CANYONING – SNOWY MOUNTAINS – EASTER (APRIL) 2001
Well, not really canyoning as such, no abseils and no constrictions but it is called Lady Northcote Canyon. Lady Northcote and Sirens Song, they sounded so benign but this turned into an adventure of epic proportions!Geoff S was to lead the walk over Easter, but when the time came he was unwell, so Marion and Ken R filled in as the leaders, no-one had done the trip before and it was a group of independent walkers so it was just a matter of knowing where to go when the time to take a change of direction came up and Marion and Ken both knew the area well.
Ten of us drove to Charlotte’s Pass on Friday morning after bulking up at Nugget’s Crossing bakery (and picking up gourmet sandwiches) and were off walking down the tourist track to Mueller’s Peak which is where we camped for the night. We did a side trip up Mount Townsend, just for the hell of it and then set up camp for the night. It was freezing cold and windy and we were high up with no protection, so it wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, Lindsay said the temperature dropped to zero overnight.
We got an early start next morning and set off at 8am, walking down untracked territory to Lake Albina. We found a route around the side of the lake and then were heading down the creek, or Lady Northcote’s Canyon. That was pretty much how we spent the rest of the day, rock hopping, sliding where necessary, going into the bush to avoid a drop that was too high (bush = horrendous scrub). It was tedious and the scenery wasn’t all that great (compared with Blue Mountains canyons) and it just went on, and on, and on without end. The only good thing in my opinion was that one of the group twisted his ankle which made him rather slow, this was good because it meant that someone was slower than me. Well, there were a few, but I could definitely see that he was slower, took the pressure off me!
At 4pm we reached the end of the creek/canyon and popped out onto an old fire trail, there is apparently a magnificent waterfall here, but we were all too tired to even take the time to look at it. This led us past the Opera House hut (it’s been said that it was built at great expense, the cost per square metre equalled the cost per sqm of the Sydney Opera House). We followed this fire trail all the way to the aqueduct arriving there around 4.30pm. The aqueduct is a 2.5k tunnel that takes water under the base of Watson’s Crags, 500m underground, over to the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme. It’s a huge concrete tunnel and we had to lift a lid and climb down the ladder into the darkness. Didn’t much matter how dark it was, by this time, it’s dark outside too. The only really good thing about the tunnel is that it was cold, too cold for snakes to be in it!
So, head torches on, I linked arms with someone else and we walked the 2.5k to the end. The water was only knee deep (or maybe less), but was freezing cold! We got to the end and climbed the ladder there and dropped down onto another fire trail.
We were stuffed, it was now dark and we just set up camp on the fire trail, thankfully, due to not being used much it was grassy. I’ve never been so pleased to crawl into a sleeping bag as I was that night, we were all in bed by 8pm!
BUT, the fun wasn’t over yet, we had to get back to the top, we had a chat next morning and decided that we’d go up Siren’s Song Creek (there were a couple of other choices, but Sirens Song sounded the best). Was it a mistake, or would all the other alternatives have been as bad, we’ll never know.
However, I can say about Sirens Song that it was really, really hard. We climbed over rocks, scrambled around water falls, bashed our way through scrub, blackberries and stinging nettles on the sides of the creek which were almost vertical, and it just kept going on and on and on! Pretty much a repeat of yesterday only going up not down. The creek then flattened out a bit but instead of rocks to scramble over there was waist high heath that we had to push through. It took us from 8am to 4pm to get to the top of the creek, 2k of walking and 600m of elevation. The grade then started to go up again, another 300m and it was agreed that instead of just blindly following the creek up, we’d go up vertically on the side and would pop out on Watson’s Crags. I took one look at the steepness of the hill we were to climb and Peter C says I cried, but I’m sure I didn’t, maybe I whinged or whined but I’m pretty sure I didn’t cry. So, up we went, it was tedious and I’d had enough so was very slow going.
Up we went through this horrible knee-high alpine scrub and rocks – it was definitely an advantage if you had long legs. Marion had chosen a really nice camp-site, somewhere near the head of W atson’ s Creek, plenty of water and nice alpine grass. At 6 pm when the sun was setting, I finally got to the camp-site, bedragged, exhausted and almost incoherent and crawled into the tent where I promptly collapsed. My walking partner had pitched the tent and I just crawled right into it, had something to eat and went to sleep. A 10 hour day!
Most of us walked out to Charlottes Pass first thing the next day (an easy 2 hour walk) but Lindsay, Marion and Ken made a side trip to Mt. Sentinel which they said was well worth the trip. It’s always satisfying to survive a Geoff S walk (even when he wasn’t there to experience it with us) and this one was no exception.
POSTSCRIPT: A couple of weeks have passed now and in hindsight it was a great adventure, thank you Marion for leading in Geoff’s place, it was a great walk.
Well Marilyn, I have just read your article of adventure frm Charlottes Pass to Siren Song Creek and the Tunnel. I would like to go there before I leave. I think that to walk from Geehi Dam, out along Verandah Camp track would be a much easier walk for. Should you have any thoughts regarding this softer version and maybe pics of the Tunnel and Creeks could maybe help me prepare. Thank you. Best regards Paul S.
Sorry Paul, I haven’t been in the area that you describe, so can’t offer any suggestions. Also didn’t carry a camera on those trips, so not much photographic evidence, however I can confirm that you can no longer go through the tunnel, apparently they’ve put locks on the entry/exit ladders, that will make things difficult. A lot of people though manage to get themselves on the right side of either Lady Northcote or Siren Song and just go up down. Good luck. M
I led a trek with high school students in December 1976 from Charlotte’s Pass down to the Opera House where it pored. I think we got all 12 students into this hut somehow and pitched a tarp in front of the door to accommodate the overflow. After encountering a few tiger snakes on the way down, I thought I might lose a few students if we returned the same way.
We were uncertain about the fire trail which came from “nowhere” and went “nowhere” and trekked out via Siren Song and Olsen’s Lookout and onto Alpine Way. After bunking in Geehi Hut, we returned to Keira H.S. just as end-of-year assembly concluded.
Wow, gone are the days when high school students could do such an adventurous trek! Nice to know that people have been doing this circuit for so long, I’m not sure how our leader found out about it, back in the days with no internet, it might have been word of mouth, possibly from someone who knew you (lol). Thanks for your comment, not sure how you found me but appreciate it!