Brief Trip Reports

2003-03-21 - Water Dragon Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Colleen Dickson, Jonathan Potts, Tom Brennan

A Friday trip before a group of others came up the next day to join us for Wollangambe 2. A good trip, although there's not much canyon above where you can wander up from the Wollangambe.

2003-03-14 - Du Faur Creek Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Lisa McGinnigle, Tom Brennan

A Friday trip for the Friday non-workers. Lisa was after an abseiling canyon, but I was a bit reticient with just the two of us. Anyway, I was keen to do Du Faurs. A longish canyon, but with quite a few decent sections. We saw a fair bit of wildlife.

2003-03-07 - Better Offer Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Colleen Dickson, Jonathan Potts, Tom Brennan

A Friday trip on the way to a frisbee tournament in Albury. Some good abseils but not a great canyon. We found a great spot to camp on the way to Albury at somethingorother Falls - buggered if I can remember the name. Kooradatha, that's it. Had an excellent meal and sit around our BBQ/fire, and then had to get up at 4am to finish the drive.

2003-02-28 - Waterfall of Moss Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Lisa McGinnigle, Jonathan Potts, Tom Brennan

Can't remember too much about this trip other than it being another Friday trip. We got briefly lost, but recovered pretty quickly.

2003-01-11 - Bowens Creek North Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Gill Fowler, Liz Edye, Tom Brennan

After doing Bowens Creek South the day before, I camped at Cathedral Reserve on the Saturday night. It rained most of the night, but Gill and Liz still made it up about on time. The rain wasn't too bad, so we headed off to Bowens Creek North, leaving one car near Wynnes Rocks and driving the other to the top of the creek at the bottom of the Mt Wilson hill. There were a number of canyon sections in the top of the creek before a bit of a scrub bash in the middle. We had a short lunch as it was still raining.

As we set up for the lower section the rain started to come down harder, and I was a little nervous, since I knew this was where a woman died a couple of years ago in a flash flood. We kept a careful eye on the water and moved through fairly quickly to the exit.

I had inflamed a bursar on my heel and ended up limping most of the way back up to the car.

2003-01-10 - Bowens Creek South Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Lisa McGinnigle, Roger Price, Tom Brennan

Don't remember too much about this other than exploring up a couple of nice side canyons, including Range Creek.

2002-12-31 - Empress Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Andy Wilkinson, Gill Fowler, Duncan Sinclair, Tom Brennan

The last canyon in our Christmas/New Year canyoning epic. Most of the national parks were closed so we decided to head to Empress, which was open. When we got to the Conservation Hut, we found that most of the canyons had been opened again! D'oh!

Still, Empress was very nice, although pretty short and easy, and it allowed us to get back to Sydney early.

2002-12-30 - Alcatraz Canyon / photos

Participants: James Yorston, Andy Wilkinson, Gill Fowler, Duncan Sinclair, Tom Brennan

Dropping into a nice amphitheatre, we ended up bashing our way down to Carne Creek. Retracing our steps, we exited up a gully and found some interesting structures at the top.

2002-12-29 - Dargans Creek Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Andy Wilkinson, Gill Fowler, Duncan Sinclair, Tom Brennan

With most canyons still closed from fires, Dargans Creek was still open so we headed there from Kanangra and did the canyon. It was a good canyon, but relatively short.

2002-12-26 - Davies Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Andy Wilkinson, Gill Fowler, Duncan Sinclair, Tom Brennan

The big post Xmas trip. Turned out that we shouldn't have gone due to park closure from bushfires, but we were at little risk as it rained for half of the trip. The notes have many details. Other things I remember include camping on a narrow ledge in the canyon as the (light) rain came down, and we got eaten by leeches. We had a bitch of a climb up Mt Paralyser to get out which took us a few hours.

2002-10-06 - Bell's Grotto (Glowworm Tunnel Canyon)

Participants: Tom Brennan

Not much of a canyon. I just had a wander through the Glowworm Tunnel and back up the canyon while I was up in the area.

