It’s kind of become a tradition that we do something for Russ’ birffdee.
Come to Bungonia, they said. It will be fun, they said.
Only coordinating every one this year was difficult so it got spread out over a coupe of days with Russ and Lib being the constant and the rest of us joining for a day.
Anywoo, I’m in for the Saturday shenanigans and rock on down Friday night just in time for a good old fashion curry cook up.
The camp ground at Bungonia is amazballz. If you are into that sort of thing
At some point during the night someone asked, so what are we doing tomorrow?
I don’t mind says Russ
It’s your birthday, you choose says us
Awwwww I don’t like decisioning, says Russ. But I’m not keen to put a wet wetsuit back on tomorrow. How about Long Gully,
Now I’ve never really given Long Gully much consideration because nobody really raves about it. But they are all worth doing once and anything is good in the right company. so we get some sleep, rise not so early and break camp at the crack of 8am. Or there abouts.
After an easy amble along the fire trail amid banter and giggles we head into the scrub to follow a ridge down into our gully
As far as gullies go it’s not jaw dropping beautiful but it’s not hideous either
It reminded me a little of Dione Dell without water. Walk a bit, nice abseil, walk a bit, repeat
Libertybell getting it done. I think this was the only bit where I got my feet wet
And soon we come to this amazing view over the Shoalhaven
And the big abseil was cool. Kylie on rope. You might be able to see Rus and Libby way down below
Russ had gone first. Called out Awwwwwwwww! and gave us the tip to put our rain jacket on. There wasn’t much spray off the falls but it was chilly
I have no idea if I have the order of the abseils photos right but you get the idea.
There was no anchor set up for this one and it looked like it could be scrambled. I contemplated scrambling but considering how slippery the rest of the canyon had been I opted to set up the fiddle stick. Good call. says Libby. it’s slippery as snot and not in the places that look snotty
and before you know it we are on the banks of the Shoalhaven basking in the glorious sun shine.
Our Gully out of screen to the right and the canyon that shall not be named coming in mid right
A lounge about, some lunch and more laughs and then it’s back up the hill.
It has similar if a bit more elevation than the Kanangra canyons but it’s a much easier grade. And in good company it goes fairly painlessly
All in all Long Gully might not be the best canyon but its a reasonable abseil trip, worth doing at least once especially in the company of some of the best adventure buddies going
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
The Clegganator, The Wonder Woman and the Flynnstien aka Meeeeeee
Unpublished canyons are like a box of chocolates.
I know at the end I’ll be left with half a dozen little cheery ripes that I wont eat…. Wait. No, that’s not right. Unpublished canyons aren’t like a box of chocolates at all….
Anyhoo
This is one I’ve had in mind to check out for a couple of years now but I wasn’t expecting it to be high quality and with other stuff to visit I never got around to having a look.
Then Phil said he wanted to check it out so I thought why not. I still had low expectations but as they say in the classics you never know if you never go.
Rounding out our nice little party was Jen, who I hadn’t caught up with for a while so was good to be on a trip together again
A little frost made for a chilly morning but it wasn’t long before we were stripping off layers and stuffing jackets into packs.
Wolgan views never fail to amaze
There were two branches to the possible canyon and we wanted to check out both. The first branch didn’t show much hope and when we came to a abseil point we decided to slip over the ridge to check the other branch first.
We dropped in via a side chute, in hindsight a little too far down the canyon. Up stream was a tight slot which would have made a good abseil and the hint of more slot up top.
I started chimneying up but it was tight and my ankle is still a tad stuffed from where I rolled it 2 weeks ago so gave it up as a bad plan
Jen checking out the slot
A short but tricky abseil just below where we scrambled in
So we get to the junction of the other branch hoping to reverse up it only to be blocked by a dry waterfall. A bit of traversing and we begin to scramble up the nose in between the two branches. Phil decided the scramble is not for him.
We get up above the fall only to find another immediately above it. I continue up the nose in what is the closest to proper rock climb I’ve done in a few years and manage to get above the next fall.
There isn’t much of a slot above this so I rig the rope and abseil back down to Jen and then we both abseil down to rejoin Phil
they were two nice abseils into to deep stagnant pools, luckily we were able to stay out of the water
When looking at the satellite image my suspicion was the best bit of canyon would be below the junction and while the stuff in the north branch was tip top below the junction was a nice, if short slot.
Ummm I think we are going to get wet, say I looking down into a deepish looking pool far to wide to play water is lava over.
I stuff my shirt into my overboardau dry bag and drop on in while the others put wetsuits on.
The first drop lands in a pool waist deep. With some guidance Jen manages to stop on a ledge and carefully stem around to the shallower bit. Phil is not so lucky and plunges in
There’s another 2 stage drop straight away with the stages separated by a 5m diameter pool. In I go…
The water was ice, not lava
The last abseil was nice
Then it was down to find a bit of sunshine and some lunch.
A short way down the main creek and we spear off track back up towards the cliff line
There’s a little grotto like canyon up here I want to show the others. It’s short but pretty in it’s own right and while it’s not very adventurous what makes it worth a visit is the old timber chute that once ramped it’s way up through it’s narrow confines
Phil and Jen (and Flynny) in awe of the history and the effort behind this engineering mystery
So the theory is it was built to slide logs down to the valley for pit props or fuel for coke ovens or for building poppett heads and bridges and stuff. Problem is there is no evidence up above it of any cut timber. Not a single sawn stump can be seen. It’s a mystery Dad says back in his day the decking was still there in places and the timbers ran long ways suggesting something was slid down or up it. I’m starting to wonder if it was used to cart stuff out of Newnes and across to Glen Davis as the refinery was moved?
Seek experiences not things. Live large and light up the darkness with a laugh
Party size: 3
Time: 7.5hr car to car relaxed pace with a bit of back and forth exploration
With the weather turning cold it’s time to focus on dry trips. Depite popular opinion there are a number of dry(ish) canyons not to far from the usual summer trips that are worth a look. This one is a short day in the Wolgan.
The canyon itself isn’t that great in regards to length and depth of the constriction but it has a couple of standout features and great views.
We met at the servo bright and early and sorted car pools to drive down to the car park. Mick was joining us for the haul up through the cliff lines but then leaving as he had afternoon plans in the bigsmoke
Madie was running 5min late but, hey she had a 4hr drive to get here so no one blamed her. Oh, in a previous blog I stated she needed a constant supply of chips and chocolate. that was just a bit of fun after she brought a large pack of chips on the trip I didn’t mean it to sound like she was a snack scoffing fatty. She usually eats nothing but kale washed down with a cup of steam, or sumfink. I’m the fat guy on our trips.
Anyhoo.
The frost was lifting off the tops and down in the valley it was a glorious morning so we wasted little time in setting out up the hill.
Our path up is typically steep but relatively easy for the Wolgan.
Some Pretty section of creek and grand overhangs break up the climb
and soon we are bathing in sunshine on top of the stunning clifflines that seem so impenetrable from the valley below.
Chris stretches out in the warm sunshine
Nice spot of a morning tea break
This is where Mick leaves us and heads back the way we came up. For the rest of us it’s a relatively easy stroll up through the scrub to intersect a faint trail along the ridge.
There is a pleasant bit along the ridge before we drop back down through the scrub to our first anchor point above a 30m abseil down through one of the highlights
Over the millenia water running down a sloping face have carved a deep groove into the rock befre hitting a band of iron stone that created a small pool halfway up the cliff line. Evenually this pool eroded deeper and deeper until it bored a hole staright through the cliff
The light in this section is just magical but hard to capture with a little point and click camera
At the bottom is usually a deep plunge pool that takes some manoeuvring to get across without falling in. Today it was nearly dry but I made them do the bridge anyway 🙂
Madie demonstraighting the technique
Autal emerging from the hole
The hole opens into a chamber with an amzing window out over the Wolgan
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.
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!
Mandy making her way down into Fern Tree Gully
Fern Trees aplenty
The walls close in and a canyon appears
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After a bit the gorge opens up a little as the trail ambles through the gully
Even close to midday the light was magical
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.
The canyon opens out and closes in a few times
The grey gums were massive
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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
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Did I mention the trees were huge?
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
sleepwhenwearedead 