Breakfast Creek Canyon

The next morning, we headed out to Breakfast Creek Canyon for the morning, aiming to check out waratahs at River Caves in the afternoon.

We ended up taking quite a while in Breakfast Creek. As usual we got the rope jammed in the pull down on the main abseil, stuck behind the log. I don't quite know how to get it down without it jamming. I had to climb back up the waterfall to unjam it, which got me wetter than anything else in the canyon.

The last abseil looked like it might be into a deepish pool, but there were conveniently placed logs underwater if you were lucky.

We defrosted out in the sun in the middle of Rocky Creek, and then headed for the exit gully, which took longer than I expected. Still, it was a pleasant walk up Rocky Creek, although we didn't check out the side canyons which I've been angling to do for some time.

Back at the cars, we drove out to River Caves, along the fire trail that seems to get more rutted every time. Lisa slid her ute in a large puddle and drove into a tree. Luckily the damage wasn't too bad - a bit of a dent in the bumper, and the front light had popped out. To top it off, the waratahs were even less developed than the ones out near Galah Mountain. Lisa and I wandered down to the bottom of the gully, where there were plenty of buds, but very few flowers.

Disappointed, we headed for Blackheath and watched the rugby league Grand Final at the Ivanhoe. Rachel and I were going to camp and do a day walk the next day, but the campsite at Blackheath Glen was pretty packed. In the end we called it quits and drove sleepily back to Sydney that night.