Canyoning, Bush hikes, Parents & Parrots

We're about to enter into our last month in Australia, how crazy! For the next two weeks we're finishing off training with a canoe trip, caving and a fair bit of theory; followed by two weeks of site tours.

About to start our epic canyoning adventure!

The last couple weeks since we last wrote have been adventure filled, I'll start with canyoning. Though Sam has done a bit before, it was my first time. We headed to the Blue Mountains with our friends (& trainers) from work Jemma & Deaco, to do the big Butterbox Canyon. Jem & Deaco are quite experienced canyoners, though this was the first for either of them in Butterbox Canyon.

Down into the dark

The day consisted of abseiling our way down and through the canyon & through many waterfalls, jumping and swimming through pools and a fair bit of scrambling. It was incredible! Our abseiling skills were put to the test, as well as our nerves on a few occasions. The scariest part of the day for me (Katie) was after abseiling halfway down a 50m descent. We had to abseil further, underneath a large boulder wedged in the canyon, down a waterfall, forward a couple metres through a pool, and then out down the remainder of the descent over another waterfall. Finishing the descent by jumping in a very cold pool and swimming about 10m to the next bit of rock. I was pretty nervous abseiling into the dark down the waterfall, especially as nobody can see you once you begin. After doing the first section, the pressure of the falling water wedged me between two rocks of which i needed to climb through to get out. I panicked a bit and shouted out to the others that I was stuck, who thankfully could just hear me over the noise of the water. It wasn't a nice moment as they couldn't see me and therefore didn't know how much trouble I was in. After a quick prayer and some determination I managed to push myself free and head down the rest of the waterfall. Sam was last to come down and managed it well, and we were so relieved to see each other safe at the bottom! It had been horrible for Sam not knowing how stuck I was, and to do a rescue in that spot was not simple. Thankfully I wasn't directly under the fall when I was stuck which saved me from getting too cold. Some of the pools were so deep, filled with very cold water in the shadows on the canyon. We saw some incredible views of the rock, and at times couldn't see the bottom or the top!


We had a couple set-backs during the day which meant we reached the exit of the canyon a fair bit later than planned. We put on our warm dry clothes, downed some food, and started our hike out and up the cliffs. Sadly the 'easily identifiable path' wasn't that easy to identify, so we bush-bashed our way in the right direction as night fell. On went the head-torches and we continued to scramble upwards, until finally we spotted a small arrow scratched into the rock confirming our correct direction. It was such a relief! It reminded me of Psalm 139 where it says 'to you God, the night shines as bright as day'. It brought me such comfort to remember that God knew exactly where we were and how close we were to safety, even when we don't. He guided us onto the right path that continued onto a ledge (100m up) where we knew there was a 10m lead climb to be done. We found the bolts and headed up one at a time with just our head-torches for light. Knowing we were 100m up the cliff doing a difficult climb was pretty scary, but thankfully the darkness concealed how exposed we were, and actually made it alot easier than it might have been in the day! What amazed me is that I experienced such an incredible peace & calmness during the hike out. I would have usually been more worried & upset, but God just filled me with an incredible peace and trust in him, as well as joy! I felt him with us every single step of the way. There was then still some scrambling and hiking to do, before we finally made it back to the car - 3 hours after we'd exited the canyon. God rewarded us with the most spectacular sky of stars we have ever seen! There are no lights for miles, it was a perfectly clear night, and every inch of sky over the Blue Mountains was absolutely breath-taking! What an adventure!

After a short weekend of resting & recovering, we got ready for our last training bush hike - 4 days doing Kanangra to Katoomba, back in the Blue Mountains. Sam's parents Gill & Graham flew in on Monday for a 2 week visit, and we were thankful to have an hour with them that morning before we headed off for our hike! It was so so nice to see them again. So we said hello & goodbye, and left them in our little home in the national park, where they had a lovely few days exploring the area & the sites of Sydney.

Ready to start at Kanangra walls (behind) with Mt Cloudmaker behind on the far left - this is where we hiked the first day

Our hike took us through some beautiful parts of the Blue Mountains, and on the first day Sam navigated us really well and we followed a long ridge, climbed up & down Mt Stormbreaker, and then up & down Mt Cloudmaker - the highest of all the mountains there! We found the clouds where they were made (heh heh) and from then on, the rain barely stopped until the end of the next day! We camped near a creek where it rained all night long. Heavy rain was forecast all the next day and we knew the next cave (dry spot) wasn't till the 3rd night. We made a call to do the next 2 days walk in one, so we could reach the cave that night, to garrentee we could get somewhere out of the rain to dry off and warm up! We started early, ploughed up and along Mt Strongleg and down it's steep ridge, crossed 3 rivers, and made it to that original night's destination by 11am! We'd made good progress, but the second leg got a lot tougher with many ascents. I was so exhausted half way up and my face got so hot that I nearly fainted. I was really struggling and had reached my limit. The team were awesome, fed me sugar, and divided some of my load between them! I felt so much better, headed on, and then suddenly out of the mist two beautiful black, red-tipped cockatoos flew right past me! They're very rare and I knew instantly it was a personal gift from God, reminding me he was there. Sam told me later he'd asked God to give me something, knowing that only He could really lift my spirits. Hallelujah!
We were all completely saturated and didn't stop for lunch, but only took short breaks for snacks, and to rid ourselves of leeches. We finally reached our cave at about 4.30pm. It was soooo good to finally get out of the rain! Jemma somehow made an awesome fire with wet wood and we soon got dry, warm, fed, and had quite a good nights sleep. Thankfully the last day was dry and sunny. It was still quite a long day, that finished in the green gully - a beautiful clearing in the mountains that was filled with kangaroos and wallabies! They hung around to watch us de-brief and eat, it was a great ending.

Australian King Parrot

It was wonderful to come home to Gill & Graham who had enjoyed a nice few days. We spent the weekend showing them around some of our favourite local places & beaches, eating lovely meals, and visiting Hillsong church in the city. From there we headed up to Waggstaffe for the week - an absolutely beautiful holiday home belonging to some good friends of ours. One day G&G visited some wineries, whilst Sam & I got the ferry to Palm Beach (otherwise known as
Summer Bay - where Home & Away is filmed). We're not the biggest fans of H&A so we didn't recognise much, but it is by far one of the most beautiful beaches we've seen yet! Sam had the surf to himself, and I sat and did some sketching. Another highlight of the week happened whilst sitting out together on the balcony, two wild parrots came and hung out with us! They came so close, and even ate out of my hand once.

Tomorrow we're heading out on a self-guided two day canoe trip, then next week we'll have a couple days of caving training. In-between we'll be finishing off some theory & assessments, before finishing May with a 2 week site tour of various other local outdoor centres.

As the end draws nearer we're really looking forward to starting our life in Chester and seeing what God has in store for us. We're also becoming increasingly aware of how hard it will be when we leave, saying goodbye to so many special people who have made such an impact on our lives! We're going to miss them very much.

Much love from us both xx