Oh, the weather outside is frightful And the canyons look delightful But they closed the park where we want to go Let us go, let us go, let us go
It doesn’t show signs of stoppin’ But we’ve been costume shoppin’ The light is gentle and low Let us go, let us go, let us go
It’s Kylies birthday And Christo’s just gone by It’s time to get crazy With another Xmas in July
The rain is barley drizzlin’ But the dirt roads copped a prizzlin” So we pick a canyon we all know Let us go, let us go, let us go
We don’t care if it’s ten below Red costumes setting the drizzle a glow We don’t care about the cold and the winds that blow We gear up and say, let us go, let us go let us go
Ooh-wee, goes the storm Why should we worry when the wetsuit is warm? Great friends by our side and the lights pretty and low Let us go, let us go, let us go (I don’t care!)
The weather outside is frightful But we’re back at the pub and the food is delightful Since we’ve no place to go Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
With too many hobbies and a bunch of commitments I just wanted to get out for a pleasant, short afternoon canyon and thought to myself Dalpura is pleasant and short and a canyon and Saturday has an afternoon. A plan started to form…
I’d hadn’t caught up with this lot of awesome folk for few weeks and they were keen enough to join me. Awesome.
Dalpura starts with a nice little section
You only get wet to your waist, said I. Forgetting that takes a bit of effort and even then it was more like chest deep
Um, Russ, did you not pack your harness and stuff? said all of us as Russ rigged up a munter hitch on makeshift tape harness
I have them in my bag, says Russ. But I couldn’t be bothered getting them out. I’m a minimalist….
OK then, cool beans. Rock on,
Jeremy
Russ
Aleasha
The second section starts with a short abseil into what I reckon is one of the prettiest canyon chambers in the Blue Mountains. In the right light it is magical. Today we were a bit late in the afternoon
It is still a nice spot thou
From there the canyon opens out, closes in and opens out again. There are some nice bits but nothing mind blowing
It’s odd how compelling these little challenges can be. We were already wet but we all had a crack
The I’ll have a Crack kid may or may not have made it to the end… You can do it Jez… Maybe
Never overly deep or narrow it does have pleasant bits
And crystal clear water
Hey there is a little ledge down here with stunning views…. It was fogged out
Hey from up here there awesome views toward Mt Vic and Blackheath…. FoggyMcfogfog.
Still the wild flowers were out on display
How awesome are Waratahs? The correct answer is Very.
And Spiderwebs in the rain… this one was tiny, Captured with the macro setting
Party Size: 4
Time: 2.5hrs car to car
If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be,
With an early Easter combining with a few family birthdays I wasn’t able to organise the usual Easter Epic Ride this year so instead conspired with Tal to do a quick early morning trip to Dalpura canyon.
Ben posted that he was down from Qld and keen to check out a canyon or two and I messaged to say if he didn’t get a better offer he’s be welcome to come with us. He accepted the offer and we met nice and early in some typical mountain mist. AKA, fog.
Last time we had done Dalpura we dropped into the western tributary, which had some nice bits high up but also involved some thick cutty scrub. This time around we followed Toms track notes and found a reasonable track into the Eastern tributary which also had acouple of short and shallow but nice canyon sections.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Anyhoo it doesn’t take long to get to the abseil. It’s a short drop into a very nice chamber. Last visit I was still using and iPhone4 for photos so I was hoping for some nice light to see how the TG4 would go.
We waist no time rigging up and drop on in.
Ben descending
It’s a nice little abseil into a deep green pool. Luckily you land on a ledge just below the water and can work your way around the side.
Ben gets busy with a big camera
While Ben was setting up his tripod I remember I have the glass ball thingy my sister bought me. It’s been in the top pocket of my pack for about 3 months, I keep forgetting it is there but decide to have a play with it.
With auto focus and hand holding both ball and camera it was tricky getting a shopt but I think it’s definately worth playing with a bit more
For some reason my camera was struggling to focus at all in here. Not sure if it was just the low light or what
Ben in the canyon
Dalpura is more a series of short canyonish section but it has some nice bits
A tube like section
The water is so clear but the deeper bits have this gorgeous blue/green tinge
All too soon the canyon opens out and a final optional abseil snakes it’s way down a cleft.
We can walk around it if you don’t want to abseil.
We’re here to experience the canyon….
Ben on a tricky start
Before the easy bottom bit
Tal enjoying it.
And with views like this at the end waht’s not to love?
Party size: 3
Time: 3.5 hrs car to car with some photo Phaffing
Some people are so obsessed with reaching the top they forget it’s the side of the mountain that sustains life.
sleepwhenwearedead 