NEWNES VALLEY – April 4, 2022
An unpublished canyon and a great day out with a new MSS member, Onni, plus Jim C and John G – with a group like that it was bound to be loads of laughs. An easy day with some great abseils and a lovely section of rainforest, thanks Onni for taking us there!
This canyon got its name from all the native tobacco growing down in the creek (actually Plume Bush but some know it as native tobacco), and the canyon was originally called Wacky Backy (some vague reference to Weed), but I got the letters mixed up and called it Wrecky Decky when I published it in the MSS calendar – the name has stuck for me!
A perfect morning, walking along the river – water level was still a little high after all the rain (photo: Onni).
At the top of the cliff after a tedious never ending climb up – I think a few trips ago I said “that’s the last time I’m doing that climb”, and yet, here I am again! Looking out over the Valley (Photo: Onni)
John and Onni checking out a cave on the way in to see if it was suitable for camping – although not far enough away from civilization to be worthwhile.
Jim on the way down through some pagodas – best to do this on your bum than risk slipping!
John and Oni further down the pagoda.
Jim going down the same rock face that Onni and John had just descended.
Still going down towards the canyon, another scramble down.
Jim going down the slot, again, you could easily slip on the leaf litter.
And yet another slot to scramble down (Photo: Onni)
Onni at our first abseil – glorious day, life doesn’t get much better than this!
John on the first abseil – great drop.
John on our second abseil, another easy one which will take us down to the creek.
Jim on the ABseil.
Onni on the abseil.
And now we’re in the canyon – lovely rainforest – we’d bypassed the tobacco bush – not interesting enough for photos (lol)
More really beautiful rainforest.
The pagodas are closing in, forming the canyon.
Jim on a small climb down.
A bit of bridging to avoid a pool – I couldn’t manage that so just got wet!
John at the 3rd abseil.
Jim on the 3rd abseil.
John looking very serious on the 4th abseil.
This abseil was a lot of fun, you abseiled down to a pool and then traversed around the edge on the right, only getting waist deep, then you had to pull yourself out of the pool using some convenient tree roots, hoist yourself up onto the lip of the pool and abseil down! (photo: Onni)
Me in the pool trying to hoist myself up – was hard work but I managed it – what I didn’t do was tell Jim (who’s behind me), what you had to do – I was too focused on doing it myself that I forgot to tell him! Poor Jim just swam across the pool! (photo Onni).
Onni watching Jim – he’s actually taking a video!
John and Onni setting up the 5th abseil.
Took a while for John to decide how to go down this 5th abseil, bit of an overhang but he decided on the “sit down” method!
Me on the 6th Abseil. There was a small waterfall at the top, Onni “dammed” it up when I started the abseil and when I was around about here t the overhang, he let the water go (I’d encouraged him to do this – it’s a load of fun to drench the person on the abseil), sadly John wasn’t able to catch the moment that I went over the edge and a s*&*t load of water tumbled down on top of me! (Photo: John G)
Someone (who knows at this stage) on the 7th abseil – another great drop!
Onni on the 6th (or 7th abseil).
The 6th or 7th abseil, by now I’ve lost count!
The final abseil (maybe the 8th), who knows now, nice overhang though!
From the final abseil, it was then a matter of finding our way down from the cliff-face, not an easy task, lots of trip hazards, but we were down in 30 minutes and back at the cars in another 30 minutes – how cool is that.
What a great day out! Thank you so much Onni for showing us the way in to this little canyon – short but very sweet – and a big thank you to Jim and John for taking a day off work to do the canyon.
You never cease to amaze!!!! Beautiful scenery!!!!
I am on the North Shore. Lake Superior is wild today!
37 degrees with a windchill of 27 and foggy! Still loving it !!!!
Ohh, that looked like an awesome trip. Glad to see you made it out in the the daylight!
Yep, I was pleased to make it out in daylight too!