It was a dark & rainy night as Chris's 4wd Corolla careered its way up Bells Line of Road - our destination Deep Pass South. We had previously met up with the other cars at Richmond where we "dumped" the Geoff-mobile. "With any luck someone will pinch it" Geoff exclaimed. We arrived shortly after 11pm. Well most of us did. Nenad and Geoff, although in possession of a perfectly good map and compass, decided it would be far more interesting not to look at the map and somehow managed to venture onto a 4wd track. Having reached a point at which the van wouldn't go any further they saw fit to spend the night in the van where they were. The rest of us, after pitching tents in the rain, also decided to call it a night.
The next morning with still no sign of the others and the rain still persisting, we slowly packed up our tents and organised our gear for the two days. Finally sometime after 8am, Nenad & Geoff arrived, very pleased that we hadn't left without them. Soon enough we were on our way and after a brief encounter with a slippery log began the long walk along Rail Motor Ridge. At one point we nearly lost Michael when he slipped off the back of the group for a pee. He then set off again, but not along the same route as we had taken. Once we were all together again it was time to find this elusive canyon. As Geoff was very quick to point out a few times, we were indeed going down!
For once the weather man had told the truth - it was actually beginning to fine up. We hit the creek at a bit of a cliff where we had morning tea. Then it was time to look for a way down. It was decided that it would save time just to abseil down. I went down first. I landed on a convenient ledge that ran along the edge of the canyon - about 3 metres above water level. The water looked really deep and dark!!! Once everyone was down we used the rope as a handline to get down off the ledge. Sure enough this ended in a nice long swim!!! A hundred metres of so further on the creek opened right out again. We then had about 3 kilometres of creek walking to do.
As we approached the next major creek junction, we could see the creek beginning to close in. Here we decided to stop for lunch. It was now quite sunny and after lunch we were all quite happy to be swimming and wading through the nice canyon that followed. It was not your classic "Rocky Creek" or "Claustral" type canyon, both of which are deep and dark. This canyon was much more open with lower sides, but still very nice. At one point we followed the waterfall through a very large cave that had a waterfall cascading from the roof into the chamber - this section was great! Or "really fantastic" as Geoff would say. The canyon section of the creek concluded at the next major creek junction. It was now about 6:30pm and we had to decide whether to push on for another kilometre where there was rumoured to be a nice sandy place to camp on the creek or whether to bail out onto the ridge here and hope to find a good flat campsite up there. Well in light of the fact that Mark & I were feeling pretty stuffed from having the flu and also not really wanting to muck around finding a campsite and drying gear 30 minutes before sundown, we opted for the latter.
What a good move! We found an awesome campsite less than 100 metres up the hill, complete with flat ground and a great view. By the time Nenad, Michael & Mark had arrived we already had settled down on some "seats" around a roaring campfire! Now for some dinner! Geoff seemed to like his sausages very well done indeed. It was only when completely charred and on fire that he deemed them to be cooked! Nenad then came out with the usual array of bad jokes. (Sorry Nenad, but I think you need to get some new ones). We were all feeling a bit tired so decided to have a fairly early night.
The next morning I was awoken by the sounds of Geoff remarking on the beautiful morning. "What's for breakfast Geoff?" "Oh, left over sausages with Deb potato and Surprise peas!" (and 5 cups of tea) Hmmm…. I think I'll just have some Weet-Bix. After burying our fire, we broke camp at around 9 and began our slog up the big hill. To our disappointment the ridge soon became very scrubby…….for about 5 kilometres!!! I knew I should've brought my gaiters! Finally relief came as we approached Rock Hill. As we stood on top of this huge lump of rock giving 360 degree views of the surrounding landscape one could hardly think of a more appropriate name for it.
The time was getting on so we quickly prepared for our next canyon, Harmonic Convergence. Rhett decided that he had done enough walking and opted for a bit of peace and tranquillity down on the creek where we were expected to come out of the canyon via a pass. Anyway, we headed off along the ridge for another kilometre and dropped down into the main creek via a side creek. Now from info that I had from Dave Noble, we were expecting a couple of abseils. We started off down the canyon. There was a little climb down, followed by a swim and then the creek opened up. That was it!!! Yes apart from a catchy name, Harmonic Convergence canyon is not much of one. Only 50-100 metres long and, unless you want to deliberately invent some abseils, there aren't any. Oh well you win some and lose some.
We eventually located the pass that Dave had indicated would make a convenient way out. Unfortunately not everyone in our group was comfortable with 20 metres of exposed grade 10 rock climbing! With a belay rope in place, we were all soon safely to the top. One more quick visit to Rock Hill to collect Rhett and our packs and we were on our way back to Railmotor Ridge for the final leg back to the cars. Here we bade farewell to Nenad and Geoff who were heading back via Richmond, while the rest of us were going via Katoomba.
Chris once again for the Corolla to work attempting to make the Imperial Hotel (Mt. Victoria) before 8:30 when they stop serving food. Unfortunately we arrived at 8:33! Next….. Mountain View Café, "Umm, sorry we're closed" %@$#% Anyway we ended up at Café 40 in Katoomba, which incidentally, is not at all a bad place for a late meal!