Clambering down the many small waterfalls in the canyon. Photo by David Connard
As is too often the case, we had lots of people for this trip but very few real "freshers". Perhaps it is difficult to get people to come on trips the first weekend after O-Week at Uni. Perhaps people already have made other plans. Or perhaps the fun of canyoning is just not initially apparent from the descriptions of jumping down waterfalls and floating through deep and dark creeks. In any case, the only real "freshers" we had were the 5 super-keen American exchange students who had been in Sydney for a grand total of about 2 weeks. At least Rocky Creek Canyon was going to be one incredible introduction to Sydney...
The trip started well - we all got were able to park in the Rocky Creek car park, which meant that there were not too many people doing the canyon. Everyone had successfully found a wetsuit and a lilo, and no-one even came close to passing out whilst blowing up their lilo... and so we were soon on our way down into the canyon.
The first optional water jump is great fun. It saves all the fuss about avoiding getting wet - you start the canyon by jumping into a deep section, going completely underwater... getting completely wet in the process. Then you have to make your way down a beautiful section of narrow canyon, clambering down lots of small waterfalls and crossing deep pools on your lilo as you go. This section of canyon really is beautiful.
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| Clambering down the many small waterfalls in the canyon. Photo by David Connard |
About half way through the canyon, there is a deep pool that you have to slide or jump down into. I had been taking photographs with my new "submersible" camera (as opposed to real "underwater camera") attached to a tripod. And although this camera usually floats, it was here that I made the nasty discovery that the weight of the tripod is enough to make it sink... I threw the camera down into the pool in front of me, so it didn't get damaged as I slid down... and then watched it sink slowly into water of unknown depth.... aarrgh!! I was extremely lucky that it was only about 1.5m deep, and not too difficult to find (thanks heaps for retrieving it Richard!)
Soon after this, in a wider section of the canyon, we came across one of the most magnificent sun-beams that I have ever seen in a canyon. An incredible shaft of light penetrated the canyon right down to its floor, and in our steam the entire beam of light was clearly visible. It is rare to come across such a well-defined shaft of sunlight such as this.
| Sunlight striking its way deep into the canyon. Photo by David Connard |
The final "swim" of the canyon was soon encountered. In years past, this used to be a long, dark and cold part of the canyon. However, it has recently filled up with sand and you can now "walk" the entire length of the pool - although the water is generally up to your chest, your shoulders or even your neck... so perhaps "wallow" is a better word.
It was a great canyon trip, and we returned to the cars by about 4pm, expecting to be back in Sydney by 7pm. We then discovered that Mei Lin had conveniently locked her keys in the car. After spending about half an hour trying to break in, Mei Lin was sent off to Lithgow to call the NRMA. About an hour later, an NRMA van came hurtling into the Rocky Creek car park at high speed (with Mei Lin gripping on real tight in the passenger seat), and her door was open literally within seconds. And so after 2 hours waiting we were finally off...