[SUBW-A] Trip Report -Mountain Biking/ Canyoning - 4/5 May 02
David Noble
dnoble at ozemail.com.au
Mon May 6 20:09:16 AEST 2002
Trip Report -Mountain Biking/ Canyoning - 4/5 May 02
Party (Sat) - Dave Noble, Dave Forbes, Rik Deveridge
On saturday morning we set off early along a rough fireroad in the
central Blue Mts to the top of the canyon we planned to do. This was
only 3 kms or so along the road. We hid the bikes in the scrub and set
off own a ridge into the creek. The creek was quite nice - although dark
and gloomy. It soon started to drop into a canyon. The first drop - we
managed to climb down via a convenient log. Then came the best drop - a
25m abseil down a waterfall into a pool. We were in a classic canyon!
Below this the canyon was darker, and the next drop appeared soon. This
abseil brought us into a major creek. We walked and waded upstream for
about 1km before climbing out to have lunch. Then it was a short walk
back to the bikes. A fast ride took us back to the car. We returned to
have a nice counter tea at the Alexandra Hotel at Leura (all meals are
about $12 and the service was really very good :-) )
Dave Forbes headed back to the city and that left only myself and Rik
for the Sunday trip. We had planned to do a remote canyon in the
northern Blue Mts, accessible only with a long mountain bike ride. Our
plans were upset when Rik's ute started to overheat just past the Zig
Zag turn-off. So "plan B" was decided on - we would ride from the Zig
Zag to another closer canyon. This proved to be folly! The bike ride was
very poor - the road was sandy and badly corrugated - not the best
riding conditions by any means. We did a side trip to a nearby peak -
and managed to locate an aboriginal cave that I had seen on an earlier
trip. Unfortunately we did not have maps for the canyon we hoped to
visit (I was going from memory) - and we approached the canyon from the
wrong side. This made it very difficult for us to climb into the
canyon - so we instead were satisfied with an excellent view of it from
above. Then it was back to the bikes and another long and tedious ride
back to the Chifley Highway.
Dave
--------------------------------------------------------
David Noble
dnoble at ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dnoble
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