What goes down, must come up

Our day began with a 6am departure from Sydney. We headed into the Blue Mountains, a trip that took about two hours. We were met by our friendly and capable canyoning guides from High N Wild. After a quick briefing on the day’s activities and wetsuit fitting it was back on the coach for a 40 minute ride to our starting destination. After the obligatory paperwork and lunch planning our three groups of ten headed down some fire roads which serve as trailheads for various activities; thus began our decent into the canyon. The trail was wide and the weather was mild. The sun began to peak out. “Piece of cake” we were all thinking.

And then we stopped in front of a sign that warned us of impending doom. Our guide referenced the sign and with a quick “alright then, off we go” we started down a narrow trail that seemed to get steeper with each step. Occasionally we would arrive at a clearing that was actually the top of a sheer cliff. We were reminded to stay at least two body lengths from the edge. “Not a problem” most of us thought. Our decent continued losing twelve inches of elevation with each step (which was more of a controlled fall at some points; teamwork is a good thing). Finally after hearing moving water for several minutes we arrived at a series of boulders that would be our “jumping off point” (literally) for our stroll through the canyon. We slipped into our wetsuits, harnesses, and helmets. Everyone took the 20ft plunge into the “refreshing” (re: cold) water. And off we went.

It is hard to describe this part of the experience. I imagine it’s very much what an ant experiences on a daily basis. We were surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs that often stretched hundreds of feet into the sky. We scurried over boulders the size of Mack trucks. We floated on our backs in slow moving pools for hundreds of yards. We marveled at how the lush green vegetation growing on the canyon walls contrasted with the clear blue sky and the occasional drifting cloud. We picnicked with water dragons that made it very clear who this real estate belonged to. The journeys into the side canyons were amazing. These were very narrow and dark sections of canyon with water temperatures much colder than the main canyon due to the lack of sunlight. Pictures can’t do this experience justice.

After several kilometers of canyoning it was time to make our assent out. As our guides told us “what goes down, must come up”. While the end of the canyon seemed to come rather quickly, it was a welcomed opportunity to thaw out for many (did I mention this water was “refreshing”?).

One of the side canyons

We removed our wetsuits and packed everything away in our trusty yellow backpacks and contemplated our assent out of the canyon. I say contemplated because it wasn’t always obvious there was a trail out of this place. It is safe to say that we are all now amateur rock climbers after the first 400 yards of this assent. Finally, things began to level out a bit. The trail became a bit more obvious and we all settled into a nice steady pace as we hiked out.

And then “they” found us. “They” were leaches. Our peaceful cool-down of a hike out was interrupted by hundreds of blood sucking leaches. While these things are harmless, it can be a bit unnerving to have them find their way into your shoes. Some students took time to stop and remove their leaches as they were accumulated only to find this simply provided a great opportunity for more leach friends to join the party. Others took this as an opportunity to quicken their pace out of the forest. Needless to say the sight of our coach was welcomed by many.

I think it is safe to say our students had a physically challenging and memorable learning experience yesterday. Aside from the outdoor experience we had an occasional math lesson that involved converting Fahrenheit into Celsius, meters into yards, kilometers into miles, etc. We also had the opportunity to learn yet more Australian culture from our guides. Gummy worms are lollis (as in lollipops). Our guides like to add “O” and “ie or y” to the end of words. Dave the guide was Daveo and sunglasses became sunnies. Other than some sore muscles (maybe that’s just Eric and me), a few bumps and bruises, and some chilly students everyone returned to Sydney safely.

Today is a free day for students to explore Sydney. Tomorrow is a travel day. We are keeping an eye on the rains and flooding up north. As of now we don’t expect any difficulties. We will have limited or no internet connectivity while we are at O’Reilly’s (http://www.oreillys.com.au/) for several days so the next blog post may be a bit delayed.

(if you click the smaller pictures you should get a larger view; some of them simply didn’t want to load in the larger size)