I have just returned from a canyoning trip and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun outdoors!
Canyoning entails finding the canyon, traversing it by walking, swimming, abseiling and liloing (lilo is the Aussie slang for an air mattress). Throughout the whole experience, you are wet, cold, wet and (have I mentioned it already?) wet. Wearing a steamer (an Aussie slang for a wet suit with long sleeves) helps reduce the effect of cold water on your body.
I was invited to go canyoning by a coworker, and at first I was reluctant to go, fully aware of his safety record. Once I was assured that other people were going, I was fully committed.
We arrived at Mount Wilson about 9:30 am. It appeared that I was the only one that had checked the weather forecast as no one but me was wearing jeans. As it was 10 degrees in the hills that morning, I was not going to brave it and wear shorts, especially as the high was only going to reach 17 C. They were all telling me that I should change and that I was going to get my jeans wet but I was about to prove them wrong.
After packing up the essentials, and storing our dry clothes in waterproof bags (very important to have dry clothes at the end of the trip!) we took off for Wollangambe River. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the river canyon. The sight of the canyon was amazing, with 30-40 meter tall cliffs on both sides, and the canyon, at times, narrowing down to a width of a couple of meters.
Before we took off on our trek through the river canyon, we had to put on our wet suits and inflate our lilos. At this point, I packed my jeans and the rest of my clothing in waterproof bags and prayed that it would stay dry. I have to thank James (my colleague's son) for lending me his long sleeve wet suit while he took the short sleeve wet suit. The river was REALLY cold. But nothing could stop us from jumping on our lilos and taking off down the river through the canyon.
Along the way, we came across a lot of sections where the path through the canyon was obstructed by large boulders. We would then have to carefully navigate up and around the boulders and rocks, trying to inflict as little damage to our bodies and lilos. The experience was similar to white water rafting, except that this trek involved a lot more climbing over large, slippery rocks with more rocks of varying height below the water surface. The whole canyon experience took about three to four hours (not sure how long as I did not dare bring any electronics in such a wet environment.
We arrived at the point in the canyon that had a tiny Exit sign (which is a recent addition since someone lost their life about a year ago in the same canyon) and stopped for a well deserved meal. At the same time, we let our wet clothes dry while we switched into our well-packed dry clothes. Guess what! My jeans were dry!!! While their teeth were chattering from being cold and wet, I was cosily putting on my DRY jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Dress for the elements, people!
After a half an hour break, we took off to what my colleague calls "The Wall of Death." He just calls it that to scare the kids in the group (we even had eight year old girls doing the trek with us). I must admit that, in North America, the "Wall" would be cordoned off and people would not be allow to use it, as there was serious risk of injury if you slipped. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
Luckily, we all safely passed "The Wall of Death" and continued back to where our cars were parked. The trek back from the "Wall" took us about an hour. All in all, it was a great adventure and I would love to do this next time with Carla.
If you are interested to see what the canyon looked like, check out this link - http://www.david-noble.net/canyoning/2004/Wollangambe_Canyon.html.
The link above portrays the canyon pretty accurately, and is the only thing that I can show you as I did not dare risk putting my camera in a waterproof bag.
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