2002-10-06 - The Dry Canyon / photos / notes

Participants: Tom Brennan

A pleasant easy walk through, as I was up exploring the Newnes Plateau area on my own.

2002-04-01 - Pipeline Canyon / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Lisa McGinnigle, Anthony Dowle, Tom Brennan

2002-03-31 - Devils Pinch Canyon / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Lisa McGinnigle, Anthony Dowle, Tom Brennan

All I remember was thinking this was an excellent canyon. The top section was quite exciting, and the lower constriction was spectacular.

2002-03-30 - Firefly Canyon / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Lisa McGinnigle, Anthony Dowle, Tom Brennan

We dropped Anita in Lithgow on Friday night and picked up Ant, who had got a lift to the RSL. It drizzled all the way to a wet camp at Little Capertee. It was still a bit drizzly on Saturday morning, but we headed off to try and do Firefly Canyon. Charles, Sacha, Sarah and Declan were also camped there, but they didn't have any maps, so I gave them one of mine to do Devils Pinch.

We had a bit of trouble getting through the clifflines. The first was up a log to get to the top of a slippery waterfall, then the second was bridging up a narrow cleft before stepping across on to the tops. It took us a while to find.

A few more clifflines had to be negotiated to get down to the creek, however, we managed without abseiling. We had lunch before we started and then set off with wetsuits on.

I don't remember much about the canyon. It was Lisa's first, so a bit of a shock intro to abseiling. There was a fair bit of water going over the falls from the rain which made things a bit more challenging. I think things proceeded relatively smoothly and we got back to camp close to dark.

2002-03-29 - Closet Canyon / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Lisa McGinnigle, Anita Pluschke, Tom Brennan

The first in our plan of four canyons for the Easter weekend. There was some tricky navigation to get there, and from memory it was a longish day. We dropped Neets at Lithgow Station on the way to meeting the others.

2002-03-16 - Hole-in-the-Wall Canyon

Participants: Andy Wilkinson, Liz Edye, Ella Millard, Tom Brennan

Liz called me up the night after I had done Claustral. I said "Yes, as long as I don't have to drive". We missed the turnoff to Waratah Ridge, which was a bit embarassing as I think we had a GPS. However, the sign was down or obscured.

Andy and Ella had a long discussion about capitalism on the walk in, Ella being left-wing, and Andy playing devil's advocate.

We passed a commercial group at the first abseil by jumping.

2002-03-15 - Claustral Canyon / notes

Participants: Matt Dowle, Nicole McVicar, Tom Brennan

2002-03-10 - Breakfast Creek Canyon / notes

Participants: Charles Blumer, Chris Rosen, ??, ??, Piers Truter, Tamara Davis, Nicole McVicar, Tom Brennan

2002-03-09 - Coachwood Canyon (and Rocky Creek reversed) / notes (Coachwood)

Participants: Nikki Shires, James Yorston, Attila, Devon, Tom Brennan

2002-03-01 - Grand and Juggler Canyons / notes (Grand) / notes (Juggler)

Participants: Anthony Dowle, Jamie Turner, Tom Brennan

2002-02-02 - Why Don't We Do It In The Road? Canyon / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Liz Edye, Jamie Turner, Tom Brennan

In an attempt to successfully complete Tiger Snake Canyon, we got as far as the Clarence Fire Trail. About half way along, James was driving and must have hit a sharp rock or something on the side of the road. Both tyres on that side went down in a flash. Bit of a problem with only one spare. Luckily there was a tiny bit of mobile reception. Unluckily I had forgotten to renew my NRMA membership. Luckily they were happy to take the renewal over the phone, although it took three goes to hang on to reception long enough for them to get all my details. It was a while til the truck came out for us, so we kept ourselves occupied playing frisbee golf.

It was a bit of a bumpy ride into Lithgow, with the van towing the car on a trailer. The tyre place patched both tyres, and we were on our way reasonably quickly, although Tiger Snake was out of the question. WDWDIITR seemed a good alternative. I really can't remember the canyon, or even whether we ended up going upstream or downstream (probably upstream), but at least we still had a decent day.

