A Good Start to 2012

Rocky Creek Canyon

Has it really been 3 months since my last blog entry? Oops. Well, between rockclimbing in Yangshuo, China and sunbathing in Bali for a month, and the start of a busy semester here in Sydney, let's just say it hasn't exactly made the priority list! But I'm determined to blog and keep in touch about my recent activities, especially as the new year kicks off (Shhh, I know it's nearly March 1...)

Endless fun. You can climb up the right side and jump off as many ways as you'd like!

I had a great start to the New Year with a day-trip to two beautiful canyons in the Blue Mountains, with my new friends Glenn and Nathan (I met Glenn thanks to my sister Claire, they met in China at the Roctrip). I met up with Glenn for a day in the Blueys to get out and climb--to my dismay, I was absolutely rotten. I was already pumped during my first climb, and wasn't used to the rough edges of sandstone. Believe me, I was spoiled for choice over in Yangshuo with all that limestone goodness, and my fingers simply weren't ready for the cutting edge of sandstone. Still, I managed to claw my way to top, while Glenn looked on with a look of half pity, half revulsion -- not unlike seeing a parent throw up from drinking too much booze.

Water slide!

I was cuit as I like to say in French, or "cooked" by 2 climbs (pathetic, I know) but I was captivated by Glenn's climbing. He was trying to finish an incredibly hard climb, I could barely keep up with him on the belay end. It was like watching a monkey climb up a steep rock face! I've never seen anyone climb like that, and believe me it was inspiring.

The picturesque Rocky Creek canyon

I was back in the mountains that weekend, for a fun day of canyoning before Glenn kicked off to Thailand/China for 5 months (lucky bastard...) I met his friend Nathan, who also happens to be a guide for High n' Wild (the company BU uses to take our students canyoning every semester). His friend Amy was along for the ride, so we all hopped in and drove about an hour into the middle of the bush. The Blue Mts have the 2nd highest concentration of canyoning (after the Grand Canyon region in the US), and there are over 400 in the region. Luckily, canyoning is Nathan's passion and he has explored over 200 of them. Our day was pure fun and adventure-- we didn't need harnesses since there were no abseils, only wetsuits and LOTS of jumps. I love the jumps! In Twister canyon, we found a slide that you could climb back up, so you could do it as many times, to your heart's delight. There was also a very high jump, probably the highest I've ever jumped from...Maybe 10 ft? 12? No idea. Well it was high but I loved it.

My biggest jump yet!

Glenn thought it was a bright to climb into the tree high above and jump from there...Bright idea!
We bushwalked for another half hr to Rocky Creek, the second canyon for the day. It's a beautiful, picturesque canyon, but I found it wasn't as much fun as Twister. Not as many jumps!

In early Feb, I organized a BU trip to the Blue Mts to do Empress Falls. I must have talked it up because 40 students signed up! It was quite popular this semester. We had four groups, three of which did Empress Falls and another group who did Grand Canyon. The morning was beautiful weather for the lesson on how to abseil-- the sun was out, which meant all the eucalyptus were hazy blue in the distance. Luckily both Jimmy and Nathan were our guides, so we got to hang out all day.
A little rain and wind during lunch, but before we knew it, the rain had cleared and blue sky again! Weather in the Blueys can be quite temperamental..
This was by far the most fun I've had doing Empress (now my 3rd time). With all the rain, there was SO much water in the canyon, which made for better jumps and a more intense abseil at the end with the water pumping out of the 30m-high waterfall. Nathan showed me and the boys a little trip to climb back up through a rock (you have to crawl through a tiny hole, thru which all that water is gushing) to redo the jump. It added a new dimension and lot more intensity to the canyon.
Our students did a fantastic job with the abseil, they rocked it! It's amazing to see that only that morning they'd learnt how to abseil, and now they were doing down a 30m waterfall!

abseiling down the depths of Zorro Canyon

I stayed over Sat night and crashed on Jimmy & Nath's couch, up early with Nathan and Glenn's bro Neil to do another canyoning. The time it was my first "dry" canyon, which means there's little water in the canyon. There were a few abseils and lots of adventures traipsing around the bush trying to find this mythic canyon. But thanks to Nathan and Neil's orienteering skillz  using a map and compass (I was profoundly useless...sorry Girl Scouts) we found Zorro Canyon. As usual there was a surprise around every bend, and an hour later we abseiled our way out of the canyon and back into the bush. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do Sunnyside canyon, only one for the day. The road back was over an hour, and thankfully we were in a 4-wheel drive Land Rover because the terrain was rough. I've never been so tossed and turned in a car before, felt like we were on safari.