Newnes Canyoning

25-28/03/2005 - notes (Pipeline) - notes (Newnes) - photos - report

A small canyon

Participants: Rachel Grindlay, Tom Brennan

After fighting Easter Friday morning traffic through to Leura, Rachel and I jumped on to the back roads to Katoomba and headed for a welcome bakery. Replenished with cheese and bacon rolls, we drove to the bottom of the Glowworm Tunnel track at Newnes, and headed up the Old Coach Road. At a convenient point, we wandered off into the bush, and had a bit of a scrub bash to a canyon that I knew only a little about. Reaching the start of the canyon, I was surprised to see a man climb over the top of the next pagoda. It turned out he had been climbing on the clifflines below - and he was about as surprised to see us!

Setting up off a dodgy tree anchor, we dropped down into a shallow pool, and down the little canyon. A tricky climb down awaited us next, which I had some trouble getting down. I tried to help Rachel get down, only to almost end in disaster when I lost my balance and let her fall. Luckily she was mostly uninjured apart from shock, and we were soon able to continue. We could see the end of the canyon from the next drop, and despite a tricky start off an anchor a long way back, we were soon out in the sunlight.

However, we weren't finished as we were still a long way up on the cliffs. We traversed around on the halfway ledge for quite some distance, looking for a spot that the ropes would reach, and eventually finding one that had clearly been used before. At the bottom, we wandered to Bell's Grotto Canyon, which always disappoints as it ends just as you think it should be starting, and had a stroll through the Glowworm Tunnel, which was much more impressive than last time. Then it was back down the track to the car, and laying in a bit of firewood for the rest of the weekend.

Arriving just on dark at Newnes, we were lucky to find James and Ella amongst the hordes of families with their monster tents, generators and 4wds. They had already located the two Andys' car - the Andys were off climbing - and stuck a note on it. The Andys had a bit of an epic day, and turned up well after dark with much of their climbing gear still half way up the cliff. I looked around for Caoimhin - in particular, his van - but the couple of people sitting next to the only likely van turned out to be rather old.

Pipeline Canyon plus one other

Participants: Caoimhin Ardren, Steve, James Yorston, Ella Millard, Rachel Grindlay, Tom Brennan

Up early the next morning, the plan was first to visit Pipeline Canyon. Who should rock up but Caoimhin - they had been camping just across the road only 30m from us! So after the usual disorganised start, six of us headed off up the Pipeline Track. We passed a slow moving group along the way, also heading for Pipeline. This was less than half way up, and a couple of them already looked likely to turn around and go back to camp!

We dropped into the creek down the tributary near the watershed, and did a few short drops to the main creek. The boys had done without wetsuits, so were bridging the whole way to stay dry. This was mostly successful, although a bit groin stretching at times, with the exception of James who fell in just before the last abseil! Rachel and Ella both had wetsuits, but had to swim at a couple of places.

The slow group actually caught us just at the end of the canyon, although they were looking pretty cold - probably due to the fact that they were mostly wearing heavy cotton clothing! After lunch, Rachel and Ella headed back to camp, and the rest of us climbed out to do another canyon. This one also had quite a few abseils, and was good fun although not especially spectacular. The last drop was a beauty, 30m straight down into a shallow pool. We made our way back to camp in good spirits after an excellent day. The Andys had another long day on the cliff - we saw them topping out their climb at 6pm on the way back, and yet it took them til nearly 9pm to get back to camp!

Newnes Canyon plus two others

Participants: Caoimhin Ardren, Steve, George, Kathleen, James Yorston, Ella Millard, Rachel Grindlay, Tom Brennan

On the Sunday I had planned to do Newnes (Starlight) Canyon, which after several visits to Newnes I still hadn't done, but it took a while to sort out who was coming and for what. Our navigation was a little off and after ending up on the wrong ridge, we had to traverse across some scrubby sections to get to the easy abseil into the creek. The creek dropped dramatically into a deep pit, and Caoimhin went down first to check that the way through the tunnel was clear. There was a log jam that proved tricky to navigate, as James can attest when he arrived to find my legs and bum sticking out of a hole I was trying to squeeze through! I was surprised how long the dark section was. It was mostly knee deep in water, presumably from the rain a week and a half before.

After lunch in the sun at the end of the canyon, Rachel, Kathleen and George headed back for camp while Steve, James, Caoimhin, Ella and I headed up another canyon. This was quite pretty at the bottom, before several tricky climbs needed to be negotiated. After the canyon opened out, we thought we would be able to climb out, but the walls again narrowed into a canyon section reminiscent of The River Caves. Caoimhin led a 15m climb up a treacherous waterfall, and dropped down a rope, and after some more scrambling we were soon out on the ridge.

Dropping into another creek, it looked like it would canyon out immediately, but it tantalised for a while until we reached a 10m hand-over-hand. Unfortunately that was it for canyon for a while - a pleasant creek walk took us quite some way downstream before dropping 20m into a fissure. Being late in the day I raced off with the other rope to rig up the next drop - except there was none! There was a good long section of canyon before the creek started to open out and drop through boulders. We headed for the river, and a long walk back to camp. Another great day of canyoning.

Exploratory canyoning

Participants: James Yorston, Tom Brennan

I woke up on Monday feeling like I had been run over by a small bus, but eventually summoned up the energy to head off with James to check out a creek. This one had several very short sections of canyon, with some quite long drops. Disappointingly there was no sustained canyon, but it was a worthwhile day nonetheless.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 20050330