[SUBW-A] Trip Report: (Beginner?) Canyoning 10th March
Richard Wood
rwood at student.usyd.edu.au
Mon Mar 18 21:05:42 AEDT 2002
Trip Report for the canyoning day last Sunday (10th March)
Bodies: Jon, Lindsay, Nikki, Sandy, Abby, Mitch, Me
well its taken about a week to write this trip report, cause neither Mitch
nor I are claiming responsibility...
and in the good sense of most reports from the last few weeks, we'll invoke
the "this is not what all trips are like" quote, but it was good, and i
think everyone enjoyed it in a tired kind of way...
so, at the risk of being subject to return jibes from Alex, here's the report:
After getting away a little late from Sydney, and being forced to stop at a
nursery, and then an actual fruit shop to pick up grapes that were
advertised on the side of the road, we eventually made it to the north
richmond bakery to discover the place dirtied by earlier ruffians (not to
mention any names, but a certain Dave N and crew were heard to be in the
area..). Mt Wilson was reached then left at the gentlemanly/gentlelady hour
of 11am, and after a quick inspiration of confidence in the new people, we
worked out the right track on the 3rd attempt..
A bit of a trek down a hill (accompanied by masses of biological info
thanks to Lindsay (and some geological info thanks to Mitch)), then a bit
of a bash up the other side (in which we unfortunately managed to return
Nikki to her asthmatic days) and then a bit more of a bash down another
hill, followed by, you guessed it, a bit of a bash up the other side, we
reached a place with a really nice view. Since the point of the day was
nice views from inside canyons, as preferential to nice views from ridges,
we bashed down the other side till we got to a side creek above the canyon
we were targeting. A nice long slippery dip afforded us a rather rapid
entry into the canyon from the side creek, getting us nice and wet just in
time for lunch, which was by now, more of a mid-afternoon meal.
The canyon followed, and was very beautiful, and supposed to be very green,
although i don't think it was much greener than others... But there were
some good rock jumps, including a narrow twisty one, a bit of an
underground exploration, and some interesting abseils for those who hadn't
tried it out before.
anyway, going wasn't really the fastest, probably due to the largish
beginnerish group, and frequent hand over hands and abseils.. but we
reached the gambe around what is generally called dinner time.
we had about a km and a bit of downstream walking to follow, that we really
hadn't bothered to think about much, but it started off really nice, albeit
slow. The long swims (which also hadn't really been thought too much about)
also added to our slowness, but on the other note, everyone in the group
was really good by keeping moving and not waiting around to get cold.
Anyway, it was in this section that we decided to entertain everyone with
our surprise bit of "night canyoning", with glowworms affording
illumination from the side of the canyon. Everyone was keen to push on
(regardless?) though, so we shelved the idea of camping it out, and instead
held hands in order not to lose anyone.... hmmm.... we then had the awesome
idea of getting the torches out (thanks Sandy!) and made better progress to
the exit, at which we dug into Mitch's bag for various warming devices
including bags of lollies and nuts. Then by the cool breeze of the night,
and the weak illumination of the stars (and torches) we hit the return
track, and somehow managed not to lose it. We also passed a really cool
flourescent fungi that we would have missed if we came out in the day...and
if you really want to know what time it was by now, it was ~11pm, (but that
still qualifies as Sunday evening...). The only problem with this was that
all the restaurants/pubs were closed, so instead, we ate grapes, and the
leeches ate us (or at least ate Lindsay).
Now for a bit of a spiel...Whilst everything didn't quite go to our time
plan on this trip, we had a really good time, mainly due to everyone
getting in and supporting everyone, leading in the dark, keeping on moving,
and generally being a pretty cool bunch. I think (hope?) all the others had
a lot of fun and got a lot out of it too..
Anyway, if you've made it this far down, and are new (or not), and want to
come on a trip in which you don't have to canyon in the dark, then i'll put
a plug in for.....The Freshers Walk!!! It's this weekend, and not just for
freshers!. Down to an awesome campground in a 'majestic forest', it should
be awesome fun, especially if you don't forget the requisite bottle of wine
(or alternatively cask). And at the risk of trying to organise anything at
all, if people coming from Sydney who are catching the 6am train want to
all get in the Second carriage from the front, everyone can head up together.
cheers,
richard
More information about the SUBW
mailing list