Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons

01/01/2005 - notes (Twister) - notes (Rocky Creek) - photos - report

Participants: Charles Blumer, Jonathan Potts, Gill Fowler, Duanne White, Liz Drummond, Lisa McGinnigle, Matt Dowle, Megan Gamble, Lisi Jarrott, Ken Shepherd, Tania King, Lucy Macnaught, Rachel Grindlay, Tom Brennan

After a fairly quiet New Year's Eve, it wasn't too hard to get people moving in the morning. We piled into three cars and left Barcoo Swamp about 10am to drive out to the Rocky Creek car park. There was another largish group just arriving, but luckily they were off to do Coachwood and walk back up Rocky Creek. We headed down to the creek and quickly reached the start of Twister. Some people wetsuited up, I took off my t-shirt, and the rest gamely took off everything!

Twister was its usual good fun with lots of jumping and sliding. Some people discovered that nude jumping can be a bit painful when bare skin hits the water from a height! Towards the end of the canyon the wetsuits were all going back on, as the water was pretty chilly. I didn't have one so just shivered.

It was nice to get out in the sun for a bit. On the walk down the creek Matt stepped on a snake, which made everyone a bit nervous.

Despite having been down Rocky Creek a couple of times, I still don't really remember it well. A bit of bridging kept me dry for a while, but there were a few chilly swims, although not as cold as Twister. I stopped several times to take photos, so I wasn't exactly moving fast enough to keep warm. There was a short sunny platform in the middle of the canyon just before a slide/jump into a pool, and then the long main constriction started. This was as good as I remembered (not that I remembered much!). After a few more swims, we reached the end and continued down to the exit.

I was at the back, and there was only one other person who knew the exit, but luckily the people at the front chose the beach opposite the exit gully as the spot for lunch! After lunch it was a relatively easy climb out and back to the fire trail, where the drivers ran back and got the cars. An excellent couple of canyons.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 20050110