Banks Canyon JAN 2018 - MSS Trip

Anna coming down the Hole in the Wall exit track, which is the entry point to the canyons on the other side of Dingo Creek (North Bungleboori).

Rod Smith wondering if we would let him relax on the rock for a few hours while the rest of us went off to do the canyon...

Michael watching Anna climb up a tricky little rockfall that we probably didn't need to climb...

Michael Sliwka looking back toward the point where Hole in the Wall canyon enters Dingo Creek. By this time we knew we had missed the usual entry track to Banks Canyon, and needed to do some bush bashing.

Looking east toward Banks Canyon.

We picked a likely looking gully and dropped into it to get out of the heat on the ridge... and we found our canyon!

Looking upstream from where we abseiled in - this was an encouraging sight.

Making our way downstream and wondering how much of the canyon we'd actually missed.

As it turned out, we didn't miss much of the canyon at all. It just got narrower and darker from here.

Anna on the first of the abseils in the canyon itself.

The landing point below one abseil was in the pitch dark. Rod finally emerges from the gloom, carrying the end of the rope. The water was so cold that even he wasn't going to sit around in the pool at the bottom of the abseil and coil it up.

This was snake 2 out of 3 - identifying this one required a quick web search after returning home - it looks to be a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake, as they sometimes have stripes and a dark band at the nape of the neck. And here I was thinking "it can't be a Brown snake, it has stripes..."

We walked gingerly around the potential reptile of death and continued down the canyon. The snake had plenty of places it could have made an exit from where it was; we felt fairly confident it could rescue itself.

Rod surveying his domain.

Michael at the start of a neat 12m drop into a dark hole.

Anna was not looking forward to landing in yet another deep pool of ice cold water. This canyon was cold!!!

Rod expertly staying dry as he unclips from the abseil and prepares to pull down the rope.

The end of the canyon!

Banks Canyon where it enters Dingo Creek (North Bungleboori). We swam back up to the Hole in the Wall exit track and then walked a couple of hours back down the (closed) fire trail to our camp.