Date: 22/8/2026
Trip leader: Adam H
Party: Bryce M, Ilana B, Murray J
Perhaps with the exception of freezefest (where most today seem to do dry canyons anyway), canyoning in winter seems to be rather unpopular. Just 10 days from the official end of winter, our party of 4 decided to enjoy the rather warm winters day with a trip through Claustral.
At 6:20AM the troop rallied at Wentworth Falls station, some having announced the beginning of their journey for the canyon with a selfie from a bus stop in Turramurra at 3:10AM. Fortunately nobody (and more importantly no ropes) had missed the train, a commendation is very much in order for this feat. In spite of the early start, we were even able to conjure up more than 8 hours of sleep between the 4 of us, perfect for a big day.
We took an obligatory before photo with the NPWS sign labelling Claustral as Grade Extreme
40 minutes had us down the entry track and suiting up. Various wetsuit setups were produced; My two-piece would afford 1cm of neoprene over the core, Murray’s consisted of 3x thinner wetsuits with a labryinth of conflicting zippers at the rear, Bryce stacked 2 wetsuits, and of course, Ilana’s 7/5mm $40 Facebook Marketplace steal made its usual appearance.
We abseiled down the first 5m drop, each of us becoming fully acquainted with the temperature of the water we would be in for the next few hours.
Progress was made and we were at the famous Black Hole of Calcutta by 9am. Ilana rigged the first pitch, Murray and I went down to rig the second and third pitches. The efficiency of having all 3 pitches rigged at the same time was negligible given there were only 4 of us. Nonetheless, despite a bit of faff packing up the rope on the second pitch, we were down in short enough time.
The water level was decidedly lower than my last time through (which was preceded with 192.8mm of rain in the 6 days leading up to it), so less fun but still spectacular.
Turning the corner, we were met with the famous green room
At this early hour, and with no sunlight beaming in, the green room wasn’t quite at its best. Still the troop was keen to climb the hulks fist and jump. The climb played out rather comically. At some point Ilana slipped, knocking us both into the deep water belay below.
We progressed through the canyon before hitting the Thunder Canyon junction and taking the sidetrip up.
The water in Thunder was very much colder than the comparitively sun-baked water of Claustral, though we all found it in us to lie in the water looking up at the glowworm cave.
Heading back out to Claustral, we took a midday snack at snackville (a ledge on RR).
It was here that Murray discovered the unfortunate sogging of his sandwiches at some point through the canyon. Discussions on the superiority of the canyon keg ensued.
Onwards we went, through the boulder field and progressing through the canyon. On one hop through, I said to Ilana “be careful there’s a void down there” to which Ilana, apparently unable to hear me, passed her pack through the hole for it to fall down the void. Fortunately, we happened to have ropes with us. I rigged a handline on a wedged log and Bryce jumped in (and out) on the handline rescuing the pack
In spite of this minor mishap, we enjoyed the remainder of the pretty constant canyon completing 2 more short abseils, the famous tunnel swim, and an optional 10+ m jump completed by climbing up atop the canyon walls. Everyone had a look at the jump, some even joining me in using my goggles and diving torch to have a look at the landing, though I was the only one to brave it.
Rainbow Ravine was reached, lunch was had, and it was time to head up the exit.
I can confirm that ascending the exit track is significantly more fun when the temp is only around 15 degrees compared to the usual summers canyoning day.
Up over Camels Hump we went, and eventually back up the Claustral Brook entry.
The sun was low on the final bit of the exit, with us having used basically every hour of daylight this winter day had to spare. In total it took us 9hrs and 45mins car to car, room for improvement but not too bad considering the leisurely pace enjoyed by the party and that it was the first time down Claustral for 3/4 of us. We had the canyon to ourselves as well which was nice, one can only imagine the demand on the Black Hole of Calcutta in just a few months time with both Mt Wilson and Mt Hay roads closed.
A good day out was had by all. It’s really not too cold to canyon in winter. Despite starting when it was still 8 degrees, only one reached the point of shivering and only in the entirely sunless glowworm cave of Thunder. …You can always add more neoprene 😉
