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BLUE MOUNTAINS NP – 6 January 2026
The first canyon I did was in February 1997, Grand Canyon. I cannot count how many canyons I’ve done since. Thinking I should wind down, I shared with a friend, Andrew, that I’d always wanted to do Cesspit (more on the name later), but I wasn’t sure that I had it in me anymore. Andrew was very supportive and as it was still on my wish list, he made it happen.
You’re probably wondering why anyone would want to do a canyon called Cesspit. Add to that the description in the Jamieson book (what used to be our bible) “not a really great canyon” and it should be no surprise that I hadn’t done it in 29 years. Now that I’ve done it, I think that when the canyon was first done pre 1993, they did it during the epic drought that we had in the 90s and it was probably pretty stinky LOL, each time they trod in a pool with leaf little on the bottom horrible smells would rise to the top, hence the name..
Andrew, John, Onni, Trish and I met up at 8am at the Zig Zag railway and consolidated into 2 x 4WDs as we were pretty sure we’d need a 4WD to get to the start of our adventure. We arrived at the end of the Wollangambe Fire Trail at around 9.14 (and yes, we did need 4WDs).
Before we left, as we stood around looking at John G’s map, there was the suggestion that we check out 3 sections of canyon formation in the upper reaches of Cesspit (marked on John’s map). This section is rarely “done” and is about 500m upstream from where we’d normally drop in to the part of the canyon that most people do. My thought was that maybe this change would add on another hour or so, so no big deal. As it turned out, it added a lot more hours onto our trip than expected. Ah well!
Our team (Andrew, John G, Trish M and Onni) the obligatory “death photo” so that if something catastrophic happened, there was evidence that we were excited to go on the trip.
Setting off from the fire trail, we would go down to saddle and then up the other side to the hill you can see in the distance.
We had morning tea at the top of a pagoda at approximately 10.30. John and Andrew then decided on the best way forward. (Photo Onni)
Our route took advantage of the grassy meadows (for which I was truly grateful as the dense scrub was annoying).
It’s now time to start our descent to the creek.
Further down towards the creek. We were worried from time to time that we’d be “cliffed out” and have to find another route, but we needn’t have worried.
Down at the creek, where we organised our packs to waterproof what we didn’t want to get wet. Andrew found an enormous fallen tree that had this amazing beehive in the ruins of the tree. Beekeeper Andrew identified it as a European beehive.
Into the creek, a bit scrubby to start but we were soon in the first pool.
Which then turned into a swim for Trish and me (Trish did the whole trip without a wetsuit – hard core).
Not having suited up in their wetsuits, Andrew, John and Onni decided that walking along this ledge was a better idea than swimming the pool (looked dangerous to me).
Before long we were at a spot that was decidedly “Marilyn unfriendly”, so Andrew put a rope down for me and I tested it. Was a nasty start but much better to go down on a rope. (Onni)
As it was still awkward, they moved to rope to another spot and then everyone gracefully abseiled down to the pool, I on the other hand was ungraceful.
There were quite a few challenges, but at each one the guys ensured that I was able to manage the rock scrambles and not injure myself.
By now we’re blown away by how pretty the canyon is, yes, there were plenty of challenges but it was really lovely. (Onni)
Another rope needed to get down this big boulder safely. (Onni)
Another beautiful section, by now Andrew’s thinking he should put his wetsuit on (the water was cold). (Onni)
Wonderful pools and so dark! (Onni)
We had heard from John there was a “duck under”. Trish did the actual duck under, fortunately the rock flanned out so there was plenty of space below this part. I didn’t want to do the duck under so took my helmet off, Trish had pulled my pack through, and then I discovered that I didn’t have much flotation and it was really hard to stay afloat swimming! (Onni)
Ah, this was a touchy spot. Nasty jump in from the top, even further down it was Nasty. But it was really, really dangerous to get where Andrew was standing (Onni). I carefully climbed down to get to the ledge that Andrew was on (he was sitting down by then), and he persuaded me to hold his hand and step over, sitting down on the ledge and then I felt myself sliding down, panic sets in but he fortunately grabs me and stabilized me so I could slide off the ledge into the pool (very scary).
The next person who launched themselves from the ledge on the right did it a lot more confidently that I did (photo Onni).
Further downstream (Onni).
Now in “Cesspit itself” and OMG how stunning is this! (Onni)
One of two “caves” that we found, they definitely had a dark zone, and we had to swim in it. (Photo: John G).
Really nice canyon formations – imagine how this was created with water eroding the walls, hard to imagine isn’t it? (Onni)
What we all neglected to do was photograph the log jams that we had negotiate our ways through, at least six log jams! The log jams were often 2 – 3m from beginning to end and at least 3m high. Was challenging to make your way through a log jam, negotiating past the unstable logs, finding hand holds that didn’t move. If an unstable log moved, you could easily fall through 2m of logs – and that would be hard to come back from!!!
We’ve come to the end of Cesspit and made our way into Dumbano Creek, the creek widens and the number of log jams have reduced, and we’re mostly in creek with nice sandy base, very close to where we would exit (Onni).
We arrived at the “exit” climb at 4.15pm, we were at the exit of Good Tunnel Canyon and everyone (other than me) went up to explore the canyon and get some uncontaminated water (we’d passed a dead kangaroo 1 or 2 hours upstream).
By 5pm we were climbing the easy route out of the creek (Andrew put a handline down as it was quite steep in places). I got to the top and did a “step of faith” across a small gap – was tired and had used up most of my adrenalin but Andrew pulled me across and with just that one step, we were onto a great route out of the canyon (by about 5.30pm).
We had about 4.5k of off-track walking to get back to the cars. We must have been walking really slowly as it took us almost 3 hours – I know I was slow, and Trish was struggling with a lot of foot/pain.
But we made it, the end of the adventure, right on sunset (as you can see by the light), we made it!!! (Onni)
Despite arriving back at the Zig Zag Railway, Trish and I decided to drive back to the Central Coast (another 2.5 – 3 hours), thank you Trish for driving all the way!!!
What an adventure, thank you so, so much for putting the trip on for me Andrew, and to Onni and John for being so kind carrying my wetsuit (very heavy) and my abseil gear (also heavy) out for me. If I had had to carry that heavy gear, we might have still be walking at midnight!!!
It was a great trip, the scenery was stunning, we did parts of Cesspit that others don’t usually do, and I finished thinking that maybe, just maybe my canyoning days weren’t over.
M, you truely are remarkable! what a legend. That sounds like a huge day!!!! I would have struggled with this at 21yrs old. 12 hrs of walking and a canyon…. then 3 hrs of travel!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing this canyon trip, it looked so beautiful. I feel sad for the authors of the book. Their timing ( going when it was dry) meant they missed out on a truely spectacular canyon.
Thanks Jenny, yep, there have been a few 11 hour days in my bushwalking/canyoning – where I am getting slower up the hills, my endurance seems to be holding out!