Heart of the Nation: Kanangra-Boyd National Park

IT takes about a dozen abseils to reach the bottom of Kanangra Main, the showpiece canyon inKanangra-Boyd National Park, west of Sydney.

IT takes about a dozen abseils to reach the bottom of Kanangra Main, the showpiece canyon in the heart of Kanangra-Boyd National Park, west of Sydney.

Stuart Young is pictured on one of the trickier ones, carefully descending the rope while feeling for footholds on the slippery rock. Things got even more interesting when his friend Andrew Baker, who'd gone down first, started yelling at him to stay still for a photo. "I was getting pummelled by freezing water," recalls Young. "After a while he even shouted at me to stop shivering because it would ruin his shot!"

This was the pair's first trip to Kanangra-Boyd, after cutting their teeth on the slot canyons of the Blue Mountains. They weren't disappointed. "It felt like we were going back in time," says Young, 31, of the nine-hour descent through the primeval landscape of waterfalls, forest and cliffs. "You almost expected dinosaurs to walk out."

The pair met as students at the University of Technology, Sydney, where they first discovered the thrill of canyoning. "It's about being out there in nature, and also the physical challenge - it's harder than just going for a bushwalk, there's that little bit of an adrenalin edge to it," says Young, who lives in Darwin and works as a field biologist, examining the impact of feral cats on native animals. "You're also aware that not many people have been through places like this. It's a beautiful way to spend a weekend."

After descending into the depths of Kanangra Main, the only way out is up. It's a steep, exhausting climb with backpacks weighed down with a wet rope, harnesses, wetsuits and other gear. "The exit route is called Murdering Gully," Young says. "It's an apt name; it tells you all you need to know."