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.

Kangaroos and ... EMUS!

I was just inspired to do a quick post by a couple of videos I came across on Youtube. More about that later.

Yesterday the weather was a little unsettled in the morning, and Di woke to a slightly sore foot after a couple of days back climbing. There were a few jobs that needed doing so, all things considered, we decided to take a break from climbing, do those jobs and have a visit to the Little Desert National Park.

Before we headed off Di wandered around with her camera while I was getting ready. One of the flowering gums is bursting with blooms, no doubt pushed along by the bit of rain we've had ...

One of the jobs that need doing was to fix our reading lights, which had shorted out a couple of nights before. Another job was to get a pole tube for the car organised, as Di has been getting sick of packing the awning poles away in the camper, especially when we have to pack up in wet weather. So we now have a pole tube on the roof of the car. Here's the photo I just popped out and took a moment ago so you can see what I'm talking about ...

We got that and the problem with the reading lights fixed - which needed a little mend in the cord that had got pinched - at the ARB store in Horsham. Good helpful folks who assembled our new pole tube for us after I nipped over to Tradelink to pick up a bit of 100 mm PVC tube.  A bit of grocery shopping then back to camp. All set to go with reading in bed again. Well, at least that's what we thought. When we went to test the reading lights they still weren't working. At that point I thought to look inside the 12 volt plug at the inbuilt fuse. Yep, it needed replacing too. Pity I didn't think to check that before we went to town.

As we were on our way to Little Desert and had to go through Natimuk anyway,  I tried at the milk bar for a replacement fuse. Nope, no fuses. Some other quirky bits of hardware, but no fuses.  Goroke was just a little way past our turnoff into the Nature Lodge at Little Desert so we detoured via there and got a fuse - and a couple of spares. (When we got back to camp it was a pleasure to find all was good again and we could actually read in bed again. The joy of simple pleasures ... no TV but lots of reading. Actually, although I say no TV, we occasionally watch a gem from ABC IView as a special treat. The Janet King series has just concluded, but we were delighted to see that adaptations of Peter Temple's gritty Jack Irish  novels are back on the box and made available via iView. Temple's crime fiction is about as good as it gets and very Australian in character. You might like to check out Bad Debts via iView.)

We like visiting the Little Desert as there is a pleasant walk through classic mallee desert scrub, which also goes past two waterholes where birds can sometimes be seen. It's not that far away from where we like to camp at Natimuk Lake. We've been there three times and it's interesting to see the subtle - and not so subtle - changes over the last few years. There is more evidence of rabbits unfortunately. Also, since the big wet of 2011 there has been little rain, and the boost the vegetation got during that period has now been lost. Some shrubs that grew quickly have experienced major die back.

The park was set up to try to preserve the endangered Malleefowl, and there is an extensive fenced section near the lodge to keep feral cats, foxes and other noxious pests out.  (If this is starting to sound like an echo, yes we visited the park last year and made a post; so don't worry if I seem to be repeating myself - maybe I've got early onset Alzheimer's, but at least I'm aware of it!

As you enter the fenced-off area you are greeted by this little remembrance ...

Here's a close-up of the sign on the right ...

Who is Helen Handbury? I wondered myself. Turns out she was the elder sister of Rupert Murdoch and daughter of the great philanthropist Elizabeth Murdoch. By the sound of things Helen was true to her mum's example.

Anyway, back to us. Di took this picture at the first of the waterholes, known as Big M's Waterhole ...

The vegetation changes pretty quickly in quite a small area ...

In another area there are clumps of grasses that have these long spiky flower heads ...

There are Grey Kangaroos grazing around wherever you come across a bit of grass and we stopped to take a couple of portraits ...

In the next photo you can see the inner of the two fence lines which have been to protect the ground-dwelling Malleefowl ...

Here's another pair of Grey Kangaroos grazing away on the slender pickings ...

At the other waterhole, known as Whimpey's Waterhole we stopped and watched swallows swooping for insects. Di tried to get a photo of a pair perched on a little bridge that goes out to a small island but the light wasn't good enough for her lens to reproduce good detail. I took this picture of reflections of grasses growing in the waterhole ...

The highlight of the day though was the visit that this emu paid us just as we got back to the car and were getting ready to leave ...

Sorry it's not that great a photo as I didn't have my camera at hand and used the phone. I also shot a short video of it getting up close and personal, which I've loaded on to YouTube ...

