Devil's Pinch canyon

While the weather is hot (and bad for climbing) my plan is to try and tick off as many canyons as I can. Good thing for me that I've made some friends down here that are more than happy to accompany me!

Our target this weekend was Devil's Pinch in the Wolgan Valley. Ellen and I left Sydney on Friday afternoon, stopping at Leura for dinner and to pick up Justin. We made it to the camp site at Newnes late on Friday night, set up camp and called it a night.

The temperature plummeted over night, it was a shock to awake early on Saturday morning with the temperatures in single digits, especially as the day was predicted to reach the high 30s.

After coffee and breakfast we geared up and started the hike before the heat set in. We crossed the Wolgan River and continued along the Pipeline track, reaching the start of the steep hike up the gully before long. The view from the top was spectacular, after a quick stop at the lookout we continued along the faint track that would take us to the start of the canyon.

We made pretty good time, only losing the faint track where bush-fires had obliterated an obvious path. It was getting warm even under the shade of the trees, we found the dry upper creek beds and made our way downstream hoping for cooler times.

We scrambled / bridged down past stagnant pools of dirty water, disturbing swarms of flies and insects as we went. Eventually we found what we came for, an abseil point leading down into a cool, dark crevasse.

Down we went. The first section ended on a small ledge, from there we had to squeeze through a narrow gap, deeper still. With my head-torch on I was able to squeeze through the gap and find a dry footing, the others followed as I scrambled through a narrow opening down to the next section.

The upper section was only short, and before long we were once again under the sun, heading further downstream. From this point on the water was gently flowing, but the occasional pools of water were still not that inviting. We tried to stay dry as much as possible but every now and then we had no option but to get wet.

One such section looked impassable (and remain dry) until we realised that a tree root had grown along the rock wall, creating a natural stairway over the water. It has a handrail and everything!

Down the creek we followed until we came to another abseil. Sensing it could be a little tricky I went down first, but found it straightforward and fun.

Unclipping from the rope I went to check the extent of the constriction, but turning around I was stopped in my tracks.

A few metres onwards, blocking the narrow pass where we had to navigate through, was a small snake, as still as the rock it was laying on. Telling my partners to wait above ground (but not the reason why) I went for a closer look.

Picking up a nearby stick I began to tap the rock, but even inches away it didn't move. I gave it a prod and it sluggishly responded. It was cold in the depths of the canyon, slowly the snake became animated. There wasn't room to go around it, and I didn't want to herd it back towards the base of the rappel where the others would land, so I made the decision to flick it into the water cold water ahead.

Water that we would have to swim through to exit...

I called out to the others to come down, not explaining my reason for delay. Once we had pulled the rope to continue, I picked up some sticks, started banging the ground ahead, and readied myself to plunge into the water, eyes peeled looking for the snake.

The next section was dark, narrow and full of water, we would have to swim. The constriction opened slightly as it progressed before curving around to the left. I spotted the snake swimming against the wall off to the right, I told the others (who had now realised what was happening) to quickly follow me.

Into the water we plunged, keeping as far from the snake as we could, and tried to calmly swim the last remaining section before our imaginations got the better of us. It was only a small snake, but I didn't want to unexpectedly meet the rest of its family! It was most likely a Diamond Python, but I didn't want to take any chances with it.

With daylight not far ahead we swam quickly through the water, dragged ourselves onto dry land and put a few metres between us and the wildlife! We had exited the last of the canyon section, following the river downstream would take us back to the Wolgan River.

We were still quite high up, after a little bit of scrambling we came to a nice step abseil down a slippery light waterfall.

Immediately after this was our final descent, we had already dried out in the heat and were ready to start back home towards camp. There was still a bit of scrambling to be done, but this went by quickly and soon we were back in the Wolgan River.

It was a simple matter of following the water upstream until we joined back up to the Pipeline track. It was slow going walking up the sandy river bed, and the heat had drained us of much spring in our step, but we trudge along, disturbing the occasional Kangaroo, many birds, and a decent size Red-Bellied Black snake.

Joining the track, it wasn't long before we were once again back at home where we changed into clean dry clothes, and settled in for the night. It wasn't long after dark that I retired to my hammock for the night, only to be woken an hour later by a gang of possums trying to get to the bin bag hanging off my guy line.

They calmly started at me as I pin pointed them in my head torch, moving the trash bag into my car so as to not to deal with a garbage spread all over camp the next morning.

It was slightly warmer the next morning and shaping up to be another hot day. I rekindled the fire while I had several coffees with breakfast, before striking camping and heading back to Sydney.

