After our mini epic in Mathers we were like what a 20min walk in, 2hr canyon 1min walk out? Yes Please.
We’d kept Imp Grotto until last as it would be a short morning giving us plenty of time to get the gear washed and dried for the trip home.
It was another one I was really looking forward to as it sounded like the prefect bang for buck canyon.
We pulled up at the bridge, found the secret entrance to the entry track… It’s such a cool ecperirence you part the ferns and the trail appears in an area that looks all but cliffed out.
Magic
Less than 15min later we are at the start of the canyon.
How cool is that.
Of the canyons we visited this trip, in terms of look, Imp Grotto is probably the most reminent of the Blue Mountains canyons we are use to.
I head over and set the rope and we are into it like a Hobbit in a cake shop
Kris leading the way
On a scale of 1 -10 its a 15 on the fun dial.
And pretty darn pretty to boot
Lots of little jumps
Absiels big and small
Jason on anchor duties. Hywaida keeping an eye on things
Kylie on the big one. There a bit of hydraulic at the bottom but at these water levels it was relatively tame
Jason, as LARP
And before we know it we are splashing around in the pool under the bridge like some sort of troll living his best life in the absence of Billy Goats Gruff.
And with rain predicted for tomorrow we can’t believe just how lucky we got with the notorious west coast weather.
We are not the fastest group out there and don’t intend to break speed record but we go alright. Even taking the time to soak in the experience and take 1001 photos our group of 6 had cruised through Robinson, Cross Creek, Wilsons, and Mill Creek well within the suggested timeframes so we weren’t expecting Mathers to be too big a day.
As it was, it turned into a bit of a mini epic.
No idea why, TBH.
We did have a couple of stuck ropes ( first one the figure 8 block flipped over and caught on the anchor ring) but they didn’t take us long to sort out.
Maybe in our complacency we spent a bit too much time enjoying the slides and jumps in the upper section.
The middle section seemed to go on for-fucking-ever…
End result we were well over the suggested time but still had an absolute blast.
In hindsight a 4th rope in a party of 6 would have made it a lot more efficient.
Anyhoo. This one is a little less descriptive than my usual write up (Most of these ones from NZ are mostly from it all being a blur of awesomeness)
We were frothing to get into it. Mathers was rumoured to be very pretty with lots of slide and jumps.
We make our way from the campground, along the Haast and up into Mathers creek.
The canyon ends at one of the prettiest waterfall Archways going.
It’s recently become a social media hot spot. I can see why
Unfortunately Haast river is infected with Didymo and the increasing crowds of influencers either don’t know or don’t care about cleaning it off their shoes before entering the side creeks. Sadly the pool below the Arch is showing signs of Rock Snot.
While we tried to avoid walking in the water you can pick up cells in the dirt along the banks so we had brought bottles of detergent and scrubbing brushes and paused here to SAY NO TO DIDYMO.
And then up we went.
more gorgeous colours
After an hour or so hauling up we gain the top of the creek and are pretty much straight into it
And tricky traverses to hanging belays. This was one of our rope jams. Nothing obvious for it to catch on. thankfully a few attempts changing the angle of the dangle it came free
