Sleepy little town on the outskirts of the Riverina
A small sleeper of a canyon somewhat less visited than it’s neighbours
The name fits with other creek names in the area. Yileen = To dream/dream like. Dalpura = Peaceful, Kamarah = Sleep. I’ve not been able to find a meaning for Koombanda, Jungaburra or Jinki but assume they fit the theme somehow.
Like most canyons in this area it’s not that deep or sustained but has some pretty bits to it.
From the bottom of Koombanda it’s possible to scramble up the nose below the junction and drop back down into the top of Kamarah. I guess this is the way most people do it, it makes sense as they are both short and adding in Kamarah then exiting up to the west via convenient tree roots can be a quicker than exiting via the old mine, especially if you don’t want to do a car shuffle.
You do, however miss some nice erosion caves further up the gully
Anyhoo this description is almost longer than the canyon already
With a day off and everyone else seemingly busy I took the opportunity of a quick afternoon stroll. The creek is drier than I’ve seen it before. I wander down off the ridge, check out the caves which seem to have a lot more block fall than I remember, then make my way down until the walls start to canyon up
The water level is down at least 30cm from my last visit
But it’s still a lush green in contrast to the burnt out ridge lines nearby
First drop is about 3m, some careful bridging meant I could keep my feet dry today
You can see how far down the water level is from usual
More shallow canyon follows
Then the creek drops into a dark hole
Typical of canyons in this area it has one, shallow but stunning chamber
And some nice bits follow
And then just before the junction with Koombanda brook you can climb out on the right, or continue down this this nice overhang to scramble up on the left
Time: 2.5hr car to car with a lot of faffing around
Whatever you do today don’t forget to be just that tiny little bit awesome
So I was looking for people to go canyoning. Lewis and Ben were looking for people to go canyoning. We went canyoning together.
Koombanda is a short canyon, but it has some nice bits too it. My last trip with Mandy and Tal we started fairly high up in the creek and while there was some nice pools and features up there was also a bit of scrub. This time around we shortcut the entry a bit and entred by a short abseil down a now dry waterfall
This put us in the creek not too far up from the canyon. Unfortunitely the creek was bone dry. Last time we were wading here, and the small stagnant pool was a swim.
Anyhoo, it not before the creek canyons up and we done wetsuits and drop on in
Lewis Dropping into the short but pretty canyon
Directly below is a deep plunge pool that is a bit awkward to get out of, especially in low water, we were all able to bridge across the the, er, um, bridge today
Ben get to the bridge
The water was a tad refreshing. Thankfully the swims are short
Looking back up the canyon
Now the next abseil is just around the corner, down through a hole but we had a bit of a WTF moment as there is the anchor above a pool, no hole.
Wow says I, That’s where you normally abseil. That’s freaky.
So that is normally a hole?
Yep we’ll need to find an alternate tree down stream….
Only just down stream is the actual anchor and abseil through the hole…. No idea what the other anchor is for other than messing with my head…
The next drop is really nice down through what looks like a giant clam
Below is a very nice chamber, unfortunitely the anti fog lens cleaner I tried on my camera this morning mad it fog up worse than usual..
Ben on rope
Canyon Formation
As we are waiting for Lewis we hear a crash-bang-karfuffle.
Are you OK calls Ben
F@#$ing kangaroo just fell into the canyon replies Lewis.
Poor old skippy takes off up the canyon. With the abseil up up stream I fear he is trapped, unless he wants to take the 10m jump down in the the next bit. In any case he wants nothign to do with us and Lewis comes on down.
Lewis illuminated
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Canyon formation
Emerging back into the light
Canyon formation
Ben in a tunnel
And before you know it we are at the colliery
It doesn’t seem like there is much holding up that great head of rock
How’s them views
Taking on the landslide
Mountain Dragon
So we get back up to the second car which we dropped at the exit point and Ben looks a bit sheepish. Um, sorry I think I misunderstood my keys are in your car….
Taking it back a bit. When we met up Lewis was driving and we dropped what I thought was his car at the pick up before jumping in mine and driving a coupel of km up the road to the start of the walk.
When Ben asks will I be right to leave my keys here, I’m still assuming it’s Lewis’ car and Ben has his house keys or something.
Yeah sure say I, just leave them in the car there…
Anyhoo an extra 2km walk along the railway in the heat of the day never hurt anyone.
I thought he was joking, says Lewis….
Party Size: 3 all experienced.
Time: About 3hrs car to car
It’s still early in the day so I deside to take a stroll down to check out something else close by.
