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With winter approaching, there are not enough hours of daylight to fit in a long cycle in and it’s time for something different. In 1997 I went canyoning with my university friend Hamish. This is a return to that really cool activity in the same really cool place – in the Wollangambe Canyon.

Start: Bell Station
End: Mt Victoria Station
Total distance: 55km
Strava link

Today I lay on my lilo inflatable air mattress and floated down a beautiful canyon deep in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. It was offseason and borderline cold, and so I was the only one. A short walk to the canyon from Mt Wilson town saw me inflating my lilo on the lonely beach surrounded by high cliffs on the edge of the beautiful clear-watered river.

At the starting beach

At the starting beach

With estimates of 6-8 hours for the trip, with upper estimates of 10 hours, I wanted to get back before dark and so hurried down the deep parts of the canyon. I should have stopped to jump off the cliffs into the cool, clear water. It is an amazing part of the canyon.

The deep canyon

On the lilo

There were some rocky scrambles. At times they were a bit tricky.

Boulder dash

Boulder dash

There were also lots of shallow bits which were very relaxing. I could walk along side the lilo and didn’t need to scramble over rocks.

Shallow bit

Shallow bit

Shallow bit

There was even a little side canyon.

Side canyon

The trip back to civilisation saw me cycle 7.5km along the Bells Line of Road. With the Easter traffic trying to leave Sydney, some people found my presence on the road unbearable, informing me that I was a f*ing w*nker and that I should get off the f*ing road. I’ve been living in Australia long enough now to be used to this. Shame though.

My day was, however, a big success. Canyoning is awesome!