Davies Canyon - track notes

Entry

Park at the locked gate at the start of the fire trail between King Pin and Queen Pin (AMG286398) on the Kanangra Road. Walk along the fire trail to Thurat Trig. Head down Thurat Ridge. There is a track that follows the ridge but it is difficult to pick up. At about AMG329415 head N then NW down the spur to reach Sally Camp Creek. The canyon starts shortly after.

Alternatively you can walk in from the Whalania Fire Road and Nioka Ridge.

Notes

A few hundred metres after the canyon begins you reach the first abseil. We abseiled 50m down the right hand side of the falls, from an exposed narrow nose of rock that juts out. This can be done in two 25m stages if desired. Alternatively there were also slings around a tree on a slope to the left side of the falls. This looked slightly longer, and you were likely to end up in a pool.

About 250m further on you reach the second abseil. We abseiled 50m from a tree to the left of the falls, into a shallow pool.

The next main drop we scrambled down ledges, passing packs, to the right of the top of the chute and around to a large open platform. We abseiled 20m from slings around a tree to a very slippery rock and narrow ledge. A tricky 2m climb down followed. Finally a 15m drop from dodgy bolts to a pool which we had to then swim across.

Then followed some creek walking to a smaller fall (about 10m). We scrambled along a dirt bank to the right and down a slope. A short drop at the bottom required a 2m abseil into knee deep water.

Some more creek walking got us to another small fall. Scrambling along a steep dirt slope to the right brought us to an exposed set of slings above a 15m drop, which we abseiled.

After another 100m walking we reached the next main drop. We abseiled 20m from slings to the left of the falls to a small ledge. Then 50m into a pool. Traverse left (facing downstream) if you want to avoid a swim.

The creek then drops into a narrow slot. We scrambled along a slightly exposed dirt bank as the creek dropped away below us. Finally we reached a set of slings above a 50m drop onto slippery ledges and abseiled. It is probably possible to swim and abseil down the creek itself if desired.

We scrambled down a few ledges on the left side, and then crossed over as we reached another small set of falls. We scrambled right along a dirt bank, and put a rope around a tree for a 10m abseil as the scrambling became a bit exposed.

Another few hundred metres of walking brought us to the Whalania Ck junction.

Exit

Walk up Mt Paralyser (logbook at summit), back along Thurat Ridge and follow the fire trail back to the car. Mt Paralyser is extremely steep, particularly between the 800m-1100m contours where much of the walking is at a gradient of nearly 1:1. It may be easier to contour around to the northern buttress once you reach a reasonable height.

Comments

A very demanding canyon but extremely spectacular. Like other Kanangra canyons it is very open and not at all like the narrow slots of the northern Blue Mountains.

Rock hopping down the creek is difficult as the rocks are all very slippery. We had quite a number of slips, any of which could have been more serious than a few minor bruises.

We generally used existing slings, however finding these is not always easy and involved some slightly exposed scrambles along dirt banks on a number of occasions. There may well be other anchor point options that I have not mentioned. These may be better than the ones we used. Some of the anchor points are questionable and you should check them before you use them. Clipping a safety line is mandatory on almost every abseil as most of the starts are quite exposed.

There are four abseils of about 50m which require two ropes (unless you use 100m ropes!). Two 50m ropes will just reach all of these drops, although it can make belaying somewhat difficult.  We had our ropes get stuck temporarily on one of these and had to wait until the next morning to retrieve them.

We carried, but did not use wetsuits, although there was one swim.

As this is an overnight canyon you will generally be abseiling with a full pack. This is quite a different experience than with a day pack, and our party agreed that it was significantly more difficult. You may wish to use chest harness to assist with this.

Falling rocks are a hazard and while we didn't take helmets, I certainly would next time. Helmets should probably be a given on any Kanangra or Bungonia canyon. We had a number of incidents, and a couple of these could have been dangerous. I was hit on the shoulder by a small rock, although my head was well hidden due to plenty of warning. I also had a near miss by a similar sized rock while belaying, which didn't appear to have been dislodged by anyone.

Jamieson's book Canyons Near Sydney includes this canyon in it. However, the notes seem quite inaccurate. Few of the descriptions (including entry point and abseils) matched up. I would certainly not describe it as a "dry" canyon, since we had to swim, or one that I would advise doing in winter. David Noble also describes it in his Wild guide Blue Mountains Canyons. His description is brief but reasonably accurate.

Time

Party of five, 3 very experienced, 2 moderately experienced. We walked in on the afternoon of the first day to a camp site on the ridge, which took about 2h. We left before 8am on the second day and set up camp around 9pm on a ledge in the creek. We were still in the canyon at this stage. The canyon took us a further 2h to complete on the third day. The walk up Mt Paralyser took 4h, and it was about 3h further walk back to the car.

Some friends of ours did the canyon around Easter, with day packs. They finished the canyon during the day but had to walk back to their camp on the ridge in the dark, including some of the climb up Paralyser.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 20030820