So with the uploading and tagging of all the photos on Facebook, Festival Of
the Canyon is finally over for another year. Or at least, everyone is over the
festival.
The Cathedral Of Ferns
campground at Mt Wilson is perhaps the spiritual center of canyoning in
Australia. It's also free, does not require bookings, and allows campfires, a
very rare thing in this day and age. After a slowish trip up from Sydney with
Dave and Bulti, I arrived late on Saturday morning just after 9AM, into the
midst of a bustling carpark. After promising 5 minutes to get ready and taking
10, I was packed and running down the fire trail after Damon's party to do Water
Dragon Canyon.
Water Dragon Canyon
Water Dragon is not the most popular Wollongambe canyon, being somewhat of a
trashy younger upstream sibling of Whungee Wheengee Canyon. But we figured
(correctly) we'd be the only ones attempting it, and it would be another one to
tick off the list.
Unfortunately we reached the ford at the Wollongambe 1 exit to find this:
The normally ankle or shin-deep wade was many meters deep, submerging trees
on the opposite bank and flooding nearly the whole beach. When the whitewater
kayakers are going "Whoa, sketchy!" you don't attempt to swim across. So we hung
around for a little while eating and chatting to the two other parties who'd
intended to do Whungee Wheengee. Eventually everyone turned back, with one group
changing plans to go and do Serendipity.
On the way back we got drenched by a mother of a storm, which then turned
into hail, then back to rain, and then back into really large and
painful hail.
This is what it looked like.
Why Don't We Do It In The Road/Serendipity Canyon
Serendipity Canyon (properly referred to as Why Don't We Do It In The Road
Canyon, but if the first descensionist Tony Norman had wanted his name to be in
common use, he should have chosen one with less than eight syllables) is a
rather crappy canyon whose main selling points are lots of abseils, easy access,
and that it's safe to do in wet weather.
Due to this reputation, it was the main attraction at this year's very wet
festival. In fact, we reckoned upwards of forty people must
have been in it at one point, based on the trip plans in the festival logbook
and two commercial groups that were apparently doing it!
Most of these parties, as it turns out, quite sensibly got spooked by the
huge storm and bailed before the final constriction, forcing an exit from an
open section back up onto the ridge. Except for the UNSWOC party, who showed
those Sydney Uni posers by pressing on regardless and doing the whole thing in
the midst of the storm. Despite fearless leader Luke's apparent best efforts,
no-one drowned, and apparently the canyon didn't even flood that much. I guess
it really is safe in wet weather.
Laura and Larissa singing in the rain.
Check out the Wollongambe at the junction though! Fark! Large
catchments mean large hydraulics.
Dalpura Canyon
Another wet weather favourite, a party (including canyoning legend Dave
Noble) went to do this little North Grose subway. A short drive further south,
they apparently didn't get any rain at all!
Hobnail Canyon
Another party regretfully descended into the mire that is Range Creek and the
spectacularly crap Hobnail Canyon. This also exits into Bowens Creek South
Branch, which I would say is a pretty large and flood-prone creek, but they
apparently survived. They may even have had some fun!
Saturday Night
After we dried out under the picnic shelter at Mt Wilson, the weather cleared
up and stayed good for the rest of the evening. The Cathedral was turned into a
temporary city of tents, drying wetsuits and Dunlop Volleys, a slackline or two,
and a fine large, warm campfire.
Shane set up a car battery and inverter rig and managed to run a
projector. There were photo presentations, stories from the day, and Shane
talked about his new website Immortal Outdoors.
Costume Competition
Then the raffle was drawn and costume competition judged. Money was being raised
for the Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue Squad, a quite practical and relevant
cause! The costume entries were:
Ellen's horrifying evil clown
Max's even more horrifying mankini.
Damon's white suit with fedora.
From left to right, Luke's dad Greg in the flouro green wig
(representing the Springwood Bushwalkers), Luke in top hat and tails complete
with a prussik bowtie, and Larissa and Tony as Spongebob.
From left to right, Danny,
Laura, Karena rocking disco style, Max again, and
Suzanna.
The winner was declared to be Luke, greatly helping was the fact he actually
wore his suit all the way through the canyon. He got a bitchin' Resurgance
canyoning pack.
There was much socialising and drinking and discussion of ethics until the
wee hours of the morning.
