Water-Dragon Canyon

I first did Water-Dragon Canyon in March 2013 and I had wanted to repeat it last season but was thwarted by the intense bushfires that had gone right through the area in Oct 2013. Now it was reopened and the regrowth was well underway.  Unsurprisingly, the well-defined path we had used in 2013 had disappeared in the fires so we just turned left at roughly the right spot and navigated our way into and down a gully to the main creek.  There were places where you could see that the fire had burnt right down to the creek, but the canyon section was untouched and as green and beautiful as before.

We quickly got to the first abseil, then through the intermediate section to the second abseil.  The dark cave-like section followed and this time I had remembered to bring a headtorch.  I had taken along my DSLR and a tripod so I was going first and trying to get some in-focus photos just for a change.  Soon we were on the final section where we saw the second snake of the day – a brown snake that was not enjoying the cold temperature and lack of sunlight in the slot.  We sidled past him and emerged into the Wollangambe with a welcome 15C rise in air temperature.  Pump up the lilos and a short float downstream to the exit beach.  The slog back uphill to Mt Wilson wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated – maybe all that cycling has given me a bit of fitness.