This was a pleasant trip down Claustral Canyon with a group of friends – Wendy (who organised the trip), Michael and Colin and his daughter Sam. I did not take any photos on the day, but instead shot some video. Here is the result on YouTube –
The day of our visit was quite cool. The air temperature was low, but the water temperature in the canyon was not that cold (by Claustral standards). I would have shot more video, but our party, and others just behind us were held up by a party that moved very slowly through the abseils. They were a party of four, and only had one rope – and that was a long rope which didn’t help with their speed. They also seemed to lack basic skills at setting up and retrieving their ropes quickly and efficiently. Claustral Canyon is not a good place to learn these skills. They should have been mastered! Our group was held up about an hour and so were groups behind us.
Note – a 25 m rope is sufficient for Claustral Canyon. But if you have more than 2 people, then two ropes are advised, and 3 ropes if you have 6 or more in your party. A 20 m rope is sufficient for the second abseil, but the first and third need the longer rope. On this visit, we had two ropes between the 5 in our party, and during the holdup, we agreed to share ropes with the party of two (Warren and Michael) who were just behind us – so we deployed 3 ropes on the three drops and our combined party reached the bottom not long after the slow party.