Date: 29/10/2026
Trip leader: Adam H
Party: Elias D, Grace W, Kevin C
In my characteristic last minute email to the budding Great Uncle George goers, I reined in expectations with “I’ve never done this canyon before, so I don’t know what to expect really. It may be great, it may suck.”. This was met with a last minute drop out, but there were still 4 of us keen to see what we would find.
Great Uncle George had garnered a solid 1 star rating on Ropewiki, and whilst I had seen photos from past trip reports, I wasn’t expecting much. And yet, the trip was actually rather pleasant.
We were at the top of the first drop in no time, thanks to the landowner at the top of Ingar Rd granting permission for canyoners to head down the most direct route to the first abseil through what is essentially his backyard. This only came about at the start of the year when the news of this broke on a canyoning Facebook group. Hopefully that permission is still current.
We suited up at the top and headed down an awesome ~25m drop beside a waterfall down into a natural amphitheatre.
It is a great freehanging abseil, and already it started to feel like it would be nicer than a 1 star trip
Down the creek we went, much the theme of the trip.
The question that arises is, is this a canyoning trip or a creekwalk with a few abseils? There was barely any swimming, but there we were in full canyoning attire. The answer is still a bit uncertain. There were however frequent shoulder deep wades that would’ve been fairly brutal without at least a bit of neoprene.
There was still a bit of abseiling fun to be had with another nice long-ish drop down the creek.
Followed by more creek walking during which I carelessly neglected to watch where I was walking and went face-first into a log sticking out of the creekbed. Some rather dramatic looking cuts are now adorning my face for the next week or so.
It wouldn’t be a Blue Mountains creek without a yabby, so we stopped at each we spotted.
A bit more creek walking and it was starting to look more and more canyoniferous.
And then…
Canyon!
The constrictions were pretty nice, and even came with some swimming and an abseil! Lo and behold, this was in fact a canyoning trip.
The canyony bits were shortlived, but still nice.
We had a GPX to follow for the exit, though when I got my phone out to check we realised we had passed it by a couple of hundred metres. We were still close to the exit ridge, so found our own way up through the cliffline and onto it. Elias did so in style with a carrot in mouth providing all the necessary sustenance for the gruelling climb.
We were up on the exit ridge without incident, and with the ridge having been recently burnt, it was very pleasant walking.
Back at the cars within 5 hours and that was the end of Great Uncle George. A nice trip but not a super sporty canyon adventure.
Grace was satisfied with Great Uncle George and went home. For the rest of us, there was still fun to be had. Fortunately, I had heard that there is another canyon in Wentworth Falls with a few jumps and a waterfall abseil that we thought we would check out.
The second canyon was nice, short, and fun. I am not sure if it is named yet, perhaps it could be called Great Uncle George West.