Grand Canyon
The next morning Damon, Dave and I were planning to do Wolgan View Canyon,
however Damon had a last-minute and disruptive change of plans and had to head
back to Sydney. So after dropping him at Blackheath station, me and Dave did
Grand Canyon instead (reversed from the bottom, with no abseiling
required). Afterwards we doddled down the old Rodriguez Pass track to Beauchamp
Falls for lunch. It was a pleasant trip, but a bit disappointing after planning
a more exploratory day.
Clatterteeth Canyon/Du Faur's Creek
David Noble managed to pick a beautiful lilo canyon without too high a water
level on the Sunday.
Closet Canyon
Luke had his heart set on Closet Canyon, an obscure Rocky Creek tributary
that even David Noble had only done once before. With a warning in the guide
about "tricky navigation", a late start, a dirt road in terrible condition and
2WD cars, a huge group, and thunderstorms forecast in the afternoon, they
DESERVED to have an epic, but apparently it was all good! Who dares wins
huh. Luke can do no wrong as a trip leader.
They even got a nice sunset dammit.
Conclusion
What a fun, well-organised, and just plain cool event! Good to see some faces
from last year, and have the university clubs partying together again. Thanks
again to Ellen and Scott and UTSOC for a good weekend, despite the rain.
And the fact the only canyon I got to do was Grand again...man, it just makes
me keener! But Minus reckons he's free for a canyoning trip first weekend in
March, and has a 4WD, so hopefully I'll up be in Newnes before too long.
(a.k.a. Serendipity Canyon, its other name given by a later rediscoverer)
One more canyoning daytrip before uni starts really was the least I could
do. With UTS Outdoors Club organising a big 'Festival Of The Canyon' over the
weekend up at Mt. Wilson, I signed up for Steve's saturday entree of
WDWDIITR/Serendipity Canyon. It sure ain't the best canyon around but it's good
value and I wanted it on my tick list.
I picked up James and after a stop for a fast food breakfast we gunned up a
windy Bells Line Of Road to arrive at Mt. Wilson about 9:15. We were plenty
early as it turned out. The campground and fire shed carpark were packed
out. I've never seen it that crowded - there were cars, wetsuits, and canyoners
everywhere. We were greeted by a worried looking organiser from UTS (Ellen?) who
asked us what group and what canyon we were doing. She was pleased when we said
Serendipity, apparently there weren't any other parties planning on going there
yet, but Whungee Wheengee looked like it was going to have a queue.
Steve turned up about 10 with the rest of the crew. A few had dropped out
leaving Steve, Alan, Jenny, Anna, James (doing his first real canyon) and me. We
set off pleasantly from the campground, through the fire trail maze, and were at
the Wollongambe 1 exit track soon enough. There's a new yellow 'DANGER' sign
there, as well as an arrow post pointing back to the fire shed. I guess NPWS has
finally signposted the upper tourist section; this was probably inevitable.
Turning right down the Serendipity footpad, we are soon caught up and
overtaken by a UTS group led by a pleasant bloke called Max, who has a fancy new
Kong
Hydrobot descender. I'm jealous. Soon we reach the top of the creek, and the
first abseil down into the gully. Time to change into wetsuits ("Eek!" "I'll
bring a towel next time sorry!")
We end up sharing ropes with the UTS party; it's easier. The first abseil is
a two-stage thing in an awkward righthand direction, landing in a shallow
pool. We are happy to be able to cool our feet. Soon afterwards we have to
negotiate a hard climb down on fixed tape, then there's a bit of meandering
through the green and mossy gully, before a slippery traverse across the top of
a waterfall with a fixed rope to the second abseil into the canyon proper.
Me rigging and James watching. I've been reading a few too
many Climbing Tech Tips and freaked a few people out with my fancy-pancy abseil
setup.
Steve (I think?) is the last one down.
The upper part of the real canyon is a long creek walk through a lush green
gully. It was nice, but a bit annoying after a while, especially in a wetsuit
and the horrible old socks I was wearing.
We caught up to UTS again at the third abseil, and stopped for lunch. From
here, the deep and narrow stuff began as the creek cut into the Narrabeen
sandstone. Point of no return.
Now we're canyoning!
Alan conquers the lip
Our lifeline dangling down into the dark hole
Canyon section
Emerging into the sunlight. I'm looking pretty ugly.
