What Sunscreen to Wear Canyoning?

And other tips to keep the Blue Mountains pristine.

There are no coral reefs in the Blue Mountains, yet the Mountain wilds are home to countless vulnerable plants and animals. Canyons are like tiny special ecosystems, themselves within small islands of temperate rainforest, dominated by towering coachwoods, ferns and mosses. Deep in the canyons light levels are often so low that of the plant kingdom only the ferns, mosses and liverworts survive.

Rocky Creek Canyon is home to the endangered moss Calomnion complanatum that is found growing on the trunks of tree ferns.

Canyons are home to fish, snakes, frogs, eels and crayfish. Euastacus australasiensis, the Sydney Crayfish is often easily spotted in Greaves creek while walking the Grand Canyon track in Blackheath. The swampy burrows of this crayfish, have been observed to provide safe haven from fire and predation for the endangered Blue Mountain’s Water Skink Eulamprus leuraensis.

Once a group of canyoners even encountered a Koala in Rocky Creek Canyon.

Many species no-doubt persist undiscovered in canyons.

Did you know certain sunscreens are toxic to the vulnerable wildlife of the Blue Mountains?

Perhaps you’ve read that some sunscreens can damage marine life?

Canyoning often plunges you into cool pools of water and so the sunscreen you wear on a day out adventuring is important. The canyons themselves are of course incredibly special environments, but the water in turn flows (often down spectacular waterfalls) into streams and rivers, and seeps into the sandstone cliffs and hanging swamps, and so this point of contact has downstream affects as well. It has been estimated that

Chemical UV filters have been shown to bioaccumulate in various aquatic animals including arthropods (crayfish are arthropods). Chemical sunscreens containing Oxybenzone Benzophenone-1, Benzophenone-8, PABA, 4-Methylbenzylidene camphor, 3-Benzylidene camphor and even physical sunscreen with nano particles of Titanium dioxide or nano-Zinc oxide have been shown to be harmful to marine organisms. Luckily healthier for the environment also means healthier for us too, and avoiding these chemicals is a no-brainer now that effective reef safe sun blocks are widely available.

What sunscreen to wear canyoning

Effective sun protection is especially important doing outdoor actives in the Blue Mountains as the higher elevation, means less atmosphere to filter out UV rays and corresponds to a 10-12% higher UV intensity compared to sea level.

At Roam we love to use Sunbutter, because as well as providing great, sun protection, and being reef safe and non-toxic (using non-nano Zinc), their tins are plastic free! The coconut oil formulation also helps protect against windburn which is especially useful when out on exposed cliffs. But any reef safe sunscreen (such as Little Urchin, or Wot-Not) without nano particles is perfect.

Have you ever noticed after a long weekend that spots along the Grand Canyon smell like a open sewer?

Well we have. Unfortunately.

Of course it is wonderful that so many people are out enjoying such a spectacular walk but we wish that people venturing into National Parks or any bushland would try to leave it as they find it. All of our activities have an impact, however there are many easily preventable harms.

Here are our no-nonsense tips for helping minimise your impact on these wild places.

1. Toilet before-hand.

   If you are heading out to a canyon or bush walk, have a pit-stop at a town before hand. There are public toilets on the main streets of Katoomba, Blackheath and Wentworth Falls. Leura has public toilets near Woolies. Mount Wilson has toilets near the RFS station.

   Not every car park near a bushwalking or canyoning spot has a toilet. At Grand Canyon there are three car parks, two of which have toilets.

   There are public toilets at the Conservation Hut, Wentworth Falls.

2. Pack a folding trowel and some toilet paper incase you have ‘to go’.

3. Toilet away from watercourses. Toilet before you reach a canyon if possible. Use the trowel to dig a deep hole (approx 20cm), do your business in the hole. Don’t miss the hole! NB> Do not use the trowel to handle any waste, you have to carry it back.

4. Pack a ‘Wag Bag’ - a go anywhere kit. You need this in a canyon because you can not dig a hole in the solid stone of a canyon. A Wag Bag is also an important part of your first aid/emergency kit. If someone is injured and cannot move they may need to go to the toilet in situ, while you wait for rescue. I advise before you apply space blankets, heat wraps etc. it is worth asking the injured person if they need to go to the bathroom, so they are as comfortable as possible and you do not have to repeatedly remove and reapply their wraps. With your Wag Bag you need to pack two to three XL ziplock bags to double bag a used Wag Bag to carry out the waste in your pack.

So if you are swimming in any of the Blue Mountains natural bodies of water or canyoning, please choose reef safe sunscreen, and take your waste out with you. The endangered Blue Mountain’s Water Skink, and the adventurers that come after you will thank you.