Participants: Rachel Grindlay, Sacha Vidler, John French, Charles Blumer, Toby Vidler, Jens Meyer
After contemplating how I was going to find Frenchy at Richmond Oval I was glad when he called and suggested North Richmond Bakery instead. So a quick drive from Richmond found me in more familiar surrounds. I was very disappointed that the Gourmet Grill coffee machine hadn't warmed up so I was forced to get a coffee from NRB. It passed but probably only because my expectations were so low! Frenchy & I met for the first time (though I have seen him play frisbee so at least knew who to look for). We agreed to take his car so after some gear shuffling headed for Mt Wilson. He wasn't sure whether we were doing Bowens Creek North or South but given our arranged meeting point with Sacha I guessed we must be doing the North section. Sacha, Charles, Jens & Toby turned up a few minutes later. We contemplated plans for the day. Charles, Sacha, Frenchy & I had all done Bowen Creek North while Toby & Jens had never canyoned. After some pfaffing we decided to give the South branch a go. A few of the various "adventure" stories/epics has been pulled out so I think Toby & Jens were a little apprehensive at what fate might await them. After doing a car shuffle on Bells Line we were eventually ready to set off. Our early start not so early anymore! (we left the cars at 10:30am)
I was wielding the map and compass but happily off-loaded them to Frenchy once he realised I was far less competent than him. We continually conferred on the route and soon enough got to the pagodas ("Orange territory") and scrambled down at the start of them. Soon we hit the creek and walked along it for some way before we got to the first abseil. As Toby & Jens had not abseiled before we thought this would be a good one for them to learn on as it wasn't in the canyon itself. I headed down first, after negotiating a relatively tricky overhang and a very slippery waterfall, though maybe it wasn't the best first abseil! We all made it down without incident and continued along the creek. The next abseil from high up on the right allowed us to miss the deep pool but also the fun slide. Then we had our third abseil, which was in a great section of canyon but did go into a deep pool. I was dragged out by Sacha as my pathetic paddling wasn't getting me anywhere fast. Fortunately Sacha was happy to belay so I went for a bit of a walk up Corkscrew canyon and then did some happy-snapping. I suggested lunch somewhere in the Coachwood forest which we were about to walk through but Frenchy was keen to get further down the canyon. The majority ruled and we soon found a sunny spot to have lunch. Sacha had kindly organised lunch for everyone. As I was pulling out the tomatoes, cucumber, salami & cheese from my back I hear an "oh bugger!" from Sacha. He had forgotten his knife and no one else in the group had one. Fortunately I had mine otherwise making our sandwiches would have proved interesting! The others had opted not to put on their wetsuits, as I had suggested that pool at the bottom of the last abseil was the only swim. This meant lunch was not too leisurely as people were a little cool and the sun was fickle.
We continued walking through the beautiful coachwood and sassfras forect followed by a fair bit of boulder scrambling. We reached a large section of boulders where Frency found some slings and said there was no way down we had to abseil. I was fairly certain we had not abseiled on my previous visit so persuaded Sacha to head down a dark hole in the boulders. I headed down after him and then lowered myself further down before I popped out in Frenchy's line of sight. Having convinced him we didn't need to abseil everyone scrambled through to the bottom. We then got to another drop which we had done as a rope slide/abseil last time. We had got our rope stuck on the log, after which Owen discovered an alternative route around. I took this route immediately taking care on the final climb down not to slip too far. I took the swimming option, though Frenchy & Jens decided to jump the large drop instead. Not long after that the canyon ended. After wandering down the creek for a bit we reached the exit. We scrambled up and wandered under the cliffline. The highlight of the exit was the climb up through the hole to the top of the cliffs. Not long after that we were on the firetrail headed for the road. We got back to the cars at 4:30pm - a 6 hour trip. A great day of summer canyoning.