... which got me wondering what other, better emu videos might be out there. Well, there are a lot, but one that really grabbed me is this highly amusing one the ABC shot in Longreach when lots of emus were coming into town looking for water during drought conditions. (Time for the customary aside: Longreach is where the Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service is said to have been born.) ...

The other one which was interesting was of emus mating: the parade of the male followed the female about for a while eventuating with the act itself. Kind of well-organised as it turns out ...

The drive home was uneventful in comparison to the antics of emus.  We stopped so Di could take a photo of Mount Arapiles' backside ...

It just looks like a lump of rock from this side, doesn't it?

Today we were back on the rock, although for a short stint. Di's foot was pretty good, but just a little sore. We did three climbs, two of which are absolute gems ... I'm a Little Dinosaur and I'm a Little Asteroid. Yep, more strange names. I'm sorry I didn't take the camera with me when I led Little Dinosaur, as I could have got a great photo of Di following up the hanging arête on that route.
We are already looking forward to another great autumn day in the Wimmera and at Mount Arapiles tomorrow.

As a final note, you might be interested in a little mishap that occurred at The Mount in the last 48 hours.

Back to YouTube, here's a more successful attempt on The Squeeze Test ...

Hmmm. The Games Climbers Play, eh?

Catch you later ...

April at Mt Arapiles and in The Wimmera

It’s been eleven days since we last checked in on the ninth of April, when it was raining quite steadily. It's been pretty dry since that wet couple of days, but the grass in the campground here at the lake has responded to the moisture in the soil. Here's a photo showing the edge of our camp set-up merging with the surrounding environment ...

We’ve had an interesting time with a mixture of action and inaction and adventure and (a slight) misadventure. We’ve farewelled our friends Justin, Stu, Bob and John, took a hike around an obscure section of Mt Arapiles, pushed the pedals of our bikes to The Mount and back, had a drive to the Grampians - witnessed once again the power of wildfire - and done some climbing.

The day after our previous post, rain was forecast and threatened all morning without producing anything. We decided to take a punt and headed over to The Mount in the middle of the afternoon. Happily, the rock was dry so Di elected to lead a lovely, long pitch called Skylark, which we’ve done a number of times. It’s consistently good climbing with abundant protection and goes on and on for a whopping fifty-five metres. Graded 16 (about 5.7 in the YDS grading scale) it’s one we highly recommend. I followed that with a route called Greasy Burritos, which our guide calls “worthwhile” and “not as slippery as it sounds”. It doesn’t get a star but is a fun little twenty-eight metre route. One thing about the brilliant select guidebook that Glenn Tempest and Simon Mentz have produced for Mt Arapiles is that every climb in it is worth doing. We thought that was enough for the day and, with a promising forecast for the next day thought we’d save some energy.

The next morning looked decidedly gloomy but we thought we’d head over to The Mount with the expectation that it would clear up. Just as we got out of the car a light drizzle started to fall so we thought we might as well have a walk. Justin, Stu, Bob and John had arrived a bit earlier than us as it was their second-last day of climbing before heading home. We spotted them on The Atridae as we wondered past. In the photo below Bob is the figure at the top left, setting up his belay at the top of Hell For Leather (John is at the bottom); at the top right Justin is belaying Stu, who is following him up Surface To Air ...

The Atridae

On we wandered, climbing a little pinnacle along the way ...

... discovering that even this obscure bit of rock had some routes on it and even an old descent anchor still in situ ...

Yes, the photo is the right way up! (You can tell by the grass at the bottom.) The anchor has been used to rappel down to rig climbs below, and has a rope attached as a hand rail for getting off the back.

It was fun finding little bits of easy rock to scramble over along our way ...

When you wander around off the beaten track a little, you realise how The Mount is really one big, complex warty lump of rock with endless nooks and crannies. Here’s Di standing on another open slabby section between small bits of scrub ...

Yes, there is a bit of soil clinging to its surface which grow some sizeable trees. We loved the way this one had found its little niche and even large branches resting on the ground were still leafy and green ... 

But it’s a tenuous proposition. Those bigger trees have deep routes but much of the vegetation on The Mount springs up when a good season comes, only to wither and die a few years later after the normal dry patterns re-establish themselves. 

Here’s another view from the shoulder of The Mount.  The Bluffs are visible on the left, with Wimmera wheat fields spread out below ...