2001-12-23 - Ranon Brook and Ranon Canyon

Participants: James Yorston, Anthony Dowle, Matt Dowle, Ed Yorston, Tom Brennan

The plan was just to do the top section of Ranon (Ranon Brook in Jamieson) and then exit up Mistake Ravine. However, it was pretty early by the time we reached the junction of Ranon Brook and Mistake Ravine, so we decided to push on. Well worthwhile as the top section is ok, but the best bits are down near the junction with Claustral and beyond. Of course, when we climbed back up to Tomah South, we had no car there. Matt drew the short straw as he had to be back for work, and needed a quick retrieval of the car. The rest of us played a bit of hacky sack in the Claustral car park.

2001-07-15 - Birrabang Canyon / notes

Participants: Nikki Shires, Matt Dowle, Rachel Grindlay, Dave Sanders, Tom Brennan

Post the Ultimate Uni Champs, Nikki was keen to show a couple of the Kiwis the canyons in the mountains. I wasn't keen to lead an abseiling trip as we didn't really have the gear, so we headed down Birrabang. It was fairly uninspiring. We had a cold lunch at the Mt Banks car park, and then headed back to Richmond where we played DDC.

2001-05-13 - Tigersnake Canyon / notes

Participants: Liz Edye, Vanessa White, Jonathan Potts, Tom Brennan

2001-04-08 - Geronimo Canyon / notes

Participants: Liz Edye, Nikki Shires, Angus Keenan, Matt Dowle, ??, ??, Tom Brennan

After our last abortive attempt at Geronimo, we had another crack at it. I remember very little about it, so it must have gone reasonably smoothly.

2001-03-03 - Whungee Wheengee Canyon / notes

Participants: James Yorston, Nicole ??, Tom Brennan

My second abseiling canyon (if you don't count Geronimo where we missed the canyon altogether). There were no bolts at the time, so the abseils were quite tricky. On the one down the crack, I got my foot stuck under the abseil rope and ended up jammed, hanging upside-down. James had to scramble down on a prusik and rescue me.

I don't remember too much else other than being pretty cold at the end of the canyon. Nicole had a lilo while James and I swam, which seemed to end up being quite tiring.

2001-01-13 - Wollangambe Canyon

Participants: Matt Dowle, Oliver Thornhill, Ian Wilson, Tom Brennan

We had training in the morning, so we did the upper part of the main section of the Wollangambe as an afternoon trip. Ian brought his flippers and bodyboard to get him through the canyon! But he wasn't so keen on the big water jumps. We managed to coax him off the lower one early on in the canyon

2000-03-?? - Geronimo Canyon / notes

Participants: Leon Smith, Michael Wilkinson, Anna Reynolds, Colin Wagstaff, Nikki Shires, ??, Tom Brennan

We ended up dropping off the ridge too early and missed the canyon. From the slings around the tree we weren't the first to do this. So we spent the rest of the time exploring upstream on the Wollangambe a bit.

2000-01-09 - Twister and Rocky Creek Canyon / notes (Twister) / notes (Rocky Creek)

Participants: Colin Wagstaff, Nikki Shires, Stephen Shires, Steve's girlfriend, Tom Brennan

This was my first canyoning trip. We had to go via Katoomba to hire wetsuits, and then via Lithgow since we didn't have a map. From memory we then headed back up to Zig Zag and out along the Clarence Fire Trail! A bit of getting lost out near Galah Mountain (the road closures weren't in place so we continued out along the Surefire road for a bit) didn't help, so it was pretty late by the time we got to the Rocky Creek car park. The canyons were a lot of fun. We tried to take a few pictures with a waterproof disposable camera, but they didn't really come out. We all changed into wetsuits in the car park, so none of us had brought a change of clothes for the walk back along the fire trails.

The down part of the day came when we got back to the car and found it had been broken into and Colin's daypack (with glasses and clothes) stolen. So we then had to go back via Lithgow to report it to the police.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com : updated 2006-02-15