mugii murum-ban

September 1, 2024September 1, 2024 | flynny101

31-08-2024

Dick, Kylie and meeeeeeeee

A long, long time ago… Well, not that long ago!

Ok it’s nearly 40years ago which sounds like a long time when I think about it but I was and young whippersnapper out on a Jeep trip with dad and his mates. Day 2 we visited a bloke by the name of Col Ribaux.

As well as being a fellow connoisseur of ex-millitary vehicles, 4wd drive enthusiast and diamond miner, Col was an all around top bloke, legendary character and, the “Guardian of the Mountain.”

After admiring the assortment of old Jeeps, trucks and tracked personnel carriers he fired up one of the old tanks and we followed him up the steep pass through the cliff line of what we knew as Airly but is more properly Airly Turret (Confusingly there is Mount Airly slightly to the West, then Airly gap, then a small bump call Airly Mountain then Airy Turret on the way up to Mount Genowlan (Not to be confused with Jenolan, different spellings of the same aboriginal word for high point/place).

After the steep drive up and a look around the mine we camped the night out at Genowlan Trig.

Col has since passed and the area with it’s plethora of Aboriginal and European heritage sites and stunning natural beauty has been taken over by National Parks and named, Mugii Murum-Ban after local elder Uncle Charlie Riley. Mugii being a type of owl and Murum-Ban being eldest sone.

While always a favourite spot in 4wd circles it’s a bit further from Sydney so hadn’t attracted the bushwalking crowds of the Blue Mountains. That’s changing as walking clubs and fellow bloggers discover just how magical the place is.

Anyhoo, in the ensuing years I’ve driven passed it a lot and even driven up Mount Airly a time or two but it was time for a return to Genowlan.

Kylie and I had scoped it out a couple of weeks prior on a day when she also flew over it with Capertee Valley Helicopters. Remembering the steepness of the road and the old rock steps I opted to park part way up and walk. Finding the road recently graded and, while still steeeeeeeeep we thought it easily doable in the triton.

And so we came back and Dick joined us.

Plan for the day was to have a look around the old mines, enjoys the views and check out some of the slots the walkers had cottoned on to.

First stop Ultimate Slot.

From where we parked I was expecting a bit of a scrub bash but

There a bit of a trail here, called Kylie

We follow a well defined trail for about 2mins and… BAM

It’s like a giant version of the Cracks of Doom

Magical but bloody hard to do justice to with photos

After phaffing about for ages we head back to where we parked and head in on the other side of the road. In less than 20 steps from where we parked we were in the “Grotto”

There’s a bit of old rough and ready mining infrastructure in the Grotto. Col and Brian had pumps set up in the pool to supply water to the diamond mine operations.

It’s a beautiful little micro canyon and the colours are stunning

Back to the cars and we head back up past the main diamond mines. Our next stop was Gnomes pass, AKA Ladders Defile. This is another slot/micro canyon that Col had set a series of Ladders in to make it easier for his kids to get through. He also added a bit of a fairy tail touch.

The old ladders make it easy to negotiate the slot which soon opens out to a amphitheatre that would make a great spot for a picnic.

We scramble up onto the pagodas and admire the views

More Pagodas than you could poke a pagoda stick at

We then continue out to soak in the views from Point Hatteras

Me and Dick taking in the view across to Genowlan Point and down towards the Capertee River ©Kylie

And to round out a relaxing but rewarding day we poke around the old mine site

Not much room or stability on those top bunks

All up a nice soulful day exploring some of the more easily accessible sites and barely scratching the surface of what Mugii Murum-Ban has to offer.

Rough diamonds might sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles. T Brown.

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Xmas in July canyoning challenge

July 21, 2019July 26, 2019 | flynny101

20/07/2019

Jen, Jodie, Diana, Joel, Ed, Russ, Chewy and meeeeeeee

In an effort keeping positive vibes flowing on the Australian Canyoners FB group through the “Off season” (And to break up the flood of stunning photos Madie’s been posting about European Canyoning. Not that we are jealous. Not us. No…) I put out a Xmas in July canyoning challenge, So far Kylie and Colin had lead trips resulting in awesome photos.. Now it was our turn.

