Once you start canyoning in the Blue Mountains, Kanangra becomes the next biggest challenge. Canyoning in Kanangra National Park almost becomes a right of passage, once you have canyoned there, are you officially a canyoner?!
A club trip opened up with the Metropolitan Speleological Society, which I had joined earlier that year, for a trip through Dione Dell Canyon – Sign me UP!
The canyons in Kanangra National Park are known for their difficulty, huge abseils, massive exit hikes, sharp rocks and long days. Dione Dell is the best beginner Kanangra canyon, as it is much shorter than the others (about 4 hours) but exposes you to the typical Kanangra terrain.
The canyons out here are very different to the main part of the Blue Mountains, cosy slot canyons are exchanged for massive, open, constant, exposed waterfall drops.
Unfortunately the downside of canyoning with club groups is they are usually quite slow, typically due to the size, ability and experience of the groups. In my experience, they are usually quite large groups with 1 or 2 experienced canyoners, and the rest usually at beginner level. Which means this 4 hour canyon ended up taking… 8 hours.
Some beautiful waterfalls to abseil, so not much to complain about!
For the first time on this trip I experienced my first ever ‘oh shit this rope isn’t going to reach’ moment. The trip leader who set up the abseil hadn’t used the correct rope length, and I was the guinea pig who went first.
Lucky for me I had noticed before I found myself in too much trouble, I was able to stop on a safe enough rock ledge, signal to the canyoners above that I needed more rope, and was able to patiently wait until they pulled up the rope I had abseiled on and sent down the correct length!
Make sure to remember your whistle signals when canyoning, you will need them!
All in all, a pretty good day.
Rachmartee 
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