Canyoning at Bungonia

"CAUTION...Route may involve fording creek and will involve climbing over boulders."

This past weekend the outdoors club organized a three day canyoning trip. We had originally planned on going to the Blue Mountains but the forecast called for thunder showers so we adjusted the plan a little and headed two hours out of Canberra to Bungonia canyon. We left camp at 9:00am Saturday morning for our exciting excursion, not realizing what we were actually getting ourselves into.

Me and Jay Camp

Unfortunately, the weather was crap and the rain made everything so slippery and very difficult. The first abseil was a little nerve racking... especially when one of the leaders kept questioning whether she tied the ropes right or not... geeees.

The trip started out fun and exciting. But about two hours in it started to rain and walking along the rocks became very tricky. Dionne ended up taking a nasty spill and sprained her ankle. Plus, to make matters worse while we were eating lunch rocks started falling on us and one hit her right in the shoulder. At this point we all became more worried... The worst part is that Dionne had only one option... pain killers and continuing on. That girl is such a trooper!

Abseiling took longer than we had planned because of the rain and having so many people. But honestly, it was such an amazing experience. It was so incredibly scary stepping over that ledge...

Okay...don't look down...

Isn't that amazing...

"Look! Thats me!"

We abseiled down from the very top and had to swim across this lovely pool... Everytime we had to swim I thought about all the fun little creatures that where living in the water. And sure enough while I was standing at the edge of some rocks an eel swam by my foot... ha ha ha... After that I was so freaked out... It was like two feet long....

I went down that!

After the three abseils were done we had to hike out of the canyon... but unfortunately it started to get dark. Thats when I started to really think about my life and whether I had lived it to the fullest. I have never done anything so dangerous in my entire life. Luckily, some of us had torches (flashlights)... I had a reading light clipped onto my shirt that we shared between three people... haha... so ridiculous. The scariest part is that the only person that knew where he was going could only see five feet in front of him. It was terrible. Then after two hours of walking and swimming we saw the most beautiful thing... a piece of red tape. I think that I am in love with red tape! This amazing piece of tape marked the trail up and out of the canyon. Yes I said up... We had to walk/climb... in the dark.... 300m out of that stupid canyon.
I have never, ever been more afraid! I would look down and all I could see was darkness. One false step and you were kangaroo food.

After 15 hours we finally made it to the end... it was 12:09am and I was alive with only a few minor scrapes and bruises.

The next morning we went to the lookouts to see what we did...

This was where we hiked out...in the dark...

"Holy shit!" Thats was all we could say.

What an amazing experience.