Me and Jen. And yes they are my own boobs. Legs together because the at the first down climb I took a big step and tore the crutch out of the candy cane stockings. Um I’ll be going first on the way down. MmmmKay..

After a round of photos it was into our first canyon, Zorro

How cool does the red look against the Aussie Bush in Winter

Zorro is an amazing little canyon with entrance and exit chambers that are consistently narrow and straight

It has some little challenges along the way too. Most groups abseil this drop which is a worry because when Chewy tested the anchor the sling fell out in his hand…. The sling was basically around a bit of mudstone that was more mud than stone

Ed embracing a game of the water is lava. With a bit of encouragement everyone managed to keep their feet dry

The Z chamber, which separates the entrance and exit chamber with a grand, perpendicular hallway

Jodie, Jen, Chewy and Russ bridging their way down the exit

Jen, Diana and Meeeee. With the gang in the back ground ©Joel

Jen and her magical polar bear slippers on the final abseil

And then it was back up to the tops for a lovely Xmas lunch over looking the One and Only Emerites Wolgan resort

As John Lennon sang, The sun is out, the sky is blue, it’s beautiful and so are….. Um the gang?

All the cool Blue Mts Canyoners where besta…. I mean polar bear ugg boots? While they lost an ear Jen managed to keep them crispy white.

Then it’s back to the cars for a short drive around to our next destination. Not so much a canyon as a crack.

Of Dooooom.

Those following along back home may remember me not finding it, not fitting through it and opting to go around it. Well 10kg down and this time through I went

looking back up as Jodie enters the Crack of Doom

Russ at the point the crack turns from Narrow to Squeezey

Ed almost to the bit where it allows you to breathe again

Looking back at the impressive crack that descends the cliff line

And then it was around to have a look at a bigger crack/micro canyon. Catherdral Canyon. AKA The diamond cavern

All up it’s only about 50m long but it’s kinda nice

From there we make our way back to our exit slot, The Crack of Doom 2.

A slightly more sensible width it’s still narrow and parallels the cliff with just a slight bend as it ramps it’s way up

It ends in an easy 3m chimney climb out.

Me giving Jen a little hand. Now my climbing style has never been described as graceful and Jen’s legs might be a little shorter than mine but humping the rock was never in my bag of tricks. You learn something new each day or sumfink… ©Ed

All in all a great day in the bush decking the halls, prancing about, jingling bells and generally having a laugh with seriously awesome people.

Group Size: 8

Time: Is meaningless on Xmas

Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterday. Nothing more than that.:-Robin Hobb

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Starlight canyon and a quick look at Devils Pinch exit chamber

October 20, 2018October 21, 2018 | flynny101

20/10/2018

Gaz, Jodie, Mckenzie and meeee

The forecast was for rain, lots of it topped by severe storms…

Gaz had been keen to do Starlight canyon and I suggested the MTB/canyon combo rather than the full loop. If the tunnel was dry we’d get all the way up to the waterfall. And if it was not abseiling in from the top is not the best idea anyway.

Anyhoo. Dawn came sunny and warm and we crossed the Wolgan and pedalled our way down the management trail.

Even with a detour through the ruins the bikes turned an hour long walk into a 20min ride.

There always seems to be a handy tree to help crossing the Wolgan

Almost immediately we ran into this little beauty

She was a bit of a poser and almost seemed disappointed when we took the cameras away

Morelia Spilota Spilota

Diamond Python

There was a big colony of bats above us, as evident by the poo floating on the water

This use to be our go to winter trip before realising the impact to the Bats. The tunnel is an important hibernation cave for bent wing bats so the canyon is now officially off limits over the winter months.

