Rachel Grindlay

For the last few years Kylie has organised “Summer Slaydies” – a weekend where women meet up to canyon and camp at Mt Wilson. I’ve tried to show my face most years – doing Bowens North in 2019, Yileen in 2021 and failed to find a Sunday trip in 2022. This year I thought I’d try and bring the SBW women into the Slaydies fold so put a non-abseiling canyon on the SBW program. The vetting was very easy as the only person who signed up was Jo. With the weather looking pretty unstable I wasn’t unhappy to have a small, flexible group!

Tom & I woke to thunderstorms crackling overhead at 5:30am on Saturday morning – the storms looked to have passed across the mountains on their way to Sydney. But, the forecast didn’t seem unreasonable to go canyoning – unless a localised storm hit. I’d done my study the night before of escape options from Du Faur Creek and was feeling ok with the choice to go ahead. After dropping Tom off for his weekend trip, I was feeling less enthusiastic about my own trip as I sat in the car park at Mt Wilson with the rain teeming down. Jo arrived, and we figured we hadn’t driven several hours to do nothing and so eventually headed around to the Fire Station when it stopped raining. I got the last car park in the parking area so clearly many other people were also not put off by the weather.

Perhaps unsurprisingly we didn’t see anyone else as we headed down October Creek and then through Clatterteeth Canyon.

The rain started coming down and we were happy to find ourselves an overhang for lunch. Despite the rain/cloud it was a very warm day, and the only time I felt at all cold all day was at the end of lunch. It was a great day for being in the water as there wasn’t too much differential with the outside temperature.

We had thought we’d exit up Joe’s Canyon but when we got there in the early afternoon, and blue sky in evidence, we decided to push on. We didn’t really want to be back too early – either it would be hot walking out if the sun stayed, or if the rain returned we’d just be sitting round in the rain. Much better to just be wet in a canyon 🙂

We passed a group of 7 lilo-ers (on 3 lilos) shortly after the confluence with Bell Creek. Just after that the river gums really closed in and we were very happy we weren’t wrangling lilos. At the exit we saw a family group of 8 who’d come down Geronimo. The lilo-ers turned up just as the others were leaving, so briefly there were 17 of us there. The humidity was oppressive as we walked up the hill – particularly in the bushy section near the top. However, it remained fine and we were happy to get back to Cathedral Reserve and into some dry clothes.

It took us a little while to find the Slaydies as they had disguised themselves by having some menfolk in the group (the one year I manage to discard Tom.. ). Turns out lots of other trips were cancelled, or people weren’t game to camp, so it was a small group. And most of them lived in the mountains so headed home in the early evening – leaving just 4 of us at Mt Wilson! (soft!! – though I daresay I would have been tempted to do the same if I lived that close, given the heavens opened around 9pm and it stormed heaving for about half an hour. I made it to my tent just as it really started coming down – phew.)

Sunday 8 December

The wind picked up in the night and I was very pleased to find my tent bone-dry in the morning. Despite the better weather, my aching body was feeling less than enthusiastic about another day of canyoning. Fortunately the night before we’d agreed to do Geronimo with whoever of the 4 was interested – and Michelle had more than enough enthusiasm to make up for my lack of. Luci had said if she wasn’t up when we were ready at 8:30am then to assume she wasn’t coming, so that left us with a group of 3.

The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky, what a glorious day for canyoning – and such a contrast to the day before. Unlike the day before there were only 3 other cars in the carpark.

We stopped so Michelle could strap a blister on our way down to the Wollangambe.

The foodpad up the other side and along the ridge was easy to follow and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves near the start of the canyon. When we stopped Michelle said the tape must have been cutting into her toes as they were even more sore than before she taped them. So I suggested loosening it – which was just as well – since it turns out the reason her toes were so sore was because she had a badge, complete with open pin, sticking into the bottom of her foot! Badge quickly extricated and amazingly the pain reduced. It’s a mystery as to how the badge got there as Michelle had never seen it before, it seemed to be embedded within her neoprene booty. Returning to that incident kept us entertained for much of the day.

The canyon was beautiful and we worked together well moving through it.

It wasn’t long till we were at the Wollangambe, and then back to the junction with Du Faur Creek – a familiar spot for me & Jo.

We had a leisurely lunch at the exit before the slog back up the hill.

A terrific day out – can’t believe I’d been unenthused that morning – which just shows the value of having committed to doing something with other people!