| 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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Wollangambie ONE Sunday 8th February 2007 Vert. Elev: ___ (approx.) Distance : ___ (approx.) Time : 6 hrs (aprox.) Comments: Nice hike in. Low water flow today. Crew: Wit Cieslik Denise 'Sparky' Black Terry the 'Terrier' Eggington Linda 'Leg's' Eggington Elaine Prior Min Ropes: none All photos courtesy of The Eggs |
 FireFly Canyon Newnes 
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Description
Saturday was spent lazing about in the Grose. Terry and Linda showed us a sepctacular old lookout near the new landslip and afterwards we toddled down into the bottom of Grand Canyon
for a refreshing dip.
It was VERY very very cold...
Sunday was our scheduled day for a float down the Wollangambie. An ideal way to beat the extreme heat wave blasting Sydney.
I had only ever done this one once before and seemed to think that the walk in was not very far. ( I think we jogged last time see canyontrip 24, the 40hr Famine trip). This time 'round I get a better look at the walk in. We went a bit wrong at the same place as last time and ended up at a nice lookout over the river again. Anyway, back ot the left and downward.
The heat of the day stayed with us almost till we hit the creek. How nice to ottom out and dive into the lsh ferns and cool green'nes.
Lunch #1 and LiLo inflating. Wetsuit donning and general splashing about.
The car park at the RFS was full with cars of river revellers.
Another small goup sitting to one side asking all passers by if they had a large screw cap to fix a LiLo which was missing one.
Another large (commercial group) straggled past, having entered a little higher upstream of us.
Into the 1st of many pools and wow! Feel that water rush up the suits !!!
Some gentle floating and a few pool scrambles brought us to a deep corner flowing lazily into a deep channel. Good ledges on the RHS for jumping and general fun.
I had forgotten much about this canyon.
It truely is a great day out !
It may not have the extreme feel of giant abseils and steep scary climbs, but it abounds in good feeling and relaxing views.
Boulder hopping and route finding are pretty straight forward.
After one particular section of boulder hopping, one is presented with several unpleasant drops into very small pools requiring difficilt scrambles out
again. The dark slot on the right is the secret !
Dropping into here provides a straight shot, through the dark and beyond the skanky pools inone hit ! A bit like black water rafting !!
The final pools are sensational !
Great, long deep and grand.
The exit point come us way to quickly, but looking at the time, we had already lazed through about 4 hrs. Food and warm dry cloths seemed like a good idea at this point.
A small gaggle of people were assembeled about the exit in variouse stages of departure, and we wasted no time in claiming a vacated sunny spot, to eat in and dry off.
Still cool from the river, the initial exertions of tha ascent quickly brought a sweat on. It seemed every step up also brought a rise in air temp.
Back up into the heat of the afternoon, thankfull that the worst of the days heat was over, and we had again missed it by escaping to a cool river system.
Gear
We found LiLo's and wetsuits adequate for this canyon.
Our information on this area :
