Rockin’ Rainin’ and Rollin’ On ...

After an extended stay at Natimuk Lake - most nights there on our own - we have hit the road. The fact that the lake was closed to shooting this year ...

... made it really easy to stay on longer. Here’s the story of the past ten days or so.

Rockin'

Following our previous post we got in five terrific days of climbing out of six.  Sublime autumn weather in the Wimmera, with high teens to low twenties and almost no wind. After the first three days Di demanded a rest - and I was secretly glad. Actually, the last of those terrific five days of climbing on immaculate Arapiles rock was actually quite cool, although with no wind. We felt like we were really starting to hit our straps but were both getting quite tired and resolved to take a  good two day break. We had a special project in the Grampians in mind to finish our climbing in Victoria before heading further west.

Here’s a couple of photos from Brolga, one of the moderate three star classics on the Right Watchtower Face that we did in that stretch of fine weather. Di took these from the top of the second pitch, which had been a bit of a nemesis for her. She’s done lots of much harder leads than this one but for some reason had never actually led this pitch.

Taken from the second belay. Below, a climber is a nearing the top of the first pitch

Immaculate rock on the Right Watchtower Face

The next photo was taken at the base of Transatlantic Crossing, a great route on the front of the Pharos, especially if you manage your ropes well and lead the whole climb as one pitch, which is exactly what Di managed on the day. She took this snap as we were packing up to move on to another climb. You might notice the great looking T-shirt that I’m wearing, bought at the Vancouver Airport a couple of years ago. It’s actually my pyjama top, which I forgot to change out of before going to the crag. Just a bit embarrassing when Di pointed it out to me ...

At the base of Transatlantic Crossing, wearing my trans-Pacific pyjama top

On the last of those five days of climbing we only managed two pitches. Di led an easy but wonderful three star route to get us up to the ledge below Red Wall, which is the location of a handful of absolute gems. I wanted to enjoy again one of the mid-grade classics of the whole crag, a route called Tannin. I got up it fine, and enjoyed it, but was a bit bemused to discover how weak and tired I felt by the time I finished the lead. We both decided an early -well very early - finish was in order, and that the next day would definitely be a rest day no matter the temptation to get back on rock.

On the way back to camp we stopped off at the Arapiles Mountain Shop. I needed to buy a new nut key, as it had become increasingly difficult to extract small wires in particular with my worn out old Chouinard nut tool as its pecker has gradually worn away and now there is only a rounded surface that slips off stubborn placements ...

My poor, old, emasculated Chouinard nut key

I’d owned it for perhaps 30 years and was very reluctant to part with a tool that had served me for so long and that I’d found worked particularly well. But it just wasn’t up to the task anymore. While it still had its hook, no pecker is no fun. I went into the shop with the intention of getting the same product - now Black Diamond of course - but found that I just didn’t like what they’d done to the shape of the "younger generation" just to shave a few grams of weight. It was also very unergonomic and didn't feel good in the hand at all. The folks at Outdoor Gear Lab rated it as the worst performer of the three they tested. Here's what it looks like:

Great pecker, woeful ergonomics

After a brief confab with the lass behind the counter I opted instead for the Wild Country Pro Key (pretty fancy title, if you ask me) which felt much nicer in the hand:

Comfortable to use, not such a good pecker though

Wild Country have had the vision to add a folded section of metal to the handle, which makes it much more comfort if you've got to pound on it. (An interesting aside on language use here: the Poms use the term "Nut Key" - which us Downunders have inherited from our Anglo connections - to describe this sort of object. The Americanos use the term "Nut Tool". I'll leave that aside dangling ...)  A last note about Nut Keys/Tools for those reading this blog who aren't climbers: the hook at the business end is for persuading Friends - and other SLCD's - which have walked themselves deeper into cracks to come out.

After lunch back at the camper it had actually warmed up a bit outside so we took a couple of coldies over to a picnic bench overlooking the lake. One of the residents came by to say hello while we were there ...

Not the picture of sartorial splendour

We think this magpie might be a moulting juvenile growing into his new feathers. In the meantime he looks quite comical.

Throughout our stay at the Natimuk Lake Caravan Park we enjoyed regular visits from Willy Wagtails and lots of Superb Wrens. Di took this photo of a wren a couple of days ago.

Superb Blue Wren - juvenile perhaps?

They seemed to like playing around the camper; the Willy Wagtails even hopping about on top of the canopy quite often. 

Rainin'

As it turned out, our decision to have a rest was taken out of our hands with the rain starting about midnight and continuing steadily for about twelve hours, and the odd shower  into mid afternoon. It was so heavy and steady we didn't budge out of the camper pretty much all morning. I did lots of reading and catching up with postcards. Di got her best whistle out and entertained me with a couple of tunes ...

... and another that is a special favourite ...

The rain has brought more birds back to the lake. We were especially delighted to see the return of at least a few Red-rumped parrots (link back to post from last year). This pair were feeding just near our camper ...

