Date: 15/11/2025
Trip leader: Terry
Party: Adam, Sebastian, Vincent
Another weekend of canyoning. We had some thunderstorm forecasts for the day, but were fortunately able to get a ~3hrs window of perfect sunny weather. With a bit of refining, we’ve got a group of 4 with one beginner (Seb Hastrop). We got to Wentworth Falls Station where Adam drove us to the trail head, saving about an hour of suburban road bash from Blackheath Station. Quick run through everyone’s equipment and having a look at Seb’s 1mm springsuit from his mate, we went down the canyon the same way as all the tourists doing day walks.
Midway through the tourist track we found the anchor for the one and only abseil. Being the only group doing this canyon today, we drew a lot of attention from day walkers walking by. They came with a lot of questions and Adam was kind enough to be our delegate of customer relations. One of them climbed over the fence, wanting to have a closer look at the canyon, and we reminded them that it’s probably a good idea to stay edge aware.
Vincent went first, demonstrating how he sets up his descender. See one, do one, teach one, and now Seb is ready to go. We all did our abseils with a few spectators from the main track which was fun. Soon we all got down and that’s where the fun part begins- the scrambles and the swims.
The sun shines through the canyon in its finest form. The white beams are joined with canyon water steaming up. The water was fairly cold as we swam through sections of water.
Summer goodness continued and that’s when we bumped into another group. Coming from the other side of the canyon, they’re dressed in wetsuits, hoping to experience the walk-through section of the canyon. Surely it’s nice weather to dip in the water. We told them how it took us about half an hour from the abseil to this point, and continued as we were very close to the exit.
The final section was fairly straightforward. A bit of creek walking and a short swim in cold water. We got out to the end where it rejoins the tourist track. Having lunch at the intersection, we also took on the task of redirecting day walkers back to the track and not into the canyon. If I were to be in Hong Kong I’d probably charge money for offering directions- $4 per person, as with shopowners fed up by tourists when they have a long line of customers to cater to. I shared my mochi from an asian store, with a theme of Japanese anime character Chiikawa. It even came with a sticker- something for my canyoning keg. A few pastries from the same Chinese bakery where I got egg tarts the day before and endured an entire night of stomach pain- never have anything too buttery from that place again.
The downpour started just after we were driving to Katoomba for lunch. We were thinking of doing a second canyon, but at least it’s a sign that we should go home. Two hours of enduring noisy British tourists in a quiet carriage followed before we got back to our home.