More photos here

Butterbox Canyon

First canyon of 2018! I tagged along an expedition to Butterbox Canyon at Mt Hay, just off Leura in the Blue Mountains. It was a surprisingly cold morning given the recent heat wave that has struck most of eastern Australia, but the skies were clear and it looked to be a fantastic day for some adventuring.

 

The winding dirt road led to a beautiful lookout at Mt Hay, once the others arrived we set off down the well signed path. Things warmed once we descended the track out of the cold wind, after half an hour we signed the log book and continued until the first abseil point.

The drop was relatively straight forward, a good introduction for some of the crew who hadn't abseiled before.

Following that there were a few more smaller drops, mostly dry, until eventually we arrived to a constriction that required a plunge into the frigid water and a swim to continue. Wetsuits were definitely welcomed, the water was fresh!

We finally reached the main drop, a two stage abseil down into a narrow constriction. Singular beams of light would peak past the walls and high tree canopies, highlighting random spots in the canyon, lending a sense of grandeur to the already stunning canyon formation.

Once at the bottom it was another short swim to a ledge where we pulled off out wet clothes and lay in the sun to warm. There were two more dry abseils until we came to he the exit and started the long and occasionally steep hike back up to the car.

We contoured the cliff line following a well worn track, pausing at a small cave overlooking the valley while a group ahead of us tackled the short rock climbing section. It was the perfect place to pause, soak in the scenery and take a breather.

I tagged onto the climbing rope of the group in front so I didn't have to be belayed from below by our group, once on the ledge above I set up a belay of my own and helped the rest of the team up.

The climbing was relatively easy, but made more difficult by wet canyoning shoes and heavy back packs. Everyone climbed well and shortly we were back on track heading towards the cars.

Seven hours after setting off we made it back, the late afternoon sun casting a golden glow over the surrounding areas. A great end to a fun adventure!

More photos here

Bungonia Creek Canyon

Stop me if this sounds familiar....

I was planning another weekend of camping down in Bungonia national park, but the weather forecast put an end to that. Heavy rains and thunderstorms don't make for the best camping, but rather than write off the entire weekend a friend and I decided to do an alpine start for a day trip.

We left Sydney at 4 AM and were at the trail head by 6:30 AM. The full moon gave way to slightly cloudy skies, but with no ominous thunderclouds in view we liked our chances of getting through the canyon without suffering too much from the weather.

As we hiked along the yellow track we kept an eye out for cannibal snakes, alas, none were to be seen. Perhaps the cold and rainy weather kept them subdued. The track was still wet from the recent rain, as we crossed the upper section of Bungonia Creek the water was flowing considerably stronger than three weeks ago, when it was barely a trickle.

At this point we left the track and followed the water downstream, weaving between boulders, trying to stay dry as long as possible. There was a constant breeze that kept the temperature down, as we came to a point where it was no longer possible to keep walking, we suited up and plunged into the water.

A few swims / wades later we arrived at the first abseil point. We shivered while we sorted the ropes, still in the shade of the rock walls, then rappelled 30m down a steep to a small ledge just above a large pool of water.

In we went, then swam across to dry land to temporarily stow our ropes and continue on. A few more sections of scrambling and wading through deep water found us round a bend into welcome sunshine.

Further on we came to another abseil point, the confluence of Bungonia Creek and Jerrara Falls, the canyon we complete three weeks prior. Due to the heavy rain, Jerrara Falls was pumping, it would have made the abseil down very adventurous. Luckily the creek we were on had a smaller catchment and our abseil was easily straight forward. Sixty metres to another small ledge above another large pool, we swam across soon came to the final descent.

Here the water was running strong, we safely navigated the water sightly upstream of the water, then set up our ropes. I was the first one over, bearing the full force of the water as I descended. The heavy current took one end of the rope and it managed to get stuck on a rock out of reach, but I was too low to dislodge it. I unclipped from the rope, and slung my rope around a nearby tree to safely rappel to the bottom.

I couldn't communicate the problem to Justin over the roar of the water, my hand signals were illegible, but luckily he figured out what had happened and manage to get his rope unstuck before it was too late. We safely made it across the lake, amazed at how the area had been transformed by the downpour.

The easy part was done, we now had to navigate the swollen gorge floor, where only weeks before it was a dry sandy riverbed. It was slow going but it wasn't long before we arrived to the Red Track entry, de-suited, and began the steep and laborious hike back to the top of the gorge. Forty minutes later we were in dry clothes and heading back to Sydney, seven hours after we started that morning.

It had turned out to be a gorgeous day, and I loved the pre-dawn start. Worth every moment.

More photos here