TRIP FULL - please don't sign up any more.
Novice canyoning opportunity in the beautiful Blue Mountains.
Let's get a small group of keen ANUMC members to the Bluies this Canberra Day weekend, to practice basic canyoning skills in the most authentic environment - the deep, dark and mysterious canyons of the Blue Mountains!
Each canyon is quite short and technically straightforward, but you need to come with a sense of participation and teamwork, helping everyone in the group and wanting to learn the basic rope techniques and other safety skills. Previous outdoor experience such as bushwalking or school adventure activities will be valuable - this is above all an adventure exploring the wilderness environment, and ropes or abseiling are just skills you can learn along the way.
Basic plan:
Saturday: Leave ANU early, drive to Empress Canyon near Katoomba. Empress is a short but exciting half day canyon, with scrambling, jumping and swimming plus one abseil. Then we'll drive around to Mt Wilson, a nice campsite for two nights.
Sunday: A day trip around Mt Wilson, with walking to some of the most famous canyons. A short day (eg Serendipity or Bowens Creek canyon), with good opportunities to practice rope skills. These canyons are quite narrow with beautiful rock formations and scenery.
Monday: After packing up, we will drive out to Newnes Plateau for the popular Twister/Rocky Creek combo. No ropes required, but as the name suggests, these are fun natural adventures with slides and jumps of all kinds. After drying out we'll head back to Canberra.
The pre-trip will be essential to get all your canyoning gear plus any camping gear you need.
When signing up, please indicate other canyoning activity you've done generally, plus any trips or activities with ANUMC. Any activities with the club are relevant, not just canyoning - as mentioned, this is all about safe exploration of the outdoors, while we can help with specifics such as rope skills as required.
Contact: richardsalmons@gmail.com with any questions!