Maddy G
So with a bunch of other commitments I didn’t get out canyoning at all in August. In fact the last real canyon trip I lead was almost 2 months ago so I was frothing to get out.
I was keen for a couple of the Pagoda canyons on the Plateau before the weather warmed up and when Madie said she had the weekend off I thought why not combine a few of the smaller ones to make it worth her drive.
I also thought she’d might be nutty enough to join me for our first wet canyon of Spring.
Can I bring a friend, asks she.
Yep says I. And so Wouter, would be joining us for his first canyoning experience.
Jen had a morning free opted in for the first canyon too.
After a long dry spell a week of steady drizzle was welcomed by all and certainly made the first two usually dry canyons a bit more special.
The rain made the ledges a little more slippery
Wouter and Jen Tip-toeing along the tiny ledges
The Acoustic chamber could be called the TARDIS chamber. It’s bigger from the inside
The first recorded group through here called it Acoustic Canyon due to a series of these chambers. But as there was another little canyon out in the Nayook system already called Acoustic this one is now normally just called Sunnyside, though the Jameison guide also lists it as Wombat.
You can normally get through this one without getting your feet wet. Not today
All the little side waterfalls were amazeballs. Madie doing a “Supermodel” pose, Jen wondering what sort of nutcases she has gotten herself mixed up with
such soft light and textures in the mist
Back to the car we say goodbye to Jen and make our way to the next one.
After the amount of water in the last “dry” canyon I was expecting a bit more in this one
I normally don’t bother with a rope here but the walls were extra slippery so we played it safe
I love this chamber
And this passageway
Not sure why we are trying to stay dry at this point
Maybe it’s just the challenge
So do you guys want to slip over and check out the tops or make a dash for time and go and get wet in another canyon? Asks me
Why can’t we do both, replies Madie in her best el Paso impersonation.
Right on!
From the top you wouldn’t imagine that goreous, airy chamber is just down there
Then it’s back up the ridge, into the car for a longish drive around to our next stop. I have to say I was a bit excited for this one. Madie was so excited she wetsuited up while we were driving. I’m not sure Wouter knew what to make of it all.
We made the car park at a bit after 3. Starting a canyon, a wet canyon so late on a cool, wet, early spring day would normally not be sensible. But this one is super short, we managed to go car to car in just over an hour which is nuts.
But it is nice as a side trip on the way home.
So are we going to abseil down beside a waterfall? Asks Wouter on the way in
After a long dry then a week of drizzle I wasn’t sure what to expect but as we short-cutted over the ridge we could here the falls roaring and as they came into veiw it looked just right.
Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Party Size. 4 for Sunnyside/acoustic. 3 for Zorro and Alcatraz
Timing: I think it was about 2hrs car to car for Sunnyside (with a bit extra walking along the firetrail due to trees down). a fraction under 2hr for Zorro and 1hr for Alcatraz with a bit of time driving between the lot
*Slight detour* in March I am again taking part in the West Cycles Classic to raise money for the Westpac rescue helicopter service. Whether preforming bush rescue, emergency patient transfers, and all the rest no one has ever had to pay to use the helicopter due to public donations. If, like me, you believe this is an invaluable service or if you just enjoy reading my blog think about pitching in with a donation. Large or small every bit counts. follow this link for details 2018 West Cycles
So if you listened to the weather forecasters you’d expect to see a guy building a baot and collecting animals two by two or something.
Still I was keen to get out and was origanlly thinking one of the drier canyons out around Sunnyside might be nice with some rain.
Julie was keen and expressed an interest in doing Alcatraz instead.
Leaf posted on the Ozcanyons facebook group looking for trip she could join inon and we invited her along.
After a bit of discussion we settled on Alcatraz and a small double(or is it triple) canyon system out near the glowworm tunnel that I wanted to check out.
The forecaste went from gloomy to dire. There was some discussion on canceling the trip but thankfully we decided to roll with it.
Friday was ment to be the worse day. It was fine but the rain rolled in Friday night and belted down.
Saturday dawned sunny. A prefect day for a bit of exploring.
We met up and navigated the maze of roads into Alcatraz. The view down into the canyon from the cliff above showed the waterlevel well up but we suited up and carefully made our way into the anchor point.
Looking down into the slot, had me a bit concerned. I’d done it in high water with Ed and others a while ago and it was fine but this was up even more and without being able to see the exit I wasn’t comfortable dropping in.
We opted to descend the cliff beside it and make up way up from below. In hindsight it was likely doable but te canyons are always there for next time and I’m happy to play it safe.
Looking across into the spout
Julie setting the camera up while LEaf makes her way into the chamber
The chamber and exit were fine
Julie and Leaf in the chamber
Inside the chamber
Inside the chamber
The exit slot
So a bit disappoint we didn’t abseil in but as I said there is always next time.
We made our way back to the cars and then continued out toward the glowworm tunnels for our next points off interest.
I had done the first little slot with Mandy from below and after checking the satelite imagry realised there was another system close by. This time we headed down the dry canyon (not so dry today) and then explored as far up the other system as we could get before retracingour steps.
Not far off the Glowworm tunnel road a sleep little creekbed begins to canyon up
Dark sandstone gives way to walls the clour of honeycombe
Leaf poses next to a temporary waterfall
The canyon is only short and opens up into the hidden valley, hanging between clifflines.
Julie and Leaf make their way through a cave like section into the North branch of a Twin canyon system
This one is straight and narrow
Without loosing a lot of weight this is as far as I can go
sleepwhenwearedead 