With that in mind, when the offer came in to spend the weekend in the Blue Mountains canyoning I jumped at the chance.
By the time I left Sydney on Friday night the storms had subsided, it was late by the time I arrived to Cathedral Reserve camp site where I quickly set up camp and fell asleep.
It hadn't rained overnight and although the forecast was for afternoon storms that weather looked promising. We were on the trail by 7 AM, walking from the Mt Wilson Fire Station car park towards the Wollongambe River. An hour later we crossed the river to head back up a steep ridge to the first canyon of the day, 'Geronimo'.
We stopped to put our wetsuits on and gear up, then descended into the canyon proper. The abseils were pretty short but tricky due to the wet, mossy and slick rock. In between abseils there were occasional swims and lots of wading through cool water, but we made good time and it wasn't too strenuous. After a couple of hours in the canyon we emerged back into the warmer waters of the Wollongambe and had a quick lunch.
We then re-hiked back up the ridge but crossed down onto the eastern side to find 'Horseshoe' canyon. We hiked a little too far up the trail, which mean a few dirty abseils and a bit of route finding before we eventually found the start of the canyon. This was a much shorter route but it was still a lot of fun, especially the deep abseil and swim to exit the canyon.
We were back in the Wollongambe river and as we hiked back to the cars it started to rain. For a few minutes it even hailed, but it was sporadic and not big enough to cause any harm. Very heavy fog rolled while we were getting changed out of our wet gear, and we returned to the camp site in low visibility.
A hot meal and a few cold beers knocked me out, it was early to bed in the light rain for another day of adventuring to come.
Given the inclement weather we decided to do just the one canyon, setting off from the Fire Station to head towards 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road'
It was a pretty easy walk out to the start, then few dry abseils and a long leisurely walk down along the stream. Towards the end of the route there were some longer abseils and some nice deep pools requiring some swimming to get through.
By the time we got out of the canyon the sun was shining, so we relaxed next to the river to dry out and warm up. From there it was an easy walk back to the car park, then a long drive home.
A great introduction to canyoning, I can't wait to get back out there and do some more exploring!
More photos here
