Pulling in to the Bendeela campground, it looked like the trip had started off poorly. The scene was reminiscent of a refugee camp, with what seemed like hundreds of people – complete with cars, caravans, tents, tarps, and camp chairs – packed into a paddock about the size of a football field.
We met up in Kanangra early on Saturday morning. Here we consolidated our gear and decided to have a crack at both Dione Dell and Middle Christys over the two days we had. I also persuaded Tony and Sharon to leave behind their stoves as we’d have a camp fire instead.
The battle plan for this trip went something along the lines of: casual stroll along part of the great north walk, followed by a few beers, some dinner… In reality, the stroll turned into an epic 30km mission, enough to force any fresher to question the fundamental basic operating principles of subw.
Ulla, Lisa and myself set off from Evan’s lookout in a misty afternoon – the only thing you could see was a white wall – Lisa and I almost managed to convince Ulla that underneath the fog there were the 3 sisters.
Often they aren’t precise, in fact many aren’t designed to be, rather they are a simple way of giving just enough rough information to someone who knows how to use it to let them find a secret spot. They leave a little room for exploration, for navigation, for bushcraft.
Driving into Mt Wilson, it felt like we’d gone through a time warp. As we drove along the road we passed antique cars from the 1920′s while dirty, depression era people casually strolled along carrying century-old tools. A roadside stall sold fruit from stacks of wooden boxes. We actually seemed more out of place than they did, given some of the spectacular old building in the area like the tree fern surrounded church and impressive Turkish bath house.
It was about 4am as we drove into Glen Davis, pulling up at the campground in town and throwing down our sleeping bags under the verandah for a few hours of much needed sleep before a big weekend of canyoning. About dawn we were joined by a healthy swarm of mosquitoes who seemed determined to drive us from our slumber.
This summer has been such a washout that I’ve pretty much resorted to planning day trips with just a couple days notice when the weather forecast looks promising enough. This trip actually took that to the extreme, with the decision just a day before, but it paid off wonderfully when we woke up to a stunning sunny day.
Like most of summer, the week before this had been packed full of rain. So much so that the Colo River — which drains most of the canyon country — had hit about six metres the day before our trip. Despite this we decided to press on, choosing Galah Canyon for its relatively small catchment, spurred on by the fact that this was the first fine day in more than a week and we were guaranteed some impressive water flows.
We all enjoyed a quick trip along the magnificent coastline of the Royal National Park. Highlights included swimming in the freshwater creek near eagle rock and gazing in awe at the power and beauty of the waves smashing into the shoreline. Cya James