Julie Honey – where are you?

DIONE DELL – APRIL 2016
Dione Dell is one of those multi pitch trips that just doesn’t get the attention that it deserves.  Sort of the NZ bridesmaid to Kanangra Main, Danae and Carra Beanga (for those who remember Dame Edna), but it’s really pretty, not the epic trip that the other Kanangra trips are, just a good, fun day out.  Julie B had organised the trip after she’d met a Queenslander in the camping area at Newnes, a week earlier … she’s so passionate about canyoning, she just loves to take people out and share the love.  So, Ray was all set to go on his first Blue Mountains canyoning trip to Dione Dell and Aine & Colin G and I were going along just for the fun of it.  Whilst not a big adventure for us, it would definitely be a peak experience for Ray, or at least we hoped so.  Then in the end Julie was sick and it was just the four of us, throughout the whole trip we were all saying “Julie would have loved this!”.

Colin & I hadn’t been in Dione Dell for many, many years, and it was the first time for Aine.  It’s a pretty cool trip, you can either do it as a bushwalk, scrambling down an easy route and staying dry, or, use a route further to the left (facing downstream) and do it as a dry multi pitch abseil, or move even further to the left and do it as a wet multi pitch trip in the summer, taking advantage of the waterfalls and pools to cool off in.

It was a misty morning with the possibility of a shower but that wouldn’t be a problem, so we started off and found the start fairly easily, although the track off the fire trail isn’t as well marked as I remembered it (cairn has gone), but once through the apron of scrub, the track was well defined, all the way down to the creek.  We followed the creek for a while, then it disappeared, so we just blundered through the bush.  After a while we checked where we were, we didn’t want to be too low missing the first abseil, but we didn’t want to be too high either.  We sat down and checked maps, even Ray who was the novice of the group.  On the right track so off we went and eventually traversed around to the first pitch at the junction of our side creek and Christies Creek.

We suited up, reminded Ray about how to abseil (he’d done it before but way, way in the past), and Aine set the ropes and headed down.  It took a long time because the ropes we caught in trees, scrub, and bushes and needed to be re-deployed time and time again, this was to be a feature of the trip, Aine and I took turns going first because getting the ropes down in a nice tidy manner just wasn’t an option on this trip, too many trees!

There were many waterfalls, and about four abseils.  There were quite a few pools that we had to skirt around, and yes, we could have gotten wet, but half the fun of a trip like this is trying to keep your feet dry.

There was one compulsory wet foot section, and I wasn’t too keen about this part because it’s where I came across a red bellied black snake 8 years ago, it went into the pool and we didn’t have a clue where it was (as most people know I have a pathological fear of snakes!).

More waterfalls, abseils  and pools …

   And finally we were at the end of the road, the spectacular Margaret Falls, 100+m down (we didn’t have enough rope!).  From there it was a simple walk out, up a spur and then Wallaby Pass to the plateau.  Colin and Aine showed us Uranus Grotto, I’m sure I’d passed this back in 2008 but don’t remember it at all!

Exiting from Wallaby Pass was an adventure, it wasn’t absolutely clear where the track went, well if it was we missed it and ended up in thick banksia which we almost had to crawl under.  Eventually we got onto the “right” track and were up the top, although there were many “tracks” which all seemed to disappear in a boggy section, but, all part of the adventure.  We got back to the cars around 5pm, exchanged email addresses with Ray so we could catch up with him when he was next down here, thanks for organising a great trip Julie, hope you’re feeling better!