Our haphazard route took us out to the summit road. The Power of Growing Things presented itself in the form of this mushroom pushing its way up through the hard-packed road gravel right on the edge of the tarmac ...

We decided this bit of an excursion would be enough exercise for the day and we could happily spend the rest of it reading and relaxing back at camp. Lovely!

The next couple of days brought beautiful weather and we had a great lot of fun, climbing the moderate classic Kaiser/Resignation via a harder variant we hadn't done before, followed by a trip to the summit to do three pitches. Here's Di following the first pitch of an easy but delicious route called Touchstone ...

... and then leading up towards the divergent finishing pitch Touch Type ...

She's about to move up and slightly right for a neat little bit of thin climbing past a couple of bolts. The regular route continues more or less straight up before moving gradually left to the top left corner of the buttress to finish. We just had to rappel back to the ledge I'm belaying from in this photo to do that pitch as well.

 The next day we took time out to go to Horsham for a bit of shopping and get the washing done before getting back on the rock the day after. We decided to explore the Heckle/Jeckle area with a New Zealand couple who were camping next to us and we'd become friendly with. None of us had been to this area  before and we were having a good time until our fun was brought to an unexpected halt. 

While I was pulling a rope though a top anchor, a rock in the crack was dislodged and came down about ten metres, hitting Di on the foot. Although the blow itself hurt, Di didn't feel too bad and was happy to continue climbing at first, so we did another couple of routes. However by the time we finished those she was very sore and I was worried that she might have broken something so we headed off to the Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham. After a reasonably short wait in Emergency, Di had X-Rays which suggested that nothing was broken. (WHEW! A lucky escape.) The doctor told her that she should keep weight off it as much as possible for the next 48 hours, with elevation and ice for good measure. It was pretty bruised. Here's a photo of the underside of the foot where the bruising has drained to ...

We had a quiet time around camp the next day: Di with her foot up, duly iced; me with the job of keeping the caged bear happy!

The next morning we decided to take a trip to the Grampians. We wanted to see how extensive the fires were that had gone through in January. It was a very sobering experience. Here's a view across to Hollow Mountain, which was pretty much the epicentre of the fire ...

Remarkably, the dwellings  and outbuildings in the small settlement of Wartook seem to have escaped unscathed in this maelstrom ...

Some areas were totally scorched ...

... while other spots show a bit of greenery still clinging to otherwise obliterated trees and shrubs ...

The Australian bush is well adapted to fire, however. The next two shot show the regeneration that is already underway ...

Di felt she was up to getting back on rock again after her two days of invalidity, so we headed off to do a long easy climb that we hadn't done before. She was very pleased to find that she was moving well and it wasn't hurting her to put weight on her foot. We had quite a long day out in the end and by the end of it the foot was getting a little sore again.

Not wanting to push our luck, we decided to have another quiet day yesterday. We managed to have a Skype with our grandkids in Cairns and another with my brother in Winnipeg before heading to Horsham to get a couple of things. Di needed a new pair of pyjamas and she wanted to see if we could get a hot water bottle for those colder nights in the camper trailer. We got home in time to have a gentle bike ride, with a coffee in Natimuk on our way back. Here's the route we took, with the elevation profile at the bottom:

It looks hillier than it is: the total elevation gain and loss over the thirty kilometres of our ride was actually only 150 metres! The colours of the paddocks make very interesting viewing. You might notice that the "Imagery Date" is 4/4/2013, so almost exactly a year ago. This suggests that autumn last year was a lot wetter than it has been so far this year. Mt Arapiles is the lumpy bit at the left end of our loop, where we zigged and zagged a bit over bush tracks.

We had a good day out today, doing another climb we hadn't been on before: Oedipus Rex. The guidebook says "the superb first pitch is both embarrassingly tricky and seriously run-out". Di did a great job leading this pitch and did find quite a lot of gear - no doubt modern protection works better in some places than what was around when this climb was first put up way back in 1968.

The route finishes with a strenuous pull through a roof, and Di got this series of photos of me coming to grips with it ...

Sorry, there's no photo of me pulling up over the lip: Di decided it would be good to attend to her belaying duties at this point!

Finally, here's a photo she took while I was dismantling the final belay at the top ...

Hi Mom!

The Natimuk Market was just packing up as we came through town and we managed to grab a few goodies to bring home to camp. Another fine day playing hooky in the Wimmera. And that's about it for now ...

Cheers

Doug and Di