Being a long weekend we decided it was worth getting out for a second climb. What was intended as a bit of a social gathering, keeping within the current restriction of course, was progressively whittled down to just Rongy and myself. In view of the intention of being a social and just for a couple of hours, Lisa tagged along for a bit of fun at Castle Rock. We drove out via the backroads, as we suspected the roads would be busy with tourists. However, as we passed through Busselton and checked all the caravan parks they didn’t look that full, and everything seemed reasonably quiet:
The traffic never seemed to build up and even the carpark at Castle Rock beach was only half full, so we started to wonder if there were any tourist down this weekend. Above the sun teased us with the occasional appearance, and there was the continual threat of grey clouds in the distance. It was a bit of a mixed bag today but the rock felt good. Rongy was looking for something not too hard to warm up on and set off up a route that isn’t in the guidebook. Lou has professed to having led this line before, and if that is indeed true it was a good lead. While never really hard it has a tricky unprotected start with no gear until half height:
The intention had not been just for this to be a warm up climb but also one that Katie could hopefully have a bash at. However, having seen Rongy needing to work it just that little bit already made that seem unlikely. Regardless of that, or maybe being oblivious of the fact, Katie tied on. I gave her a boost as she sat on my shoulders and then stood on them to get past the start, which didn’t really have any big hand or footholds. While she gave it a couple of goes it really wasn’t the confidence building start that was needed, and she decided to give up. As Rongy and I came back down I suggested another line that would probably be good:
Luckily we hadn’t put Katie off, and she was keen for another bash. So we scrambled round to the other side to a ledge above the water. From here a fun crack runs up almost the entire face. One with good foot and hand holds, and one that was right up her alley. While there were a couple of moments when she hesitated, and seemed unsure whether to go on, it didn’t take much encouragement to get her to commit to the move and keep going. This time she had a big smile on her face as she joined me on top, feeling justifiably pleased with herself:
We sat there looking out at the view across the bay and Rongy climbing up, with strict instructions not to climb too fast. That was imposed by me, as I had handed Katie the camera so she could take some snaps. After sorting the gear it was then time to scramble over the top of the rocks before scrambling down. This created a real adventure, just like it should be with climbing. Not just the climbing but the fun of getting there, good positions, time to take it all in and then having to focus to get back down safely. It was then time to warm Rongy up properly, as he had a route in mind to attempt:
Katie joined Ben, Alana and Lisa as we stayed round the other side. The warm up I had in mind was another route not in the guide, this time one I put up with Craig. We called it Smear to Glory because of the layback moves we used to get through the crux. Rongy however used his far superior jamming techniques to find a fine inverted jam and cruise past the smears without a thought. That said, and being the fourth person I’ve sent up this line on the pointy end, he agreed like the others that the grade we gave it was right. I was quick to follow up and I’m not sure that the climb really warmed up so properly for what was next on the agenda:
I have never seen anyone cruise up Welcome to Tsaro, the fine looking face to the right of Rongy in the above image. It’s got a committing, technical, pumpy and very crimpy start to get established on the face. Even after that you need to keep going on small holds for a while before it finally eases and allows you to breathe. This had Rongy stumped for some time, so much so that Ben had come to check in on us. After Rongy final got to the top I too struggled, despite having the rope above me and having climbed this route many times before:
Just as I was about to set off up after Rongy, I could hear the familiar call of “hello uncle Krish”. And eventually three heads could be seen in-between the vegetation, bobbing up and down as they walked along the footpath. Craig had finally made it with Henry and Charlie, and of course all the fishing gear. I’m glad they didn’t stay to watch me struggle in less than fine form, instead wandering round to join the others. Rongy and I pulled the belay and scrambled down to join the crew, feeling somewhat spanked and with forearms that were pumped far more than they really should have been:
We found Craig was busy getting the fishing gear prepped, cutting up the squid for bait and preparing three lines. While the kids all looked somewhat interested none of them took a line, so as they played about exploring the area Craig was left to fish by himself, at least for a while. My shoes and harness was coming off. I felt like the last climb had drained me plus it was getting close to our time to depart and head to the shops. So after what seemed like way too quick a chat with Craig and a quick hello to the boys, Lisa and I were packing our bags to head out:
As we finally started to walk out Rongy had set up a nice easy top rope that both Katie and Ben could try, and Craig was getting the boys ready to have a climb too with his eye on some short but fun looking honeycomb faces. As they continued to enjoy the delights of Castle Rock, Lisa and I hit walked out and then hit the road to Busselton, where there was a bit of shopping to be done to prepare for a short working week ahead. One that will be very short for me, but you’ll have to wait a week to find out why:
Both in Busselton and driving home, admittedly via the backroads again, we still felt that there didn’t seem to be a great deal more traffic on the roads than a normal weekend. During the journey we got a few messages from Alana to say that Katie had caught her first fish and Ben’s tooth (which was already loose) had fallen out. So it sounds like the fun was continuing out at Castle Rock. A few hours later as I sat down to start writing this post I got a message from Rongy, they had finally set off and were now caught in the long weekend traffic. I’m not sure where all the tourists had been hiding but they were now heading back to Perth, resulting in the traffic crawling painfully along at 6km/hr:
Sandbagged 