Australia Day 2008, No better time to be camping and canyoning out in Newnes. Weather was impeccable, and company even better.

Shane had decided to take Nick, Marc and me, Carmen out to Twister Canyon, the ‘Amusement Park’ Canyon. Nick and Marc were newbies, their first canyon. I had done this canyon, and only this canyon, once, a year before. I’d say it’s the greatest starter canyon, because anyone can do it, from littlies to oldies, the unfit, the infirm, and it gives you an idea of your competence. Even though, I was actually shitting myself on the way, thinking i’d become to sick to do it. But Shane could calm a tiger, and i’d run out of butterflies before we even parked.

It’s a simple short walk down to the canyon, about 15 minutes worth, taking a your first right off the fire trail. It doesn’t take long to descend from the eucalyptus to the ferns and lush walls of the canyon, enjoying some pagoda formation rock walls on the way.

We gear up in our wetsuits and let the fun begin.

The first few pools are slippery slides, so fun and simple. slide down, climb out, slide down, swim through to the next bit, walk through some lovely tree ferns and palms and then there it is!

The first jump, and truly, the shakes came back, given the boys do this all the time, i had to toughen up. So i did, and wow, that feeling, as you swallow your tummy the wrong way, you just know its good for you. I watch Shane and Nick (who are obviously capable of much greater grades than this easy 3) climb back up and then further up, along the wall, to do the big jumps into the pool. i don’t want to look, I think it’s impossible someone can cover so much distance with just a single step and no run up, so i close my eyes and let the video watch, but yes, they are OK.
Marc thinks as i do, and backs down from the high jump, to just do the normal jump again, I’m proud of him, he’s my partner and i don’t want to be carrying him out, i bags being the one carried out! Half Way through, Nick amazes us by finding the smallest little hole and pulling himself up through it and popping out the other side! this guy is definitely in need of harder canyons!

From there on in the jumps get a little lower, but sometimes tougher, of the 3 jumps or the one slide or jump, the last is the most technical (not that it’s technical at all for canyoners, but us newbies think first,and hesitate, before do) because you have such a small pool to land in. And I guess because on our first trip there, when there were eight of us, it was the place where a friend slipped off, and nearly wasn’t OK.
It is beautiful this canyon too, especially the last descent, straight from the little pool, you pull out and do a rope climb down the last bit. Which is always hilarious for me. Because i can’t use my broken arthritic arms, so i get all the attention of these lovely fit fellas, helping me down! such a lucky girl!

They ease me off the top backward, and i just fall into one of them and do the last bit myself, it’s not very high, or very slippery, and it’s quite easy for (almost) anyone, so no excuses, you should be out there!

We contemplated at the bottom, doing it again as it hadn’t taken as long this time, with less people, just over half an hour, but we didn’t have time for Rocky Creek canyon which follows on from it. But by the time we’d scrambled around the rocks and did the walk across the tree and then the straight up bit at the end, we were all so tired and still in ecstasy of our canyon adventure that we completely forgot!

Ah the smiles on the faces of those new to canyoning, it just makes you glow at the end.

So much fun, and any demand on your health or body is stripped by the satisfaction. highly recommended. EASY. FUN.

See also:

• Twister Canyon Guidebook Article
• Twister Canyon Photo Gallery

We didn’t get to Newnes on the Friday before Australia day until about 11:30am, so it was a pretty late start. We decided to pick Firefly canyon because it had a few easy abseils (good because this was going to be Josh’s first time abseiling) and wasn’t described as a ‘long’ day or anything like that - hopefully we would be able to get back before nightfall!

We walked from the camp site along the road to the gate, then through the industrial ruins to the large gully we were meant to walk up. I was hoping to find a track, but alas, none existed - it was a gully bash the whole way up. The first bit was just bashing through thin shrubs, the occasional stinging nettle etc. I stumbled across a Bower Bird nest (first wild one I had ever seen) scattered with the usual assorted blue decorations. As the gully increased in steepness we found ourselves climbing up boulders more and more and bashing through shrubbery less and less. We got to the first cliff line pretty quickly, but our excitement at that achievement died just as quickly as we realised that the first cliff line was nowhere near the last one - this hill seemed to just keep on going up!

After a while we eventually reached the final cliff line - it was a rather frightening cliff line to reach after an hour of climbing; one that didn’t have any apparent way up it! It was a sheer cliff (with over hang) and it seemed to carry on like that in both directions. Not detered (we trusted Jamieson!) I sent Jake out to the right up a little ascending ridge of boulders that might possibly show a way up. He climbed up a little and reported that it was a no go. I told him to keep going. I was right :p

The way was up a very narrow crack between a large slab and the cliff line. You could cold chimney it, or shimmy through it and step up some conveniently stacked chock stones and climb to the top of the slab. Once atop the slab, you then had to jump over the crack and climb up a short cliff to get on to the very top of the cliff, but it was easy enough (if not incredibly dangerous simply because of the exposure). We scrambled up the next pagoda rock section and finally reached the top of the ridge where we saw a prominent little cairn.

