Mt Hay Canyon

I picked up Ant at his place and we headed to Leura via the M4, passing hundreds of trucks taking part in something called Convoy for Kids. The road out to Mt Hay was in pretty poor condition, and we came close to bottoming out a few times, and succeeded in doing so on the return trip.

There was no-one else at the car park as we set off down the side creek. After the little scramble at the top, the track down was fairly well covered with leat litter and quite loose underfoot. The rocks in the creek were similarly slippery. The lack of visitors over the past year has obviously had an effect. A few abseils later we were at Rocky Points Ravine. There

As we suited up for the swim I was unable to find the wraps I had brought for lunch. Obviously I had left them in the car. So it was only to be snacks and a late lunch for us.

The swim was pretty chilly. My arms bore the brunt of it, and were painfully red by the end. Thankfully there were no more swims until we almost emerged into the light again.

Ant went down the main drop first, so I could take some photos. That was lucky as I dropped below the chockstone and he was able to haul me back up.

The final swim was not as cold as I feared, dithering at the top of the little jump. We made our way down the creek to the main cliffline with just the one further abseil.

The track around to the exit climb was quite vague. I could feel something sticking into my back as I walked and after a while got irritated enough to find out what it was. It turned out to be a peg from the open packet of wraps, which had fallen down between the back of my pack and the padding. The wraps had all been for several dips, but were still in surprisingly good nick!

I led up the exit climb, which was easier than I remembered from the previous trip. Probably the extra tight volleys helped. And the week at Araps beforehand. We had lunch on Butterbox Point looking for the alternative exit climbs, before heading back up the hill to the car. I guessed it would be a bit before 3pm by the time we got back, but it was closer to 4pm. There were still no other cars there, although we passed a few others on the way out as we bottomed out on the rough track. I hope the NPWS gets around to grading it sometime soon or it will become 4WD and MTB territory.