Cliffs and Waterfalls

It was a 2 hour road trip to get to the Blue Mountains. Pre-empting my usual car-coma, Matt asked me to make a play list for the journey. A clever tactic to keep me awake and it worked, although it meant I sang all the way there!
When we arrived we had to try on wetsuits, pick up a helmet and harness and pile into an old, rusty minibus. As our guide struggled to get the engine started, he assured us that riding in this van would be the most dangerous thing we do all day. I did not feel reassured!
At the first place we got to, we were only faced with a 5 metre cliff where we practised the skills. Even though it was tiny, it still felt quite high up at the top. We each had two turns at this and then moved on to the next cliff. This was a 30 metre drop and 10 times scarier. I made my way down pretty slowly

and felt a massive sense of relief when I got to the bottom... Until they said we were all going to abseil down it again! After this, we headed to the last cliff of the morning. At the edge of this cliff, we were 100 metres high but we were only going to abseil 30 metres down to a ledge. After the first 5 metres there was such a big overhang that we just had to lower ourselves down using the rope. As I gradually descended, my rope was slowly spinning round so I had an amazing view of the forest below and mountains all around. I thought it would be terrifying but it was actually my favourite abseil of the morning! The hardest part was trekking back up afterwards through the bush. We were all a bit out of breath when we got to the top - one person took such a deep breath in that he swallowed a fly!
After a picnic lunch, we had an afternoon of canyoning ahead of us. I didn't actually know what canyoning was when we booked the trip but it turns out it basically consists of clambering across rocks through a mountain stream

and jumping off ledges into rock pools. Awesome fun but super chilly! Finally we reached a waterfall - this would be the highlight of the whole day. We had to abseil down 30 metres with water rushing down like a power shower directed straight at your face! The cliff edge was really slippery so it was much more difficult to keep your footing. There was so much water in my face that I couldn't see at times so I just had to hope that I was putting my feet in the right places! This was by far the hardest to abseil down but also the coolest. When you got to the bottom you just plunged into a huge rock pool and finally relaxed knowing that you had survived a day of walking backwards off cliffs!
When we got back to the main office, we all sat down to have a drink and debrief on the whole day.
(I also think it's worth noting that I stayed awake the entire car journey home, despite all my natural instincts)