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 !

Photos comming soon

We'd done Hole in the wall
We'd done Banks
Some said that both of them together made for a good day out
We thought about it
Then we did it too !

Ed and Ross were less than keen with the early start required to get ourselves to Newnes early enough for the excercise.
I had arranged that Geoff would meet us at the turn off to the Zig-Zag railway and was keen that we wouldn't be late. Sean drove from our place with Ed rocking in the front and Rossco and myself lounging in the back in absolute splendour.
It's been such a long time since I havn't been the one driving. Bliss!

The start of the walk was begun as usuall, in high spirits. A short jog to wake up the sleeping muscles and shake the fat around, and then a more leisurly stroll along the fire trail until the well defined footpad leading to the start of Hole in the Wall canyon.

We quickly romped through the upper reaches of this first canyon, enjoying the bushy surrounds and general open'ness of this area, and I think Ed and Ross were not too impressed with it as we went. But this was soon to change.!

At the first constriction we stopped to put wetsuits on and take a few photos, before ploughing on into the deepening canyon.
The details are sketchy but I remember having some difficulty scrambling down a short drop with my pack. Ross was enthusiatically pointing out foot holds, but it just didn't feel right. I undid my aging pack and passed it down. The look on Ross's face as he recived it said it all!.. Without the weight of the pack, the scramble was easy.
We meandered our way down through the canyon, going from rock to rock, pool to pool, creek to track etc until the first drop. This one has a big log standing in the way which makes the start awkward but once you're in .. you're in.
Ross had his first abseils only on the last trip, (see trip #16 Starlight Canyon), so these were proving just a touch trickier !
Ed likewise, seemed happier to scramble and jump the shorter ones.
We reached the squeeze-through in record time and spent just a minute checking out both holes for body size. Geoff and Sean took the righthand hole, Rossco, Ed and myself chose the left.

(From previouse experience I think the left hand one is probably easier, but the right hand one is darker and more of a challenge! Ross didn't particularly enjoy being left behind in total darkness, up to his nads in water, to feel his way through the squeeze and out to the light again.
We raced out of this section and continued to splash our way down stream. At the last (big) abseil we caught up with a small commercial group and waited a few minutes for them to depart from below before lowering our ropes and ourselves.

All too soon we were diving out into the Bungleboori and heading upstream to the exit spot for lunch and a quick break.

The commercial group bid us a quiet and reserved greeting, as they set up a trangia for a hot brew.
We pulled out our snakes and fruit etc, and sat down for a quick munch. After a couple of minutes, a movement in the rocks attracted our attention. Several largish water dragons were slowly zeroing in on our lunch spot. Obviously attracted my the smell of food, and mostly unafraid of the people.

We found that apple fares fairly high on their menu of hand-outs.

With the sun getting high, and lunch consumed we set about getting ready to cross the stream and start Banks canyon.
The comercial group eyed us with sceptisism!

As we were now intending spending as little time as possible in this next canyon, we decided to dump our spare (dry) clothing and food and water. Geoff made a neat pile of the uneeded gear, and with a last wave to the comercial group, we stalked off into the bush, away from the exit track.

It took no time at all scrambling up the gully that seemed to take forever last time. (It's absolutely amazing how much faster things like this are the second time around!).
I think we walked a bit further north than we did last time but fairly quickly located the upper reaches of the creek and dropped in to follow it back down again.
After splashing our way along for ten minutes or so, we all agreed this one was much colder than hole in the wall had been !

The abseils were straight forward and the deep dark bit caused some concern again, due to the concentration of spiders visible, running away from us in every direction. (I hate this part.. swiming through icy cold, spider infested water in the dark!). Ed is loving it! Rossco seems more to be enjoying my own discomfort ! (He likes spiders !) ...
I am careful this time not to get my pack caught under any water lever ledges, as I squeeze and duck my way through the dark constrictions.
Reaching the end of the tunnel is a relief, as I am able now to (clear a space free of spiders) and climb out of the freezing water to wait for the others. A short scramble over a choke of mossy boulders opens out into a wood and scrub filled gully and we race toward the final two abseils.

The weather has been very kind to us today and the early afternoon light has a clarity about it that is hard to mistake as it sparkles through the folage above us.
Rossco, Ed and Geoff all succeed in not getting wet on the last abseil, by swinging to a high ledge on the left (facing in).
Again we pause only brifly to take in our surroundings before forging on ahead into the Bungleboori.

At the junction, there is a large log. (tree actually). That forms a low bridge. Broader than a small pony, it still requires a little balance to walk the entire length.
Normally sure footed, Sean came quite unstuck here. Almost with very serious consequences !

From behind it looked so comical, but in reality it was a very fine line between minor misshap, and major rescue required.!!
A sudden loss of balance saw Sean momentarily place his feet together on 'ether side of the center', and they just slipped off. (One on either side) Does that bring tears to your eyes ?!?

Yup !!! A complete straddle followed by a slow dismount to the left ! Scoring 9.8 from all the judges.
Fortunately he had just passed the only obstacle on the whole trunk.
A fist sized protrubance, dead center, ponting straight up.
Two feet further back and he would have been impaled. ... Very Nasty ! ....
Other than that we had no instances. (Even I managed to stay upright all day long).
Reaching the Bungleboori for the second time today we noted an immediate rise in water temperature, and Geoff and I commented on the low water level compared our last visit. We cruised quickly upstream spotting yabbies, lizzards, spiders and the like, all the time looking forward to the food and water stashed at the exit point.

Passing the Hole-in-the-wall junction we again stopped for photos and fun before cold and hunger got the beter of us and we hightailed it to the exit.

Imagine our surprise as we clambered out of the water at the exite and saw ...

No Food !

What !?!

"Someone took our food !"
"Our Snakes"
"Our Water"
"Our Dry bag"

Even our dry clothes (Ed's bungers! too )

Who would do such a thing ? It's got to be a mistake .. Maybe the water dragons dragged it all away... no that's just being silly.

The only explination was that 'some other' group had come down and taken our gear (accidentally we hoped)....

Dissapointed with the world, but not with our travels, we started up the exit track, and back to the car park. As Geoff and I got closer to the end of the track we could hear voices of another group, car doors slamming etc. It was sounding much like they were prepareing to leave.

Our pace quicked until we were jogging, and much to their astonishment, burst into the car park at just under a full run.

"did you just run the whole way?" they asked ...
"Err... no! Did you guys pick up any spare gear from the bottom ?"
"Oh Yeah .... Is that yours? We were about to leave you a note on your car .."

Phew! We had our stuff back.... No snakes or water (they ate and drank it), but the bag, the containers, the clothes (Ed's bungers) etc. A happy end to the day. I even found the pair of bungers I left drying in the tree about 4 weeks ago!

Plenty of time for a drink back at Kurragong, and this time... I'm not driving !