Good ol’ henry Deane and thomas Penrose

04/05/2025

Jason, Russ, Vince and meeeeee

I always enjoy discovering there’s hidden canyons in areas I thought I knew fairly well.

Suddenly finding ourselves with a spare day we organised a last minute semi exploratory trip to a little canyon none of us had been to before.

Vince had prepared the lidar maps which suggested the constriction would start a bit further downstream than the spot I had selected to enter.

The one source I had said the lidar hadn’t picked up a small cliffline near the creek. says I. I’d hate to miss something.

So we bush bashed in to the spot I had picked. Somehow picking a path to the only 2 cliff lines in that area, luckily there was a path down in-between the two outcrops that look surprisingly like a butt on the lidar. We went down the crack.

The first part of the creek was a bit of a scrubby dub dub with 1000 fallen trees to clamber over but then it opened up a bit

I’ve visited worse creeks
A nice spot for a dip on a warm day. Today was not warm.
and soon it dropped into something that looked very canyon like

A slippery scramble down brought us to a deep, crystal clear pool. Vince spidermaned across. Russ and Jas follow.

This is going to be a test for my shoulder.

I manage to bridge out but as I try the next move I feel the shoulder giving way….. In I go.

It was refreshing.

It should have been a simple bridging exercise.

Couldn’t support my own weight

Not overly deep or consistent but a canyon non-the-less
With some very noice sections.
the next pool looked less avoidable
Even Russ suited up and swam through
Jason decided to give traversing along the side a go. And very nearly made it.
And more pleasant canyon follows
Getting down this tangle of rotting logs and loose boulders was one of the biggest challenges of this little canyon.
And soon we came to the tributary we had planned as our exit.

A little bit of scrambling and a tad of scrub bashing and we were back at the road and quickly headed back to the car to pick up the ropes and harnesses then head off to visit another little canyon not too far away.

Everyone’s favourite squeezy canyon
Russ sitting on everyone’s favourite dodgy anchor
Jason on everyone’s favourite cheese grater abseil
Everyone’s favourite Go/No Go gauge. Don’t go down go over!
Everyone’s favourite helpful team mate
Everyone’s favourite return to the big wide world.
a noice ramp back up through the cliffline.

Then all the was left to do was to bash some more scrub to the main trail and a 3km walk back to the car.

Searching is half the fun. Life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt: J Buffett

BACK

Fern Tree Gully

21-05-2017

Mandy and Me

It might be hard to beleive but the town of Rylstone has one of the best Yum Cha/Tea house in Australia (29 Nine 99, do yourself a favour). I’d booked in with Mandy for a late Mothers day lunch and we thought why not do a walk while we were there.

Dunns Swamp is the gate way to the Wollemi  and a hot spot for outdoor activity in the area but it’s a long way out of town and with the limited openning hours for Yum Cha we needed something closer and a bit more touritsy.

A quick google search told me there was a little nature reserve about 16km north of Rylstone that might offer up a pleasant walk. Fern Tree Gully

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, certainly not a little canyon, but I was in fr a pleasant surprise.

A well maintained (Not a thing out of place, 1 discarded chip pack the solo piece of rubbish we carted out.) tourist trail winds down into a pretty gully the vegetation is completely different to what I’m use to in the blues and there were lots of little information signs to let us know what we were looking at.

At the base of the gully I commented it was almost a canyon… then we rounded the corner and it canyoned up. Sweet!

FTG-1.jpg
Mandy making her way down into Fern Tree Gully

FTG-2.jpg
Fern Trees aplenty

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

FTG-3.jpg
The walls close in and a canyon appears

 

FTG-13.jpg
After a bit the gorge opens up a little as the trail ambles through the gully

FTG-14.jpg
Even close to midday the light was magical

FTG-15.jpg
For all their calling and mimicry Lyrebirds are normally shy creatures that dart off into the scrub at the first scent of humans… This one didn’t get that memo. I think he liked Mandy to be honest.

FTG-17.jpg
The canyon opens out and closes in a few times

FTG-19.jpg

FTG-25.jpg
The grey gums were massive

At the junction with the exit gully a short board walk lead down the main gully to a little chair where a natural spring rises

There was more canyonette in the exit gully

FTG-36.jpg
Did I mention the trees were huge?

FTG-37.jpg
Steps back up to the lookout trail

The Lookout trail winds along the top of the canyons 1.4km back to the car park and offers some very nice views

 

Well worth a look if you are in the area.

Party size 2.

Time: 1.5hr with a lot of photo phaffing

BACK