Canyoning adventure

A fabulous weekend of canyoning in the Blue Mountains.

Highlights included: 

• Getting to meet Gavin's wonderful friend Luke who joined us on the adventure. He is so much fun.
• Srini's awesome leadership skills. He has become such a skilled canyoner. We always felt safe.
• Some great abseils down beautiful waterfalls.
• Coming to what I thought was the end of the canyon only to discover some of the best and most beautiful parts of the canyon were still ahead.
• Discovering how much easier and more pleasant abseiling is when you wear gloves!
• Squeezing through some tiny cracks and holes with water pouring through to get back into the lower parts of the canyon.
• Gavin discovering water had got into the dry bad containing his lunch. His very soggy sandwich didn't look very appetising !
• Rayu in his hoodie looking like an ICE official.
• Coming across some very large spiny crayfish (yabbies) in the river. Some were tempted to bring them home for dinner. Gavin, who has just completed an Upschool course about nurturing wildlife, was having none of it!
• A steep climb out of the canyon at the end to enjoy a great view while we had lunch.
• A kilometer from the car, the heavens opened and it absolutely poured. Srini had gone on ahead and we arrived at the road in the bucketing rain, not knowing whether to go left or right.  Watching Gavin try to shield his phone while attempting to call Srini was a sight!
• Sheltering under Srini's gazebo in the pouring rain at Mount Wilson, deciding whether to stay or go. Lots of prophecies about when the weather would clear. Thankfully it did after 90 mins and we were able to set up our tents. I was relieved because I only had a $10 Kmart tent with no flysheet.
• Sitting round the fire eating dinner, chatting, laughing. Always feels so great.
• Luke giving Gavin his luxurious swag to sleep on. Ah, the comfort!
• Sausages and garlic butter for breakfast. A glorious ritual.
• Gavin and I stopping off for an awesome swim on the way home.

Gavin and Luke

Looking surprisingly relaxed!

Climbing out of the canyon to a great view

Mount Wilson camp site

Stopping off for a refeshing swim on the way home

Awesome video footage taken by Ashesh

Water Dragon Canyon (Mount Wilson)

A fantastic weekend of canyoning and abseiling.

Highlights of the weekend

• Gavin very kindly lending us lots of gear for Andre to use (tent, sleeping bag, wet suit, mattress, harness).
• Meeting Prajwal at 6 am at Home Bush station to get a lift to Mount Wilson. Andre stayed at my place overnight and we got the Uber. Good call as we had loads of gear!
• Getting to show Andre the Blue Mountains and how much he loved the whole experience. He's an inspiration to us all.  We can only hope to be as fit as him when we are 68!
• Srini, Warren, Bart: Experienced canyoners who were very patient with us beginners and kept us completely safe.
• Andre, on one occasion, abseiling upside down!
• A 15 metre abseil into a stunning cavern followed by the canyon getting so deep and narrow, it was almost pitch black.
• Rayu's outfit with wet suit head covering. He looked bad ass!
• Swimming an epic 400 metres at the end.
• An orgy of meat cooked on the camp fire: Beef, Lamb, Goat, Chicken kebabs.  Yum.  The butter chicken soup was also delicious.
• Waking up to beautiful mist on Sunday morning and taking photos.
• Discovering an enormous leech feasting on me in the car. I shrieked like a little girl!
• Stopping off for a view of the Three Sisters in the mist on the way home. Andre and Prawjal had never seen it before.

Getting ready to leave for our adventure

The walk in to the canyon

Putting on our gear

Into the canyon

A 400 metre swim at the end!

Climbing back out

A well-earned break

Waking up to beautiful mist on Sunday morning

Three Sisters on the way home

Finding a huge leach on my leg in the car!