Geronimo Canyon
Here is the Geronimo Canyon video, followed by a trip report written by Rob Luikens:
Having wasted days and nights eating and drinking with family and friends to usher in the new year, it was high time we grabbed our gear and went off to do something fun. We hadn’t heard any first hand feedback on this canyon, but the book described Geronimo Canyon as a great canyon, and that’s more than enough for us.
We left our cars at the fire shed at about 10:30 and walked down to the Wollangambe. We missed our turn off and ended up a bit far downstream. Thankfully, it was fairly easy to find our way back to where we were meant to be. A short walk over a saddle and we were on the correct ridge. At 1:30, we made it to the first abseil. We stopped for a sandwich, and Shane made friends with an exceptionally inquisitive skink, who seemed to love tuna in sweet chilli sauce and was willing to risk life and limb to get some.
Then came the first abseil. I wasn’t anything too difficult, but you have to be careful recovering the rope. The start of the canyon is quite pretty, and has lots of little fish swimming in it. Excited, the group continued on. After about 10 minutes of high canyon walls and Lost World type scenery, we reached the jump in that gives the canyon its name. I abseiled down and checked it out. Once I’d cleared it Shane and Jake jumped down. Both came out screaming about how cold the water was. Even at this time of year it’s pretty chilly in there. A couple more minutes of swimming and scrambling and we were at the next abseil. It wasn’t what I’d call a difficult abseil, more like irritating. The rope got covered in mud making it slow going. The ground was mossy making it hard to get a good footing. After that, it was another fairly short walk and scramble until we hit the Wollangambe. We had a well earned soak in the river, got out of our wetsuits, and began the 2 hour odd stroll back to the car.
Not a bad day all in all. The canyon gets its grade 4 more from being slippery and sometimes tricky that extremely physically demanding. It’s nowhere near as demanding as say Claustral. I wouldn’t call it one of my all time greats, but it was a good, albeit rather short day.
Rob Luikens
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