Wollangambe 2 Canyon - track notes

Entry

From Cathedral Reserve at Mt Wilson, head along the fire trail that leaves to the west. After about 1.2km, this forks, and you veer right down a hill. At the top of a long hill, turn on to a track that branches to the right. Follow this for 1.5km down to the river. Avoid taking a right fork to Why Don't We Do It In The Road? Canyon (Serendipity) after about 400m.

Notes

The canyon is pleasant and high walled, although never particularly narrow. Most of the canyon involves swimming or liloing, with generally short walks in between. There are only a couple of long swimming sections.

Not far from the start is a tricky 2m scramble down, or jump. Be careful if you jump, as there are only a couple of safe spots to land.

After another 200m or so, you pass Why Don't We Do It In The Road? Canyon, which is probably worth having a look up if you have time. If you are pushed, wait for Whungee Wheengee later on.

You also pass Waterfall of Moss at AMG569923, but as the last abseil is close to the end, you can't see much of it.

Exit

The exit is at the big bend on the map at AMG571923. Watch for Waterfall of Moss Canyon coming in on the left. About 200m past this, and just past a big bouldery block up, you will see a beach on the right, and a gully on both sides. Head right up the gully, and up to the ridge. The track is fairly obvious up to when it turns into a fire trail at AMG574905. Once on the fire trail, turn left after about 200m at a junction, then right, right again and finally left. The track leads down through a gate and back to Cathedral Reserve.

Comments

An enjoyable trip, although I had hoped for a bit more from the canyon itself. There were a couple of particularly nice sections, but the best part was definitely the detour up Whungee Wheengee Canyon (AMG567917). This lower section of Whungee Wheengee is quite spectacular, and well worth the side trip.

There are quite a few opportunities for jump ins, although care needs to be taken with the depth for many of these. The first (and big) one is only about 100m downstream from the start, where a large log spans the canyon about 7m up. Climb left up the gully just past here, and traverse around on a hairy ledge to the left. You can jump from the high ledge, or climb down a few metres to a lower ledge. When the water is deep you may be able to jump to the right of the log. However, if the water is shallow you will probably need to jump left - this entails jumping out past the lower ledge ... and the canyon is not particularly wide.

The jump usually freaks me out a bit from height alone (it's about 12m), but I was feeling fairly comfortable. I assumed I'd be able to jump right. As usual the traverse was hairier than I remembered. When Matty tested the depth to the right of the log, it was less than 2m, and on to rocks, so left it had to be. Of course that meant clearing the lower ledge - which I hadn't planned for!

Time

7 people, 6.5h from car to car. We moved pretty slowly, with a lunch break at the exit.

Tom Brennan : website@ozultimate.com: updated 20030411