We started down the other side, and found most of it was down steep difficult drops, but we zig-zagged regularly and managed to find a way down without needing to abseil anything. We did use a hand line at one point, and had to make some hairy jumps, but made it without incident. Once we reached the main creek, it was reasonably easy going. Bashing our way through the creek, picking our way through the millions of spider webs (which we had been doing the whole way up and down either side of the ridge now that I mention it), we pressed on until it started to get wet before putting our wetsuits on. A short while later we reached the first abseil and dropped down that into a nice chilly pool.

As I said above, this was Josh’s first time abseiling - he’s an incredibly capable guy and done his fair share of physical activity, so I was confident he wouldn’t have any problems - but of course you still put all safety into place. I talked him through it from the top while Jake was below on belay. The abseil wasn’t too difficult and so was a great start for him. He dropped over without any problems and we were on our way. The second abseil was only a short distance after the first one, and we got to practice again. The third one, not far again, then the fourth one…then the fifth one…When we came to our sixth abseil we decided that we must be at the end and there must be another way down. We were right, and a track headed off down the true left side of the canyon.

We descended the final drop down the gully at the end of the canyon pretty quickly and found the track heading back to the ruins. We didn’t get back to the camp until after 8pm (that’s what you get for starting a canyon at midday!) . Jamie seemed to really enjoy his first canyoning trip, and Josh did well for his first time abseiling ever.

See Also:

• Firefly Canyon Guide Article
• Firefly Canyon Photo Gallery

Only a short video clip this week - I took more photos than I did video.

See Also:

• Water Dragon Canyon Trip Report
• Water Dragon Canyon Guidebook Article
• Water Dragon Canyon Photo Gallery

Rob, Jake and I were planning on doing Water Dragon canyon sometime during the week, so when Rowan posted on the OzCanyons Yahoo group asking if anyone was available to canyon on the Wednesday, I offered our trip through Water Dragon because I like to meet new people and a group of 4 is better than a group of 3.

We met at the Mount Wilson fire shed at 9am, chatted and got to know each other while we organised our gear, then headed off down the fire trail to the Wollangambe One exit track. We climbed down to the ‘gambe, walked across the reasonably low water level and up the incredibly steep hill on the other side. It was a stinking hot day, and the climb up the hill really hurt at that temperature. We got to the top and followed the single track path along the ridge which would eventually take you to the start of Whungee-Wheengee if you followed it the whole way. Instead we turned off to the left about half way along it down a pseudo-path which quickly faded into nothing. We basically scrub bashed our way down to the creek, then followed the small creek down into the main creek (which Jake and I managed to head up the wrong direction without even realising it).

Once in the main creek it wasn’t a long walk until we reached the first hand line into a wading pool. We stopped above this for lunch, then climbed down and waded through, not yet bothering to put on wetsuits because the day was so warm and we weren’t actually swimming yet. There was still a bit of walking to go before we reached the first abseil which was down a tricky climb down. We rigged up the rope over a huge dead log and negotiated the tricky start (made tricky by the dead branches sticking out over the edge which tended to wedge the rope).

Once down the bottom of the first abseil, we were really into the canyon. Rowan and I went pretty snap happy and took a whole bunch of photos between us as we approached the second abseil. The second abseil was at the other end of a deep pool, so we finally put our wetsuits on, climbed down the hand line into the pool and swam across to the anchor point - a collection of small sticks wedged into the water flow…not very confidence inspiring stuff as you put your entire body weight over the edge of this most hairy of abseil starts. It is actually one of the most tricky abseil starts I have done because the sticks are at ledge level, so you have to get your waist down below the ledge before your weight is caught by your descender, and the abseil is down a slippery waterfall with nothing to hold onto. You have to lower yourself down off the edge as you would lower yourself off the side of a brick wall, and then somehow transfer yourself to the rope… Well, its hard to look graceful while doing it anyway. And everyone knows that this sport is all about grace.

Once at the bottom there were a whole lot more photos taken in the very dark halls of the underbelly of Water Dragon canyon, some really nice photos coming out of it. Once at this point of the canyon though, there wasn’t much left. We walked for a few minutes through the narrow section until it opened up a bit, then a bit more into a rainforest environment shortly before meeting back up with the Wollangambe.

Just like Geronimo the week before, and Whungee-Wheengee before it, the water of the Wollangambe was a good deal warmer than the water in the narrow slot canyon and you just want to bask in its warmth for a while. We stopped and had a second lunch opposite the exit from Water Dragon before moving on.

Only 100m down the river though, I noticed that my camera wasn’t in my pocket. Very ungood. No one else seemed to have it, so it must have been back where we had lunch. I swam back up stream - it wasn’t there. I swam back and forth two or three times between where I noticed it missing and the lunch spot trying to look down to the bottom to see if I could see it. No luck. I climbed up out of the water onto the edge to see if I could get a better view from there - I couldn’t. It was then that the Canyon Gods decided to smile upon me in a way that they have never smiled down upon someone before. I heard voices upstream. I saw people upstream. I jumped back into the water and swam up to them (I think this confused them a great deal), and asked the most odd question I could think of asking someone in a canyon - “You don’t happen to have a snorkel and set of goggles on you do you?”.