Red-rumped Parrots

Although this next photo isn’t quite as sharp as we’d like, I love the way it illustrates the wonderful pattern and variety of feathers ...

Fine-feathered architecture?

The next morning we spotted a wonderful rainbow over towards Mt Arapiles and Di took this photo (if you look closely you might be able to pick out the faint second rainbow to right) ...

Although you can't see it, Mt Arapiles is right under the arch of the rainbow

Unfortunately, amongst this period of recovery our fridge decided to take a holiday, which was a complete downer. After four weeks or so of faultless performance, it had seduced us into buying a bit of meat to go in the freezer, along with some ice cream. We tried a few tricks to get it going again but it wasn’t interested. I spent a good part of the afternoon preparing cooked meals, to go into the car fridge, with some of the meat. That night we also had a wonderful roast of pork, done in our little mini Weber barbecue. 

After a two and a half days of rest we were raring to get back on to rock. To finish off our stay in style we wanted to go do a climb at Mt Rosea in the Grampians, where we’d been a couple of times before. The climb we had in mind is called The Last Rites, a four pitch route that is renowned for its quality. On our first visit to Mt Rosea we'd gone to do that climb but a party was on it when we arrived so we did Heretic (visit link to see a photo of Di from that trip) instead. 

It’s a bit of a drive from Natimuk to Rosea and the cliff gets morning sun, so we planned an early start. The forecast was promising: not particularly warm but mostly sunny with almost no wind - ostensibly perfect climbing conditions. We did make an early start but were nonplussed by the thick blanket of cloud completely covering the sky as we drove southeast. And the thermometer didn’t want to budge above 4 degrees. To be fair, it did reach 5 degrees by the time we got to the Rosea car park. 

We decided to walk up to the base of the crag without our packs to see if the rock was dry and to give the sun a chance to show its face. The rock was dry so we wandered about the base and spent some time studying the line we wanted to do, hoping things would warm up a little. No such luck. We walked back to the car, hung around a little longer but decided it wasn’t going to warm up and made the decision to go and have a look at the nearby crag of Bundaleer, which we’d never visited. As it was still cool when we arrived at the carpark for that cliff we decided not to take our packs up but just take a look. What a place! We’ve definitely put it on our agenda for our next visit to the mainland, and have resolved to go to the Grampians before Arapiles so we don’t get gazumped by the weather next time. Here are two delicious reasons why we want to climb at Bundaleer:

Gerontian is a three star, three pitch route ...

Gerontian

... and Blimp is one of the great mid-grade icons of Victorian climbing ...

The Incomparable BLIMP!

As an aside, a great thing about Bundaleer is that it’s only an easy 10 minute walk from the car park. A short hike to the crag is always appealing ...

We spent about an hour and a half poking around the base of the crag ogling the rock. Just before we left a couple of guys named Scott and Chook arrived. They were going to have a warm-up and then try one of the (much) harder classics of the crag, a grade 28 called Touchstone Pictures, which is on the wall to the right of Blimp. After a chat we them we headed down to the car, arriving at 12:40. The temperature had risen to 10 degrees. Lunch at Halls Gap in the form of a hot meat pie seemed a good idea so off we went. 

That was yesterday. The forecast for today was discouraging: more rain. We decided to pack up what we could of our camp yesterday afternoon while it was still dry in preparation for today’s departure. Sure enough, it started raining while we were eating our dinner. That confirmed that we were not going to get a climb in before we left, especially with the forecast for showers, isolated thunderstorms with the possibility of hail.

Rollin'

Despite a slow start this morning we managed to get everything packed up and got on the road just before the showers started. The roads coming north were quite wet in places and we drove in and out of light showers. No sign of thunderstorms. We have stopped for the night at Hattah Kulkyne National Park, parked just beside Lake Mournpall. Here's the route we took to get here ...

Here's a Google Earth image of Lakes Hattah and Mournpall in much drier conditions, with our campsite at Lake Mournpall marked by a yellow circle ...

We are the only ones here. We arrived rather late so didn't get a real chance to poke around and look at birds: will do that in the morning before we leave. Saw two pairs of emus on the way in. Here’s one who has just decided to get off the road ...

Emu at Hattah-Kulkyne National Park

Lots of big grey kangaroos lazily bounced away from us as we pottered our way the nine kilometres along a "slippery when wet" dirt road to the lake. And it was wet. They’ve had a fair bit of rain and a number of tracks are currently closed. The front of the Ulti got a bit muddy even though I didn't drive any faster than 40 kms/hour and mostly at about 30 kms/hour. Here’s a few photos of the car and camper set up for the night ...

Looking for a spot to spend the night

The bikes ride in style on the back of the camper 

Nestling in for the night ...

Now for the most interesting news: it looks like our smart (alec) fridge has decided to work again for a while. I did wonder before we set off whether a bit of jostling might get its juices flowing again. So, it’s time to finish this and get a bit of shuteye ... good night all.