On a cold, wintery day in July  Tracey took a group of people to Castle Gorge to do a bit of abseiling.   We made our way to the waterfall where our able leader Neil, assisted by Sharifa,  set the ropes up across the gorge.  Each of us donned a harness, and hauled ourselves across from one side of the gorge to the other. 

 

Gail went across first, and once on the other side helped everyone else to scramble up the rocks.  It was hard work -  most people battled to hoist themselves up as there were no footholds at all.

 

Tracey in action

Once we had all made our way across the gorge, Neil and Sharifa set up a vertical drop for us,  and we were airborne, down to a ledge,  'walking' down a sheer rock face,  and then, nothing  - just dangling in mid air,  a good few metres above the ground.  Quite an experience.  Neil followed us down at last,  and he made it look so easy!  

It was beginning to get dark as we made our way up to the waterfall again to fetch our backpacks.  We walked down the mountain in the dark,  using the light from our cellphones to guide us.  A long, but exhilarating day. 

Thank you Tracey for organising the outing,  and thank you to Neil,  Sharifa,  Gail and Jenny (who tied umpteen  knots to harnesses)  for all their hard work.