They did. Apparently taking goggles into the Wollangambe is a normal thing to do (I hadn’t thought of it before - but it makes sense to me now). They had two sets and were happy to lend them to us (happy that I didn’t ask them for a first aid kit or Epirb to rescue a dying friend apparently) so I threw one over to Rob and took the other and started swimming. It only took a few minutes to find it with the goggles, and I had to duck dive down to at least 4m depth (causing great pain to my inner ear) in order to pick the camera up. Happily, it still worked! (only rated to 3m)

*very happy*

Anyway, with that little drama sorted out, we proceeded down the canyon to the end, did the usual de-wetsuiting, the usual uphill walking, and eventually got back to the car before it even started to rain (the thunderstorm which hit us on the drive home though, made it almost impossible to see the road!)

A good canyon, an eventful day, and good company.

Shane

See Also:

• Water Dragon Canyon guide notes
• Water Dragon Canyon photo gallery

Open my book of favourite canyons ever, and stick Whungee-Wheengee straight on top of the list. I had such a great time doing Whungee-Wheengee that I am sure I will be back many times in the near future, and will probably even do a Serendipity-Whungee-Wheengee double day of awesomeness sometime too, just to cram as much incredible canyoning into one day as possible.

Stewart from the UNSW Outdoors Club ran this trip, and he took Su Li and myself on this adventure through one of the most interesting, and sustained canyons I have ever done. From start to finish, you are having a good time. The canyon stays narrow, stays beautiful, and stays interesting the whole way down to the ‘gambe. And then when its over, you get to bask in the sun as you float down the ‘gambe, reflecting on all of the cool stuff you just did!

For example, the first thing we did in the canyon, was climb down into a pool, swim 5m, then swim UNDER a chockstone, pop up on the other side where things were getting darker, then swim a few more meters in a very very narrow section only to find another chockstone which we had to swim under. Because we couldn’t see any light on the other side of the chockstone, we weren’t certain that we were in the right spot, so Stewart pulled out his headlamp and went under first (luckily there was a bit of a gap between the water and the chockstone, so we could get light through.) It looked like there was room on the other side of the chockstone, so we swam under. Boy am I glad we did - you duck under this rock, swim a meter, then come back up for air only to find yourself in a pitch black cave with a roof covered in glow worms. It felt like I had just stumbled into a planetarium and I was meant to be looking up at the starry night sky… A hint of light up ahead then turned into dim beams of light pouring in through a tunne, creating another incredible light/dark effect which I only wish I could capture on film somehow to show everyone.

And that was the first thing we did in the canyon. I was immediately blown away by it. And while there were no more super cool duck under glow worm caves, the canyon still continued to impress simply because it stayed to perfect the whole time. There was no boring creek walking bits, and no ‘connecting’ bits as you find in most canyons, Whungee-Wheengee was canyon from top to bottom. No filler. Lots of great swims, often through ridiculously narrow slots, several duck unders, lots of great light beams filtering down through the narrow canyon walls, illuminating ferns that bright green.

Even the hard bits were good fun. Graded at a 5, I expect that simply comes from the difficulty and regularity of the climb downs, overs and arounds. Rock climbing experience definitely helps in this canyon, the ability to jump onto small slippery surfaces without falling off the edge, and a reasonable ability to not be too scared by heights are all highly recommended traits. Even with those, you won’t find the going through Whungee-Wheengee ‘easy’ - you have to pay attention the whole way through the canyon.

That said, the abseils aren’t very difficult. There was an initial one to get down into the creek, then shortly after the duck unders we did a second abseil which I think you can avoid by climbing down a difficult bit. The last two abseils are unavoidable and follow rapidly one after the other. Once at the bottom of the last abseil, it is only a short walk to Wollangambe Two, but even that short walk is incredible - it is walking through this 1m wide slot with 50m vertical walls straight up either side of you. It is quite a surreal place to be. And then suddenly it goes around a corner and we found ourselves stepping into the bathwater temperature of the Wollangambe. Well maybe it wasn’t bathwater temperature, but it sure was a *lot* warmer than the frigid waters of the Whungee-Wheengee.

We had a second lunch on the side of the Wollangambe as the group behind us through Whungee-Wheengee overtook us, then we caught up to them again around the corner where they had all started jumping in from a side cliff. Stewart and I had a jump each, then we meandered our way down to the end of the canyon, then up the long and slow climb out.

Awesome canyon, everything about it is perfect. Just make sure you are physically capable and with someone who has done it before if you want to try it. And never try to do it in high water or with a threat of a thunderstorm. Those duck unders could be quite dangerous if the water was any higher.

See Also:

• Whungee-Wheengee Photo Gallery
• Whungee-Wheengee Guide Article