I’ve done this one quite a few times and while I’ve heard tales of people be caught out by high water levels personally I’ve never had water over ankle deep before

The layer of batshit wasn’t the most pleasant part of the trip

Just before the little climb up/down in the tunnel the water became too deep/cold for us to continue today so we turned back early

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Sitting on the halfway ledge enjoying the sun and a bite to eat when around that corner deep down the valley came a plane flying right at us…

Banking hard left to make the turn up the valley.

These guys did a few laps, some of the were so low it seemed we we looking down on them.

And then as it was only early and the predicted storm was still a few hours away we followed the cliff line around for a look up Devils Pinch

The better way to do this combo would be to abseil down Devils Pinch and then reverse up Starlight.

You can only get a few hundred meters up the bottom before you a blocked by a waterfall but it is a spectacular section.

Once again more water in here than usual and after a coupe of cold wades and tight canyon sections we were startled by a gawdaweful rachet and something dashing past us into the next pool.

A young lyrebird… Not sure if it fell in or was nested here and got trapped by the rising waters after a wet couple of weeks but it was was panicked and trying to swim and not doing very well.

Producing a small hand towel Mckenzie and Jodie caught it as genitally as they could and carried it back out past the deeper pools to release it at the lower end of the canyon.

For a bird renown for mimicking the best sounds they sure produce horrible pitches when they are scared.

Party size: 4 (3 experienced I beginner)

Time: 6.5hrs relaxed pace bit of photophaffing

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

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Zorro

September 28, 2017 | flynny101

28-09-2017

Garry, Jodie, James and me

As David Bowie once sang, the only thing I ever got from you was Zorro… or something like that, I was never a fan so could be wrong….

Anyhoo it was back up to the plateau for more canyonng fun. Shoes and harness was still damp from yesterday and a bit of drizzle had set in but that wasn’t going to curb my enthusiasm.

This time we took a left and headed out along the Sunnyside ridge trail looking for a couple of short but spectacular canyons.

Our first goal was Zorro and we had no dramas on the way in.

The entrance was lined with wild flowers

the canyon gets narrow and deep very quickly.

Jodie in the amazingly straight and narrow canyon

Jodie watching James and Garry descend the canyon

There follows a tight shimmy down to a cold pool. There is an anchor above so I guess people rope up for it but it looks like tha would be awkward. It is a fairly straight forward down climb.

I have no idea how deep the water is but there are narrow ledges just below the water level so only you feet get wet.

James tries to bridge above the water but is unable to. Wanting to keep his shoes dry he wedges himself above the water level slips off a shoe and hurles it over the rock he thinks marks the end of the water. It makes a big splash in the small pool just beyond the rock…. No dry feet for you.

Then the canyon suddenly opens out in to the gorgeous Z chamber which links the parallel fault lines the entrance and exit passages follow

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Then it’s more bridging over what is usually a long pool but in this dry spell it’s starting to dry up

Then all that is left is a final abseil to exit, but before we do Gaz shimmies around the ledge to check out the views

zorro a.jpg

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A quick scramble around the base of the cliff brings us to the exit slot, which is a nice, short canyon in it own right looking like something out of Jarassic park

Once ontop we slip out the ridge inbetween the two slots with the idea of having lunch in the sun with a view

zorro b.jpg

Wind and drizzle interupt our plans and we abandond that idea and head back to the car

It’s not even noon so we do a quick car shuffle and go head in to check out some other features near by.

The Crack of Doom!!! with appropriate skull shaddow

James taking in the grandour of Cathedral canyon

Then it was back up the Crack of Doom!!! 2 for an easy exit

And back tot he car for a much earned beerio.

Party size:4 all experienced

Time: about 5 hours total for both canyons

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…
― John Muir

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blue, mts, canyon, canyoning, mtb, mountain bike, gardens of stone, Lithgow

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mugii murum-ban

Xmas in July canyoning challenge

Starlight canyon and a quick look at Devils Pinch exit chamber

Zorro