Sydney Day 4 - Canyoning!

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

I'd been looking forward to this day for ages.  "Canyoning" is a part bushwalking, part rafting, part adventure activity that can be done in the Blue Mountains of Sydney.  We used to do a few times each summer when we a) lived in Sydney, and b) didn't have kids. Consequently it's been at least 14 years since Jon and I have been.  It always starts with a long drive (at least 2 hours) from Sydney, and then a hike down to the start of a canyon.  Actually that's not true, it always starts with a scramble to find wetsuits for everyone, and lilos that don't have holes - thankfully we were able to leave the lilo part to Andy and Alexa who provided ours, and we happened to have suitable wetsuits which we brought over from Tassie just for this trip. Zali was especially prepared as she got a long arm and long legged wetsuit for her birthday.

Our group of 3 families including 6 kids chose to do Joe's canyon, which leads to Du Faurs and then joins the Wollamgambie.  From this particular carpark at Mt Wilson there are many options varying in difficulty from 0 to 5 stars. Ours was rated .5 stars, which meant it would be fine (but challenging) for the kids, but there weren't any scary parts or any abseils.

After an hour or so of hiking downhill, we reached the start of Joe's Canyon, which was really just an overgrown creek at that point. We followed it for a few hundred metres, then the water we were splashing through got so deep it was time to put on wetsuits and stow our clothes in drybags.

Another 100 metres or so, the stretches of water got so long and deep it was time to inflate the lilos..

Then we were away..

We scrambled and floated and walked our way down the canyon, sometimes floating quietly between towering cliffs, sometimes under ferns and around logs. I'd forgotten what the sound of a group of people coming down a canyon sounded like - it's quite unique!

After a few hours we came to a sandy river bend, where we stopped for lunch and snacks. Lyra also got some more clothes on as her loose fitting wetsuit wasn't quite doing the job. The water in the canyons is very cold and there isn't much sunlight to warm up in. I remember once being almost hypothermic in a canyon on a 38 degree day while waiting for my turn to abseil out of it.  Even if you do have a warm wetsuit,  if you aren't moving, you get cold very quickly. So while it was nice to stop and eat, we did all start to get a bit chilled!

 It was good to get back into the creek for the 2nd leg of the journey..  

There was more floating and a lot more scrambling to be done. Sometimes it was hard to get all the people and lilos over the large slippery boulders. It was a real team effort. Zali was having an awesome time and did a great job of helping with the portages, often scouting routes and clearing lilo blockages once we'd flung them all through.

After 5 or so hours in the canyon, we made it to the exit point, one of the few spots you can climb safely back out again. We all got changed back into our dry clothes and squashed the wet and heavy lilos back into our packs and headed back to the carpark.  Zali and Jett had a great time - I'd say Zali enjoyed it slightly more than Jett as she had the warmer wetsuit. Jett got a bit cold for a while, but warmed up with a beanie after lunch. 

We left at 7.30am and we weren't home in Sydney until 9pm that night so it was a really big day. All the kids (from Kari who is 7 upwards to Tiia and Zali who are 13) were really good, in fact whilst there was a fair bit of complaining on the way down to the canyon, there wasn't really any at all after that - they were completely immersed in the adventure with us.

It was a great day.