Roman

Upper Kanangra Falls

         On Friday the 2nd of February 2007, Jamie, Gary and Roman left to conquer one of the longest continuing waterfalls at the Kanangra Walls wilderness area in the Blue Mountains. The distance from the Sydney CBD was about 90 minutes to Blackheath, one hour to Jenolan cave and due to heavy fog at night probably another hour from the caves to the Kanangra Walls lookout car park. All up the approach time from Sydney is under 4 hours. We got there just before midnight and slept outdoors under a gorgeous full moon. (At least until the mozzies chased me inside the car). We started the day early at 6:00AM with a lush breakfast and by 7:00AM we started to look for the beginning of the access trail. According to the guidebook we drove 500 meters from the camping area and parkedthe car at the side of the road just near an indistinct track which lead us through Kanangra Brook onto an indistinct ridge line. Once we got near the edge the trail diverged to the left and right side. The Right led back towards the direction of the car park so wedecided to follow the trail towards the left alongside the cliff line. This eventually led us across a dried out creek bed which could have been Kanangra river but it turned out that the actual waterfall which we could see from the first riverbed was much further away around ahuge bend in the trail. It took quite some time to locate the actual river from the trail and we finally found the beginning of the waterfall after about one hour.

There was really only one waterfall in this area so finding the right one was with hindsight not that difficult. The river had considerable flow and started with a couple of tiny waterfalls before hitting the first and most spectacular 150 meter high headwall of Kanangra falls. We had to climb down another bouldery waterfall to get to the first rap station leading down into the abyss. The gorge below us was shrouded in morning mist and we could not see the bottom. The first rap literally took our breath away and we marveled at the multitude of tiny rainbows appearing and disappearing as we rapped a full 60 meters to the first belay station. 60 meters and twin ropes are advisable on this steep wall alongside the main fall. The second rap leads to a belay station from which we rapped straight into the final part of the huge main fall.

A short mini rap down the final 10 meters got us our first shower at the end of the first canyon section. Rap number 4 (not counting the mini one) led down a family friendly low angle face directly into our first pool. The water temperature was warm and we had perfect conditions for swimming. Gary didn't even bother with a wetsuit. It is possible to walk back up to the top of the gorge after the fourth rap into the canyon. But once you commit from here there is no way back except following the falls all the way down the watercourse before gully that leads up to the saddle between Kanangra Walls and the look out..

Rap number 5 had two steps each about 20 meters high with a spacious ledge between - once again 60 meter doubles came in handy. A short 50 meter scramble (amazingly non of the distances between the falls is more than a couple of hundred meters long) and we arrived a a huge undercut boulder with the only tricky rap point from a lip into space. This rap number 6 could have been jumped if it were not for the huge submerged tree in the water. Rap number 7 was one of the highlights of the canyon - a huge overhanging waterfall traverse into a steep side gully full of vegetation.

But this was only the beginning. Rap number 8 went down a huge horizontal fall and ended in a massive emerald pool. Now things started the get a little exciting. Fall number 8 was split into two sections with a tiny platform some 10 meters above a deep water hole. The choice was ours to make - rap all the way or jump - we all jumped and the impact force tore the watch ofGary's wrist. After a couple of dive attempts into the bottomless pit we gave up and moved on the next rap or rather jump. This time we had to be careful since we could sew several boulders amidst the deep water. A five meter precision jump led us to the bottom of the last waterfall and a well deserved rest. And that is exactly when the thunderstorm struck. It was bucketing down in no time and lucky for us it only lasted about 30 minutes. According to the guide you walk about 30 minutes downstream and then follow the prominent gully out. This is quite accurate although the gully is quite wild and one most be patient to find it and not be tempted to try to conquer the tricky slopes too early. A steep and hard ascent leads to the saddle between Kanangra Walls and the car park. After an estimated climbing time of 90 minutes Gary was kind enough to burn the leeches of our feet with his car lighter. We arrived back at the car at 15:30 sharp after 8.5 hours of intense fun.

In his inimitable racing style Gary got us back two Katoomba in one piece and record time for coffee and food. This is one canyon which we will have to doagain some time.......

Roman 05 February 2007