What a shot! The team descends a strong waterfall into a deep
pool.
Check out this massive crayfish thing James caught!
The last several abseils were hard and finished in deep pools. The final pool
was deep, long, cold and dark and soon we got off rope, we thrashed towards
dryer ground and left the next sucker to belay. The canyon ends in a big cave
with a ledge above the Wollongambe.
The UTS guys followed the ledge and took the quick exit back up the way we
came. We decided to continue down the Wollongambe 2 exit and stretch out the
day.
The 'Gambe isn't dark and narrow like the most spectacular canyons, it's more of
a gorge, but it's still big and beautiful. Looots of swimming is involved though
and it soon got tiring.
Our slightly anxious floating was interrupted when James spotted some people
and big orange thing up ahead. It turned out someone had been bitten by a snake!
The guy, Adam, was on a Lilo on a dry rocky spot in the middle of the river,
covered in a foil space blanket. There were a few people from different groups
around waiting with him, and they'd activated an EPIRB. Since it was an old
model, we activated our new GPS-enabled one as well. A lot of parties had
passed, they had plenty of food and water, first aid had been provided, and
nothing more could really be done except to wait for the helicopter. As it was
getting late and the exit was still a ways to go, we pressed on, leaving our
EPIRB.
About five minutes later we heard the chopper, and it flew around for ages
drowning out everything else in noise. It must have been a hard search for the
rescue team as there were a lot of people on the river. Apparently they didn't
come too prepared for a canyon rescue either.
The chopper ended up dropping down, and then picking up again, a guy right
near us. The second time was crazy. We huddled under an overhang covering our
ears as it blew the shit out of everything. Branches and trees came crashing
down right where we had just been standing! It was nuts.
A pic of part of the aftermath.
Anyway, we finally reached the exit beach with a bit of daylight to spare. It
was very crowded, what with the people involved with the snakebite, dads with
kids, and us. I ended up leaving my harness hanging on a tree
(facepalm! What a me thing to do. I knew the pack seemed a little
empty) but luckily it was picked up and returned to me at the campsite. Thanks
Jules!
Anyway, we hit the homeward trail pretty hard and were back at the campground
by dusk. I hung around for beer and food at the campfire, but eventually had to
leave to drive back to Sydney. Steve had planned a trip to Geronimo on Sunday,
but apparently they did Dalpura Canyon
instead.
Another atmospheric shot. Looks good huh...
Wow that was a long report. It was a crazy eventful day trip though! I can't
wait to get back to the mountains again.
So Steve had put a trip up on the club website to go up to Mt. Wilson the night
after his exam and do a Wollogambe canyon the next day, hopefully Bell Creek
Canyon.
The only problem was the forecast, which had degenerated to 'Rain. Storms' by
the day before the trip. (Apparenty, this happens every time Steve tries to do a
trip to Bell Creek). Pez, Su Li, and me met glumly that evening at another club
event and talked hopefully about ganging up on Steve and calling the trip off
democratically...as it turns out, only Pez was cowardly enough to actually pull
out.
When the guy that works for weatherzone.com pulls out of your trip because he
reckons the weather will be terrible, you know it's going to be character
building.
Reading about canyoning deaths in the Australian Accident Register archives all
day at work didn't help either. Canyoning is a lovely activity where the worst
case scenario is "Everyone dies instantly". But I figured we'd probably just
bail from the campsite once it started raining, or go for a damp day walk
somewhere - I haven't had any leech bites in a few weeks, it was about time for
some more old-school suffering.
Anyway I rocked up with a luxuriously full pack complete with wetsuit, lilo,
cushy sleeping bag, tent, multiple bits of wet weather gear and full change of
clothes. As well as abseiling kit with no less than three descenders. I skimped
out on food, bringing only a couple chocolate bars and a can of Two Fruits, and
footwear, with only the Canyoning Volleys on my feet.
The drive up was smooth, with a stopover at Kurrajong Heights Hotel for
dinner. It's at the top of the first hill as you head up Bells Line Of Road,
with sweeping views back east over the Sydney plain. The bistro was croweded,
noisy, and a bit stuffy.
