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Ranon Canyon. December 27 2003 |
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few photos from our long awaited canyoning trip at the end of last year... _Very_ long
awaited. The previous two summers any ideas of canyoning went out
the window with the bushfires (combined with the distance factor - we have
a very small window of opportunity to fit a canyon in during school
holidays, travelling down from Coffs, and conning someone into minding the
kids... Marc has been known to go without me, but I tend to sulk
when left behind.) So this time, despite having to pack the van up for the trip down to the Blue Mountains from Coffs with the three kids, 2 dogs, xmas presents, and gear for our 3 week trip to New Zealand!, a priority was to fit in the ropes, harnesses, wetsuits and dunlop volleys. Marc talked me into trying to squeeze into my wetsuit before we left home. This was pretty big talk, given the extra kilos I'm carrying around compared to BC.* Needed his help (in lieu of a crane), and I stood under the shower to wet it to see if I'd actually be able to move in it on the day. LOL. What a sight. Decided, after extracting promises that he would help me get it on in the canyon, to take it, and I cut off the short sleeves to make the top like a vest, (yeah, yeah, the upper arms are pudgy too.) With a thermal top under it, I should be warmer than just in thermals. A good thing too as it turned out. We'd rented a holiday house in the Blue Mountains, not far from the in-laws. Went there for Boxing Day dinner, and left the kids to sleep over, and be minded for the day. (Woo hoo in itself! !) Brought back a few memories.. dragging myself up at an earlier hour than I like.. and with anticipatory butterflies in my stomach. Actually, I felt a bit off-colour, and was wondering whether I should go. How much was the nerves, and how much was it my guts playing up.... :S ( Don't forget.. I'm 41, with three children now, and I've only done about three or four canyons in the last 12 years!) Luckily that part of things turned out ok. We were a bit late getting away - after waiting for the rest of the group to meet us at the holiday house. Still decided to do Ranon which, despite being fairly long, is probably one of Marc's favourites. It has some great technical abseils, is fairly constricted, and drops into the famous (and more crowded Claustral), so you still get some of the best parts of it too. And it keeps the butterflies going the whole time, as I know there are a couple of tricky handlines to come.. and a couple of long cold swims! I did remember to load up the old waterproof camera.. but in my ignorance I blithely bought a 3-pack of 'High Definition' film. Baaad move. So, combined with the inherent difficulties in taking photos in canyons anyway, this is the best of a bad lot, really. |
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Most canyons start with a walk in.. after a bit of bush bashing, it's nice
to find the creek, which can be picturesque in itself. Giant ferns.
Yabbies.... Clear cool water... (and bush bashing around blockages...) The creek finally drops over waterfalls, and the sandstone walls become more and more constricted. Time to don wetsuits (yes, he got me into it.. and once it was wet it was fine.) Abseil harness time too. (Butterflies are going crazy.) |
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| Me at the top of one of the abseils. I won't say I wasn't nervous each and every one, but I gradually realised that the old muscles had a bit of canyoning memory still left in them. I did still consult Marc or Anthony, who were the most experienced abseilers, for a bit of technical advice. (ie. "What do I do NOW?!") Actually, Marc thought I acquitted myself quite well (and he doesn't just dish out praise unless he means it.) So, not bad for an old girl. Bit more fitness wouldn't have gone astray though. But hell, if I was doing a canyon nearly every weekend in summer like we used to, I probably would be fitter, and not carrying around an extra 10 kilos. |
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| Our hopes that the drizzly conditions we set out in would disappear weren't realised. Yep, it got more than drizzly at times. And cold. Where was the sweltering heat we were all melting in only 2 days earlier on xmas day? I was very very pleased to have the wetsuit.. and a bit more body fat than Anthony's sister. She may have been fitter, but she was starting to shiver ominously... and it is time consuming to get 6 people down some relatively technical abseils. In Claustral, despite us being pretty late, we ran into another party who slowed us down a bit till we managed to overtake them. |
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| Well.. some were a bit blurry, but they still capture a bit of the atmosphere.. and an idea of the scenery. Not even the best canyoning photos can truly capture the experience of being there. And sometimes in the parts really worth taking it's too difficult to get a camera out. Like when you have to abseil into a deep pool, (a deep, bloody cold pool!) haul yourself across the pool, pushing the rope through the robot (abseiling device), climbing onto, and straddling the ledge at the other side of the pool, and then beginning another abseil down the drop off the other side of that ledge.... |
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It ended up being a very long day - at least 10 hours in the end - and we were quite late walking out... in fact, we decided to send a couple of the guys ahead to make phone calls to let people know we were ok... just late (and very very damp!) (And by then, I was running on empty... god knows how I made my legs walk up, up, up for a good hour at least. I had to play mind games. 'How many steps do you reckon to that tree? Thirty? One, two, three........' 'Ok, now the next tree... One, two, three....' So, our kids got an unscheduled second night at the grandparents. Which was just as well, as I could barely look after myself by the time we got back to the house. I wasn't impressed that on the way I had to get out of the car to order and then pick up the pizza! And the house had to have stairs didn't it. I somehow made it up and collapsed into bed, but I was totally rapt with the day... despite knowing my muscles were going to pay for it dearly the next day (especially getting up again!) |
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* BC = Before Children of course |
