| 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.
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 exercise in abseiling and scrambling. The beauty of this area is 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. Earlier trips are documented on my original canyons page, and other trips are indexed on my main canyoning page |
As I have been hap-hazardly adding pictures lately, these pages are best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels !
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Fire Fly, Newnes Saturday 10th February 2007 Vert. Elev: ___ (approx.) Distance : ___ (approx.) Time : 11 hrs (aprox.) Comments: Long hike in (and up). Good Canyon with good water. Crew: Wit Cieslik Denise 'Sparky' Black Terry the 'Terrier' Eggington Linda 'Leg's' Eggington Min Ropes: 1 x 40m All photos courtesy of Wit and The Eggs |
 FireFly Canyon Newnes 
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Description
Whew! What a day ! These Newnes canyons make you work for it !
We all decided it would make for a nice w/end to camp at Newnes on Friday night, canyon on Sat and do a short walk on Sunday. The weather reports were inconclusive and we woke on Sat morning to a hot blue sky day.
After a leasurly breakfast we packed our gear and walked across the campsite at about 10:30, arriving hot and sweaty, at the old mine entrance at about 11:30. So far, so good ! After a quick photo session we strode confidantly off into the bush and up into the broad gully, straight up, but keeping left. After a good 10-15 minutes of puffing and straining, we came across a cuirouse old dwelling, carved into the base of a large boulder. Pleased at finding anything to give a reason to stop our upward fight, and rest a while, this offered too good an opporunity to stop and investigate !
The small natural cave had been enlarged and a thigh-high doorpost of sorts fitted into on side and mortared up with rocks and mud. Inside, the little cavern had also been enlarged enough to create standing room for one as well as provide a single storage shelf and candle holder. A piece of timber was attached to one wall with a few big nails, presumably to hang one's posesions on. The old bed frame, made from bush timbers, still largly intact. Back outside again we noticed a single piton hammered into the rock above and to the right of the doorway to create another hook. Inscribed into the rock was simply "A.E.D 29-03-10". One can only imagine what a kind of solitary existance the owner must have persued.
With photo's and poking around done, we resumed our struggle up the hill and quickly gained the 1st of the cliff lines. Walking to the right, the cliff took us into a steeper narow part of the gully and a small scramble brought us through to the top... of this lower cliff line... With a feeling of "we're nearly there" we again moved onwards and upwards in the streaming heat and sunlight. Several times we would crest a short steep section and think "This is it !" only to find the gully continuing unrelentingly upwards.
Eventually we made way to a 2nd formidable cliff line. We stopped here in the cool shade of an overhang next to a small waterfall and decided to eat lunch #1, saving lunch #2 for later on. Terry and Linda had been here before in the not so distant past, and Sparky too was beginning to remember the surroundings from a much earlier trip up here. Following Terry's lead we moved off under the cliff line, following it out of our little lunch gully to the right (if you're looking up). Very soon out path along the cliff line turned into a sandpit of eroded rock and shortly after that we reached a small shute leading upwards on reasonable holds. This at last, brought us to the top, some 2 hours after having left the old mine !!!
Having gained the top, we now went in search of the canyon (or side creek). Walking along the ridge we reasoned that we needed to keep high to avoid simply dropping down into the gully we just came up from, and in doing this we crossed over the head of a small creek before checking the map again. This creek, we identified as the side creek. A dim rumbling broke through the afternoons natural sounds.
As one, we all asked no-one in particular, "Was that thunder ?" ... As one, none of us replied.
Instead we cautiously moved down the dry and scrubby creek bed. Tripping over dead sticks, sincking into piles of dead leaves and bark and generally getting caught on all the dried vegitation.
Suddenly the ground beneath began to show signs of water !!
A small trickle down a steep rock groove into a shallow pool. Terry found an easy way down the RHS while I messed about with a hand over hand, only to meet a smiling Terry waiting patiently at the bottom. (Having been down, up to get Linda and Sparky, and back down again).
The guide mentions the possibility of one or more abseils in the side creek and by staying with the watercourse, we found the next drop to require harnesses out.
The anchor for the 1st abseil of the day was from a tree, some distance before the drop itself. Approachinig the drop via a slippry shute, before dropping over the slightly overhanging edge, and ending in a small waist deep pool. So, 1st abseil and wet already.
We found no more need for the rope between here and the canyon grid ref. In fact, we were surprised just how good time we made down the top part of the creek. This was uplifting, beacuase the rumblings from above were not...
Pleased with our progress and the open style of the canyon we pushed on, willing ourselves to feel better about the likely outcome of a sudden downpour.
We reached the 1st of the canyon's abseils and found, in fact, all three to be virtually one after the other, exactly as described in the guide. Just after we committed ourselves to the 1st pitch, the sky above turned dark. The rumbling became more insistant. A light drizzle started and occasionally we recived a weak flash of lightning too. As if the thunder wasn't enough to keep us spooked.
Despite the weather failing us above, the canyon section here is fantastic. Unspoiled waterfalls, and deep, crystal clear pools. Yabbies the size of small possums and water dragons happy to belive they were invisible while bathing in the 'crystal clear' pools.
Hint. The last (or 3rd) abseil described in the guide suggests swimming across a small pool before abseiling. This is unavoidable. To make things 'quicker' it can be a good idea rig yourself onto the rope with enough slack so you can swim the pool and get abseiling without having to fiddle about, rigging up in the water at the far end.
After this point the guide becomes somewhat 'inscrutable' regarding what comes next. Although it hints at keeping to the right, we found a short walk on the RHS led all to quickly to another abseil anchor (our 5th so far), straight forward but slightly exposed and with an overhanging start (suggest a saftey sling here). Oddly, we also found, just beyond this anchor, a curiouse setup of what looked like plastic coated cable (blue), tied around a pretty dodgy looking stump up high. there was also a ringbolt in half way down and a small pile of old pieces of plastic covered piping. Once again we are perplexed as to the meaning of our discovery!
A little more pleasant creek walking brought us to anchor #6 high on the LHS. Again, due to a steep and loose start, a saftey sling could be used. More route finding down the creek eventually topped out at a wide waterfall with anchor #7 on the LHS. This was a very pretty abseil with a goos safe start.
From here on the walking became more and more a route finding exersise. Somewhere along the way, the sky above had cleared, the noise and drizzle had stopped too. Our progress was slow, as all the rocks were very wet and slippery from the rain.
It was quite strange having descended so much, and looking out from the canyon across the valley we could see that we still had a long way to go !!
Persistant hopping, sliding, jumping and wading saw us flowing out onto the road at about 7:30pm !!
Walking back to camp in the dark, we past one friendly campsite near the ruins where we were greeted in a friendly manner and even offered beers! Although tempting, it would have been rude to accept and then bugger straight off, but we had dinner waiting for us and felt were were already over due, and so declined. Thanks anyway whoever you were !!!
The next camp site was a blaze of 4WD's, gas lamps, fires, and even some fire works .. noisy and unpleasant. We slinked through like ships in the night!
Crossing the creek we were surprised by more fireworks going off over head. I guess some people must think tired canyoners make for good sport ! We preffered to think of it as a welcoming party !
Curry and a drop of 'red that night. What better way to relax ! Only Sparky woke to the sound of the motorcycle races in the wee small hours.
Sunday dawned as a carbon copy of Saturday, and we moved slowly into life for breakfast and packing for todays walk. Up along the Little Capertee ck to Red Rocks or "The Room", and stunning views of Pantonies Crown.
Gear
We found a 40m rope adequate for this canyon.
Our information on this area :