As it turns out, so was Cathedral Of Ferns campground. Although CoF is
apparently no-booking, no-fee, and open-fires-allowed, which in this day and age
is amazing, I'm willing to let it slide. We pitched the tents with clouds of
flies going straight for the headlamps. Boo. We made a small fire, drank some
port, and decided on Dalpura as the wimp-out bad-weather canyon for tomorrow, as
it's short and shallow with a small catchment, with options to link up with the
other north Grose canyons which are similarly wimpy.
As I'd brought the lilo in case we did a canyon with a bunch of swimming, I
decided I may as well sleep on it and inflated it in my tent. I'm really not
used to big thick air mattresses. It was like it was too comfy, my butt sank in
deeply and I woke up with a sore back. Especially at a plush grassy campground
like CoF I reckon I much prefer the traditional foam mat.
Dalpura Canyon
We didn't really muck around in the morning, but we were happy to find it
hadn't rained. The weather looked clear as well, although Pez had helpfully
informed Steve (just after he'd let him know he wasn't coming) that it would
look clear before 9am, and then probably start pissing down. We drove up Bells
Line Of Road for a bit and parked on the road.
Steve was about to start bashing straight down the hill before I pointed out
the track. It was a pretty easy walk, nice thin undergrowth. The wildflowers
were out - when we got to the vally floor there were some magnificent waratahs
which Su Li stopped to photograph. Rising on either side were some wonderful
rock formations, rippled red delicate-looking pagodas of sandstone. We also saw
some gigantic black birds whose names I can't remember (cockatoos, I think?)
We hit the creek and got to the first deep pool, which Steve remembered as a
comical traverse to stay dry. Su Li and I sealed up the dry bags as Steve
started edging out the knee-deep ledges above the deeper water. He made it a
good way but gave in to the slippery walls and jumped in. Su Li accepted the
inevitable and just swum straight across. Cries of "come on, show us how the
climber does it!" rang out as I attempted to stay dry. I found a muddy sidepull
that allowed me to get a few feet further than Steve and past the deepest part
before I fell in with an undignified waist-deep splash.
The walls were getting higher, but it was still wide and swampy and there was
a bit of uninspiring creek bashing before we hit a big T-intersection. What
looked like a narrow side creek, was actually downstream, and the creek started
dropping and getting more interesting and rocky.
We hit the first abseil, a short drop into a little slot. The anchor was a
big, rounded and slightly precarious slung chockstone. It was made slightly more
secure by the fact that a grove had actually been worn into the stone by the
in-place sling and rope.
There was a fun start around the overhung chockstone and into the little
waterfall, dropping a few meters into chest-deep water. Refreshing. The cold
water was a bit of a shock without a wetsuit and I was a bit out of breath as I
un-threaded the rap rack and dashed for the shallows in my tshirt and
boardshorts, leaving Steve to belay with his long-sleeved thermals.
I don't have any photos, but here's one of Tom Brennan's. Check out the rest
of his here.
We continued down an awesome tunnel with a thin slit in the ceiling. There
was another really nice section wading through a narrow sunlit corridor, with
the wider canyon walls rising either side.
A little later we rounded a corner and faced a huge set of walls; the end of
the canyon as the creek fell into the Grose Valley. We stopped for snacks and to
de-harness. What? I lugged in all that gear for one measly 4m abseil that I
probably could have jumped? Bah.
The track ducked out up a steep hill a little early. It was a great exit
track, a good walk in itself. Easy to follow, after a steep initial part it came
out on top of the ridge (Jinki ridge?) and wound through crumbling yellow
pagodas and wildflower meadows. It was quite windy, but in case you hadn't
noticed, it hadn't rained a drop yet! I scrambled up one on big brittle
ironstone-plate jugs to look out over the nearby ridges and to the Grose. We
couldn't even spot any obvious storm clouds in the distance! A great run with
the weather. There were still quite a few hours in the day though...
The track turned into a fire trail and presently hit the road, and we walked
back down a couple of hundred meters to the car. We had lunch (I wished I had
more than the can of Two Fruits), tried to dry out socks, and waited a bit to
see what the weather would do.
Birrabang Canyon
With the weather still looking good, Steve decided to dash down Birrabang
Canyon for the afternoon, another short easy creek scramble. We went light with
one pack between us with the water bottles. Well, if it rains, we get wet.
The walk in crossed the top of a hill through some beautiful treeless meadows with more wildflowers, and views out over the Grose. After scrambling down a wet slab, we reached the creek and immediately hopped down several boulders to a crystal-clear sandy-bottomed pool. We continued wading downstream, through pools containing fish and yabbies.
