The weather forecast for the long weekend was for more heat wave conditions. Too hot for walking to and from remote canyons. So a group of us decided on visiting some canyons that didn’t requite too much effort to reach.
On Saturday, we visited one of the lower sections of Wollangambe Canyon. My previous visit to this section was on an overnight trip back in 2009. This time, we planned to not go as far downstream. The party was Enmoore, Wendy, Keith and myself.
We entered Wollangambe Canyon via a track from Mt Wilson, at the Cathedral of Ferns. On the way down, we were surprised to see a party of canyoners heading out quite early in the day (11 am).
As soon as we hit the creek, we cooled off with a swim and then inflated lilos and then paddled downstream. The canyon starts with a series of long pools between steep and impressive canyon walls. It is nice going.
There are plenty of places however that you have to negotiate patches of scrub and boulders between the pools. I think as you continue downstream these sections become longer.
There are impressive rapids all the way through the canyon.
We stopped for lunch in a nice shady cave. It was close to a deep swimming hole.
After lunch, the going became a bit slower – more boulders and river gums rather than long pools. Not bad going – but more strenuous than before.
At one point, the whole canyon became blocked with giant boulders. I can remember on my first trip through here – we had done a 3 m water jump to get through. On subsequent trips, we had used a high bypass ledge on the true right. This was a bit tricky and exposed however. This time, we were fortunate. Between one of the boulders and the canyon wall was a jammed log that we could climb down.
Just below this was a very nice section of canyon, and then just past that was the pass out that we had planned to take. At the base of the pass, we had a break, allowing our lilos and wetsuits to dry a bit, and to empty our shoes and socks of sand. And of course another swim.
It was by now around 5 pm, and it had cooled off a bit, but it was still a hot climb out. The pass eventually took us to the Boronia Fire Road. We followed it back to the main Mt Wilson – Mt Irvine Road and from there back to the Cathedral of Ferns. Some ice cold beers in Wendy’s chilly bin were a wonderful restorative.
More photos of Wollangambe Canyon can be found here.
We farewelled Enmoore, and then looked to see if there was some room in the crowded campsite for our tents. There was, and we even managed to get picnic table to cook on. Considering the number of people at the campsite, we had a pleasant and quiet night.
Next morning we had planned to do a less strenuous canyon – and set off for Bell and then drove a short way along the Darling Causeway to the old Canyon Colliery turn-off. There, after parking, we crossed to railway line and followed the railway access road north for about 1 km to a heath covered knoll. We crossed the knoll, and then made our way down to Koombanda Creek.
Not far downstream was a climb down to a pool, with a short swim. Further downstream was the proper start of the canyon – a short abseil down to a longer swim.
Then the canyon drops to a lower level, with another short abseil. This is perhaps the highlight of the canyon.
It would be nice to visit this part in higher flow and with better lighting.
Then not far downstream is another short drop and the last part of the canyon – a short swim.
After completing the canyon, we had lunch in nice cool rainforest near the junction with Kamarah Creek. Just as we started lunch, there was a mighty crash! We thought a cliff had collapsed or a huge tree had fallen. At the old colliery bridge, we looked upstream as saw there was a freshly fallen tree.
The walk out was quite hot back to Wendy’s car, but it as not too far. We then headed to the nearby dam at Dargan to cool off with another swim. The dam area was amazingly crowded – with abut 50 cars, and tents and caravans, and lot of people. Probably not surprising given the continuing heat wave.
More photos from Koombanda Canyon can be found here.
Nice post. We were at Dargan over the long weekend. Very busy and most people will behaved. Unfortunately there was one group of people who decided to take a shopping trolley siren there and later throw all their rubbish over the cliff,