South Wolgan Canyoning (19-21/12/2020)

OK, canyoning is fun. But it's a bit depressing when it's 4pm, it's been raining constantly for the past 5 hours, you've been up since 5am, on the go since before 8am, and you know you still have 17km left to go, including probably around 4 hours of rough off-track.

The original plan was a 5 day trip, to explore the various canyons in the vicinity of Annie Rowan Creek. With heavy thunderstorms forecast for the first day, I cut it to a 4 day trip, though the general forecast was still for wettish weather.

The three of us set off along the Mt Cameron Track at around 8:45am. Compared to the last time I was out this way, the track was a dream. On the previous trip, the old fire trail was so overgrown in places that it was easier to walk in the bush on the side. Post fires, I was surprised to find there is a well-worn single track all the way to where we left it, not far from Mt Cameron.

The first creek we entered was one that I'd been down before. After an abseil high up, there were three more drops in a good canyon. Alan set the tone for the trip by sliding down a steep log on the second of the drops. With no quick anchor, Rachel and I ummed and ahhed and eventually followed suit, though not wearing a wetsuit meant a slightly greater sacrifice of skin to the log slide gods.

After the canyon opened out, we had a creek walk to an overhang to camp for the night, where we had a late lunch. The plan for the afternoon was to check out tributaries of a nearby creek for canyons and passes, as we'd need to get out the next day. This turned out to be a bit of a dud, as we scored no canyons and no passes, and we'd have to redo much of the afternoon's walk the next morning, though at least we'd know what to avoid. On the plus side, the creek walk was in a lovely rainforest gorge, so mostly easy going.

The next day we were away by 7:45am, and back off up the side creek. A stop at a side creek beyond where we'd got to the day before yielded the first victory of the day, a short canyon I climbed up which I titled "Utter Disappointment". A nearby trib gave us an easy walk-up pass, and a second small victory, and we had morning tea on a rock outcrop above our next creek.

Even though I knew there was definite canyon a long way downstream, an upper tributary looked promising, so we dropped in high up. Another win - the creek canyoned out, surprisingly with a couple of drops, one of them quite large. We dubbed it "Perverse Canyon", and it took us longer than expected to get through it to the main creek.

It was a long but pleasant creek walk to the lower canyon, which started with a couple of climb-downs, and then a long flat impressive canyon section with occasional log jams. The log jams were a feature of most of the canyons, with large trees from the fires of Dec 2019 having been washed into the canyons by the floods of Feb 2020.

A large goanna was sitting unhappily on a rock in the middle of the canyon trying desperately to sun itself - on a grey overcast day. Rachel tried to move quickly past it, only succeeding in grating her back and elbows as she slipped while hurrying.

Downstream of the canyon, we climbed out and traversed around into another creek on ledges, saving us from a descent and ascent through boulders. This next creek was not a canyon, but another nice rainforest gorge. At one point it had the longest flattest section of dry sandy creek bed that I've seen in the Bluies. There were a few waterfalls, but we were able to make our way up past all of these.

We still had one more canyon in the pipeline for the day. However, with the day getting on, I decided that we'd grab water and head for a lookout and high camp instead, and leave the other canyon for the next day. The cliffline didn't look promising, but so far the day had gone well with passes and canyons, and this one was no exception. A zigzagging pass led us up through four clifflines, and we were soon at what must be one of the most superb lookouts in the mountains, with campsites a-plenty not far from the edge. There were spectacular Wolgan views, including the eponymous Mount Morgan of map fame!

The downside was that despite the extra altitude and open tops, there was no wind. The cloud cover meant that overnight temperatures were high, so the mozzies pestered us during the night, and completely hiding in our sleeping bags was only a recipe for sweating. Both Rachel and I were awake at 5am, and with a red glow on the horizon, it was better to get up and watch a spectacular sunrise.

Of course, the old adage is "Red sky at morning, shepherd's warning", and having got a weather update from our high camp, the news wasn't good. We were looking at 30-50mm of rain starting from late morning. While the plan for the next couple of days included a visit to the Wolgan Totem Pole, I decided that we should do our morning's canyon, but then make tracks out, and try and cut our trip down to three days.

Again we were off before 8am and swimming in our canyon by 9am! While this was supposedly a reversible canyon, the first abseil certainly looked unreversible. Perhaps there were previously some logs or similar. There were a few other abseils, jumps and slides, though it was easier to see how a determined party might be able to reverse them. The canyon went on for quite some distance, and I thought it had ended on at least a couple of occasions, only for it to start up again. A massive cavern, and then an underground tunnel section were the highlights. It certainly took us longer to complete than expected, and the rest of the day looked a bit more ambitious. The rain started at 11am, and with a nice overhang beckoning, I did briefly consider camping. But that would just leave us with the same thing to do the next day, in only slightly better weather. Instead we had a short lunch in the overhang, and then set off down the creek.

Well, the rest of the day reminded me of why so few people actually go exploratory canyoning. It's not so much the canyons, it's the getting in and out. Up and down and up and down along the cliffline. Then down to a lower bench, with easier going through weed-like fire regrowth. A slog through head-high regrowth to get in to Annie Rowan Creek. An hour to cover a kilometre or so up the creek to a junction. All in the rain.

Three and half hours of solid going to cover about 4km on the ground.

Which brought us to 4pm. And still a long way to go. Had we found a nice camp cave with some dry firewood, I don't think there would have been any hesitation in stopping!

But no such cave appeared. The rain got heavier. I flicked myself in the eye with a stick, and with blurry vision, couldn't route find to save myself. Rachel cracked her head hard on a rock and had to have a time out to recover. Alan kept on like the Energizer Bunny.

Another two and a half hours slog along the creek brought us to the exit from Annie Rowan Creek. I'd done the exit before, and didn't remember anything about it, which I hoped was a good sign. It was. A bit of easy routefinding and we were up and out, with about an hour left before dark. I'd got everyone to move torches to the top of packs. The aim was to reach the Mt Cameron Track before dark. Rachel led us over Mt Cameron, at first easy through delightful flat open tops, then harder through deep grass and uneven ground. Finally, just before dark we reached the old hut and picked up a solid track.

On and on - and on and on - we walked as the rain came down. One step at a time. The Mt Cameron Track is pretty featureless, so it was not until we descended to the Natural Bridge three hours later that I realised we were almost there. A bit more slog up the hill and we were at the cars at 10:45pm.

Of course, the night was still but young!

My fingers had no strength and it was a challenge just getting changed. Then we had the drive out, on wet, dark fire trails. My eye injury didn't help the drive out - I could barely see the fallen trees across the track! After a couple of wrong turns we finally reached Lithgow Maccas a bit after midnight. After a feed, Rachel took over the driving from there, and we collapsed into bed at 3am.

22 hours awake, a 15 hour day on our feet, 27km, mostly off track, mostly wet. Still, those are the trips that are the most memorable. And you always forget the bad bits after a while and come back for more!