The plan was to do a nice, easish, good quality and fun canyon. Tom Brennan had given it a 10/10 and Rick Jamieson's guide suggested that with a grade 2 that it should be easy. Well, maybe I should've read Tom's guide beforehand, especially the part that states "... not a good canyon for beginners".
Of course it didn't help that the 2013 October fires had turned the walk in to a rather scrappy affair - especially Little Bell Creek. Also, Bell Creek itself had a number of log jams which made blowing up lilos seem to be a pain so we didn't bother but the longish swims did get a bit tiring. The dark consticted canyon sections are superb, so whilst Bell Creek didn't float my boat, I think a return trip in couple of years when the vegetation is back and hopefully the log jams cleared a bit will be worthwhile.
However, we did get 4 canyons for the price of one - Little Bell, Belfry, Bell Creek and Joe's Canyons.
A nice easy relaxing canyon in the upper Wollangambe which is a perfect beginners canyon. The walk in and out is quite short - around 45mins, it has has a couple of good constricted canyon sections and a good amount of lazy liloing.
It could easily be done in a few hours, but if you take your time gently floating down the creek you can stretch it out to almost a full day.