Wildlife

Having been good and kept off my wall this week I allowed myself to venture out on real rock one more time.  That has evened things up, making it four trips out over my two week holiday.  Not the fierce and more relentless approach I would have taken in the olden days, but no complaints from me.  While the temptation of a couple of the coastal crags called, I didn’t fancy the harder stuff at Castle Rock, and Cosy Corner just felt like too much of a mission.  So it was back to the old faithful of Welly Dam, making it an easier and quick morning out:

Just after passing the lower Pile Road Mountain Bike carpark there was the obvious shape of what I thought to be road kill.  Driving over the ball of feathers I noticed the head was up and moving.  The Kookaburra was looking dazed and had lost all of its tail feathers, which lay strewn across the road.  However, it’s eyes opened and looked clear and alert, there was no visible blood on it or the road, and no obvious external injuries.  I decided to place it off the road in the bush, and keep going with a view of check in on it on the way back:

I was by myself when I arrived at the dam with no walkers, climbers or car tourists about.  Pulling up in the top carpark I “suited up”, as the Red Tailed Cockatoos cawed and screeched in the distance.  Then it was then down to business, for which I had already mapped out my morning of climbing.  I rapped down the first line and as I climbed back up I was struck by how many millipedes were out.  There were clumps of them huddled in protected pockets, while others were going for a morning stroll and some had got caught up in the many spider webs, and would no doubt be providing someone with a tasty meal:

As I said I was going easy today, which some might say isn’t possible at Welly Dam.  However, just like the above millipede that made easy work of down climbing (just a fraction) of Murky Corner, going up for me never felt too hard.  With the amount of times I have climbed this route I would be a bit worried if it gave me grief.  Today I was not only going easy having picked the lower grade routes, but I was also pacing myself.  Due to the ease of setting up the anchors here there could be the temptation to bash the climbs out in rapid succession, but not today.  On my next line I came across the home of another insect, and thankfully not the insect itself:

I’m pretty sure that it was a mud wasp nest, which I found on Raging Torrent.  The perfectly formed nest didn’t show any signs of the damage you would expect as the wasp emerges from its larval stage.  It is possible that the home was yet to be completed and occupied with eggs, and fortunately I didn’t come across who was making it.  I then moved across to set up on Welcome to Edges during which my wildlife discovery tour continued, as I spied a centipede crawling up near the last bolt.  I’d heard rumours that Dan Meester had been working a continuation variant for this climb, and while I could see some options above the anchors they all looked too hard for today:

On the next two lines of Pocket Knife and A Walk in Central Park the millipedes were rampant and I came across a few sealed mud wasp houses.  Sadly however there were no new discoveries to be found.  I really slowed down and looked about, and when I was rapping down even checked the many crevices and cracks to either aside, but still found nothing new.  The climbs like all of today’s were however fun, and Rongy will be pleased to l know I had a chalk free day.  I do however suspect that this is what made me slip on my last lap of the day, as I tackled the small holds near the top of Central Park:

That was all I had planned, but in my usual manner a little voice was saying “just one more climb”.  My brain was saying be sensible and pack up while my arms were sitting on the fence, and happy to either bag another route or call it quits.  I plumped for being sensible.  Walking back along the top for the crag several cars rolled into the lower carpark and people got out.  With people starting to mill about I had made the right choice.  As I drove out I cruised along the Honeymoon Pool loop road and had a quick pit stop at Big Rock just because I could:

With the place to myself and the sound of the water, it was very calm and relaxing but eventually it was time to hit the road.  There was however a second pit stop, this time to check in on the kookaburra and it looked like it had gone.  I did a wider search and discovered it had managed to move but not very far.  Decision made and I picked it up and brought it home, letting Lisa know that I wasn’t coming home alone.  There is not much we can do just yet and will have to leave it alone for 24hrs.  As I type this post I can hear it occasionally shuffling about in the box next to me.  Fingers crossed it makes it through the night: