The canyon log is my chronological account of the various canyon trips that I have been fortunate enough to partake, and in some cases, lead.

Sydney is blessed with an abundance of rugged bush land less than two hours drive away, and in this bush land lie some of the most pristine and delicate environments that can be found.
Visiting these places may require no more than a simple walk along a creek, or demand bush craft and navigation skills just to get there.

These trips are 'canyon' trips which involves starting high in the range and following a creek or stream as it carves it's way down to the river valley. The Kanangra canyons are generally fairly open and following these is an excersise in abseiling and scrambling. The beauty of this area are the panoramic views along the Kanangra Walls and valleys. The incredible ruggedness of the area.

Blue Mountains canyons like Claustral, cut deep into the sandstone below them and over time have worn channels and gutters, deep enough that direct sunlight never reaches the bottom. Walking and swimming through these is a magical tour through a ferny green wonderland. A visit to the lost planet.

I have kept these notes as a reminder to myself of the individual trips, as well as to provide 'some' useful information for following excursions, or to supply to others planning similar outings.
As I have been hap-hazardly adding pictures lately, these pages are best viewed at 1024 x 768 !

Trip 13
Banks Canyon
11 Dec 1999
Tove, Geoff, Andrew, Jen, Terry, Linda
(From Hole in the Wall Car Park)

The long awaited gathering of the clan had finally arrived. Tove and Stuart had arranged the hiring of 'Finchley' in Blackheath for a weekend and after several long weeks of anticipation, that time had finally come.

Geoff, Sean, Tove and myself managed to aquire the Friday off from our respective places of work, and spent a relaxing day at Upper Shippley slowly re-familiarising ourselves with that strange 'rock like' stuff we call sandstone. (Breakfast at the Wattle Cafe in Blackheath of course ... where else ?)

Andrew and Bindy also arrived early enough in the after noon to be counted 'IN' for dinner which ended up being a scrumptious meal at the 'Gallery' in Leura. Returning to Finchley late in the evening we found that most of the others had arrived at the house and were ready for a few quiet drinks and much talk of what to do tomorrow. Tomorrow was to be a canyon ! Without too much arm twisting, Banks Canyon was settled upon as we already knew half the way in, and (as usual), the rest seemed pretty straight forward on the map. (Little did we know...)

Saturday dawned bright blue sunny and perfectly peaceful. We managed to get away from the house only about an hour late. The drive to Hole in the wall car park was uneventful and we lost no time in trudging off down the correct foot path (see trip 12) to the Hole in the wall exit. As soon as we crossed the Bugleboori the going became slightly more difficult. The 'awkward ledges' 50m downstream were not apparent, (because we didn't actually look for them before crossing the river), but there were signs of passage up into the gully before us, and with Andrew offering words of advice and encouragement like "Yeah! .. if it's steep and goes up it's probably OK ...", I scrambled into the thick undergrowth and immediately imagined I was following a faint track.

And everyone followed me.

We clawed our way through the wet scrub, keeping the right hand side of the gully close by and eventually made our way to a short gully wall and scrambled up and out.

Now where we ? (Tove was doing well with hiding her disapproval in our group nav. technique).

Struggling on, in a North Easterly direction, we took advantage of several rocky outcrops (we know what these are now [see trip 12 again]) on the way to take in the magnificent views of our surroundings. Soon we found ourselves on the edge of a reasonably promising looking creek. Steep walled and definitely heading in the right direction. Reasoning that this was either the canyon we were looking for, or at least one very similar to it, we chose to take it as is ... cest la vie !

It proved to be the right one after all !

Banks Canyon is indeed 3 canyons for the price of one !
We entered the canyon high in it's source and followed a tight winding creek as it flowed initially between steep rock walls topped by dry scraggy scrub. Several spots requiring short wades combined with short squeezes. Suddenly the black rock on either side opened up around us and we found ourselves splashing down an open section remarkably like Rocky Creek in construction, only miniature in scale.

The first abseil appeared as a drop into a narrow dark slot over a pool. Some old seat belt webbing, (Volvo), around a tree close-by seemed the only good anchor point (although the guide makes mention of another tree a little farther on, but we couldn't see that one).
Easy swims and climb downs followed on from here as the canyon narrowed into a series of deep water filled slots. Some of these were quite tight and swimming with a pack on created a moment of doubt in one tight section. Twisting sideways to slip through the narrow gap, I ducked down a little and managed to (briefly) lodge my pack under a water level ledge, momentarily holding me down as well !
A second longer abseil led to a very cool, almost completely dark section. I went down first but waited on a small ledge for Terry to join me at the bottom, before plunging into the cold dark water and the unknown.
Masses of spider webs hung everywhere indicating that no-one had been this way for at least several hours... well... days I guess. (But it doesn't seem to take them very long to re-build their homes once we've been through!).
A cold wait at the other end while the group funneled through was followed mercifully by a sunny section to warm up again. Another short abseil from a flake under the water, and some deep wades brought us to the end of the constriction and we followed the natural flow of the land toward the two final drops into the Bungleboori. These last two abseils are open and easy, but be careful of the slippery edges.
Geoff and Tove both demonstrated that the final abseil can be done dry. (but as we all know, the Bunlgeboori certainly can't).
Suitably camouflaged now, we made our way up the stream with shallow crossings, long swimming pools, clambering up log jams and small boulder sections. ("Must head upstream to breed!")
A brief detour at the Hole in the Wall junction to walk up to the the first water fall and then the last swims to the Hole-in-the-Wall exit track, which had been our starting point.

For a real day of it, do a 'figure-8' trip of both canyons !
Go down Hole-in-the-Wall canyon and then continue across and up and come back down again via Banks Canyon ...