Kanangra

Use these descriptions at your own risk. You are responsible for your and your party's safety.
Kanangra Canyons can be divided into two distinct groups:
- Those flowing eastward into Kanangra Creek. These drop down a steep escarpment.
- Those flowing westward into the Kowmung. These are gentle and relatively easy.
There are six canyons leading into Kanangra Creek. These canyons are very different from Blue Mountains canyons. Overall, they are bigger and harder
- Much more vertical. Abseils are long, with most canyons containing some 60m drops
- Many abseils, typically 10-15
- Steep trackless walkouts, of 600m or more altitude gain
- Some have challenging navigation for the walk in and exit
- Loose rock, loose slopes underfoot, and scratchy prickly bush
- Remote
- Long days, commonly 8-12 hours
By the writer's judging of order of difficulty of the east-flowing canyons:
- Kalang Falls
- Kanangra Main
- Danae Brook
- Davies (usually overnight)
- Thurat Rift (usually overnight)
- Carrabeanga (overnight)
Some recommendations for those new to Kanangra:
- Become familiar with Kanangra conditions. They are very different from the Blue Mountains
- Do the easier canyons first on the western side. Do not go straight to the hardest.
- Use single-rope techniques, setting the rope length for each drop. This is much faster than lobbing your 60m rope down a short drop. Use a descender that is smooth and provides enough resistance for your single rope.
- Use a rope bag and your rucksack for rope management. Do not lob your 60m down the cliff; it will get snagged and waste your time. Learn to stuff a rope into the rope bag and/or your rucksack, not coil it after every drop.
A note for visiting foreign canyoners: Most Kanangra canyons are v4a2 to v4a4. The ropework is not difficult, it's that the abseils are long. The aquatic rating depends very much on current water flows. The water is not particularly cold. Navigation and the conditions for the walk-in/out are probably much harder and the walks much longer and more vertical than you are used to. The anchors in some of the lesser travelled canyons may be very much poorer than you may be used to. A good suggestion is to post on the "Australian Canyoners" Facebook group for local canyoners to take you on a trip. If you do one Kanangra canyon, it has to be Kanangra Main v4a2/4 (depending on rain); it's nice and sporty and vertical, with minimal walking to the canyon and between abseils (but a steep walk out).