The highlight was a big boulder choke which the creek disappeared into through a tiny slot, which we couldn't follow without abseiling gear. The trail scrambled around high on the side of the canyon to the left, with an exposed couple of trees to climb back down to the creek. A deep, narrow pool emerged from a cave underneath boulders. We jumped in and swum through - it turned out to be about neck deep. Climbing up a ledge we emerged in a small room, with several small waterfalls trickling in through sunlit cracks.
There were a few more deep pools, which were avoided with some slippery
traversing on slopey ledges and lots of grabbing at clumps of grass.
There were some more pleasant canyoney features including some deeply undercut
caves formed at the sharp creek bends.
Making a short cut through the vegetation on a big elbow, we almost went past
the exit gully, but Steve went over and checked when his memory bugged him. The
exit was marked with a small cairn on top of a big log that bridged the creek,
as well as the word 'EXIT' with an arrow scratched into the moss on the same
tree. David Noble would not be happy, but then again a hardcore wilderness
canyoner like David Noble would not be caught dead in an easily accessible,
pathetic vegetated gully like Birrabang.
I don't mind cairns, I think they can be subtle and natural-looking, while being
obviously man-made. But scratching moss and spraypainting rock is just shitty
vandalism.
The exit gully was very dark, damp and green, with the loose mulchy rotting-leaf
rainforest floor that signifies you are entering Leech Country. I scrambled up
the mossy blocks in the middle rather than follow Steve up the side.
The gully flattened out a bit, opened up, and became dryer as we climbed
higher. There was no real trail, and it was slow going around dead trees and
sticks. Steve pointed out a fallen log leading straight up the right hand wall
of the gully, which was still a 20+ m cliff averaging about 45 degrees, made of
blank and exposed slabby ledges. "We climbed out that way once, but I think
there's an easier exit further up". I hope so, because that was some serious
climbing.
Steve settled on a short dead log, bridging an undercut start up to a low-angled
but very blank big scoop. I went last up the creaking, rotten log and nervously
established myself on the slab. Su Li needled me again - "Come on, you said the
Narrabeen slabs were your local crag, this should be easy!" Well, it is easy,
but we are soloing in the middle of the bush wearing wet tennis shoes and that
tends to add a couple of grades in your head.
Aaah, Dunlop Volleys (or in my case, $8 K-mart Volley imitations). The legendary
old-school climbing and canyoning shoe. Smear like a warm butterknife, edge like
a blunt rubber spoon.
We padded up the scoop for a few meters before traversing right to the safety of
a vegetated ledge. Steve began pushing further to the right through to a
vegetated gully before I said "What are you doing?" and went straight up the
slightly more exposed arete on big fragile ironstone plates to a big
ledge. After a few more easy ledges covered in ironstone jugs, we made it to the
top of the ridge.
We had escaped the canyon! Only to look right from our vantage point, to see the
trivial slope at the very top of the exit gully. Oh well, the climbing was fun.
Still unable to find the (possibly non-existent) path, we continued up the steep
ridge, picking through the dry bush. It was exhausting and dehydrating and we
drank the rest of the water. I was grateful that the scrub was thin and easy
walking. I generally hate bush-bashing and I'm very wary of ticks due to
formative bushwalking experiences in Ku-rin-gai NP and other coastal
bushland. Steve reckons there's no ticks up in the mountains and that he's never
had one ever. Crap - I definitely should do more walking up here then!
We finally pick up a path - which appears to be one tire-track of a very
overgrown fire trail, the other tire-track is faintly visible - on top of the
main ridge. Soon the sounds of traffic are heard and then we are back on the
noisy, dirty, corridor of civilization that is Bells Line Of Road. We trudge
east for half a k back to the car.
The drive back to Sydney is sleepy and monotonous but goes quickly, and I'm back
at my car and home with daylight to spare. Welp, beats getting home at 3am after
coming back from that 11-hour Whungee Wheengee epic to find I'd locked my keys
in the car.
Anyway, there's a hell of a lot of spectacular canyons still left to descend this
summer. A great start to the season.
The 'Gambe isn't dark and narrow like the most spectacular canyons, it's more of
a gorge, but it's still big and beautiful. Looots of swimming is involved though
and it soon got tiring.
