A well deserved treat

Normally on my early drives to Capel, to meet up with whoever is mad enough to endure an early start, I need to look out for roos.  Today I didn’t see any, but I did come across a couple of escaped cows.  Being a lot easier to spot and also much slower there was no danger of running into them.  After this unexpected encounter I carried on and found Rongy already waiting in the carpark.  He promptly threw his pack on the backseat, and we set off on our way down south:

We parked up by the entrance to the Cape to Cape walk track near Contos campsite.  Here I fiddled about putting my walking boots, beanie and buffalo on.  While I have been managing very well, the ankle is still and will never be fully healed.  So seeing we were going to walk along the rocky track in the dark, my sandals stayed in the car.  I did this a month or so back when I did the same walk, again in the dark, with Howsie, Alan and Andrew.  First light crept in as we got closer and by the time we arrived the sky was starting its journey through the morning hues:

You can probably tell that I was back at Bob’s Hollow.  I have to admit to have really enjoyed the steep juggy climbing last time I came down, so was quite happy when Rongy suggested this place.  Truth be told many years back I would have thought of every reason possible not to sport climb up steep jugs, but I’ve warmed to it and that old adverseness I had to this style are a distance memory.  We started on the route that I had contemplated climbing on the last trip, but time had got away from us then:

Above Rongy was coming up second after I had led Juggernaut, as the sun was cresting over the landmass and starting to hit the waves that were crashing over the reef out to sea.  A good warm up climb, nothing too silly and some fun exposed moves.  It was pretty windy and bitterly cold and being rugged up helped, but while we were standing still belaying it felt like we were in a blast chiller.  Somehow any warmth was sucked out of our bodies, despite the layers we had on:

For Rongy’s warm up he chose Shaved Cats.  Sorry Howsie.  Yes we did bag a couple of the grade 20s on this trip that you are eyeing off, but I can promise you that we didn’t knock any holds off.  He took his time climbing doing what I view as his usual impressive shaking out at every opportunity and never looking to get pumped.  But the time spent belaying left me getting colder and colder, and by the time I had to follow up my body felt uncoordinated and my mind wasn’t fully focused.  I managed to get up but even after I came down I was still cold:

Above I just couldn’t resist a picture of the arum lilies, they were thick especially underneath the low scrubby trees.  They are known as the funeral flower.  Here they are an invasive introduced species that is said to be bring death to the wildflowers in the south west of Western Australia.  The evidence was clear to see.  The a blanket of broad lush green leaves with white flowers were suffocating anything that might want to try and grow below them.  Depriving them of light and probably sucking all the water out of the soil.  I digress and also seem to not be keeping up with the images:

We decided to move to the more protected northern end of the crag and it was a good move, here that icy wind couldn’t reach us.  In my cold state I still went for the route that I had my eye on, Magnus the Robot Fighter.  Above Rongy is setting up the rap after he came up second in a clean and stylish manner.  I have only been on this route once before, with Kym many years back, and failed at the on-sight with only the final moves left to go.  Today was no better, in fact it was worse.  As the day wore on and taking into account how I climbed every other route, we came to the conclusion that I really should have tried to warm up a bit more before jumping on it:

No stress these things happen, and I’ll jump on it again next time.  Above Rongy is just about to reach the first bolt of Constructive Vandalism.  As we were driving down there was lofty talk of all these hard lines that would be great to jump on.  But while he had been climbing Shaved Cats he wasn’t shaking out just to practice, he was getting pumped.  While he styled up my second climb, he put it down to not being on lead and also having watched me to know how to get through the crux without wasting energy, which I had done.  So now his arms were feeling it and hence a more moderate lead was in order:

Above is an image of some of the natives that were out in bloom and due to being established shrubs they were able to compete against the arum lilies.  It is a bit strange how I can tell you the names of the invasive introduced species but I have no idea what the names of these amazing natives are.  Hopefully Howsie can help me out with identifying them, when we come back here so he can polish off the grade 20s.  Rongy was again looking tried but managed a clean ascent.  On this trip it seemed he was getting more tried as I was feeling stronger.  So I climbed the other route that he had contemplated, but not gone for due to its scarier very steep finish:

As you can see I was up to my usual belaying antics.  Allowing me to get some good images while Rongy was on second, as above as he was approaching “the roof” on Black Lung.  This of course continued when he was on lead or at least until he had clipped the first bolt, and at times for some of the easier lines after that as well.  Despite the tired arms he remained motived and willing.  So while he may have wanted to bag a harder line or two he ended up sensibly choosing Right Fin and it was a good move.  He had just enough gas in the tank to get a clean lead:

Like I said I was feeling pretty good and up for another challenge, some might say a bit more excitement.  So again sorry Howsie, but I led Thesis Feast.  As I was halfway up this route I heard voices, and finally others were coming to climb here.  In some ways we were surprised and others not.  The weather was forecasts to hit in the late afternoon and evening, which we thought would put people off.  But that said Bob’s is more like gym climbing than anywhere else and for that reason a lot of people like it and come here:

Howsie I can tell you now that the left hand sequence I unlocked last time definitely works, but it didn’t work for Rongy.  Maybe because he is at a slight disadvantage to you and I, being somewhat challenged in the perpendicular.  Or maybe it was because he was getting more and more tired.  While we were seemingly having a rest between climbs to avoid burning out, we were not going slow.  In fact we were completing each line in half an hour, you could almost set a watch by our progress.  Rongy came down weary but determined to even things up, for which we moved away from the other climbers and back into the wind:

Being later in the morning we didn’t feel the cold anywhere near as much as before.  He had chosen the very well named Escalade De Rasoir.  Sharp holds to bite into the skin of your fingers, and you might say that was not a good move for the last climb of the day.  However, unlike the other climbs it is not as steep and as such you can keep more of your weight on your feet and not have to subject your fingers hanging hard on the sharp holds.  It was actually a great way to end the session.  Delicate, technical and very enjoyable climbing.  We both savoured the warm down route and took our time soaking in each moves and position.  I even hung about at the top for quite a while longer than necessary, just taking it all in:

The crew of two had increased to a crew of four, who you might be able to make out in the image above.  And while they were just getting into their climbing it was time for me to rap down one last time, so we could end our session.  With eight fine routes under our belt there were no regrets as we walked passed them and continued on the path out.  As we walked along the Cape to Cape walk track, another group of climbers were walking in.  While they didn’t have to brave the early morning cold, both Rongy and I agreed that next time we come here we wouldn’t change things and again walk in when it is the dark:

One last image of Bob’s Hollow, the walk out seemed to be quite a bit longer than the walk in.  Our legs were feeling it.  It was just past midday when we were finally back at the car, and we were final able to sit back and rest.  Knowing where we were coming Rongy and I must have had the same thought, as we had packed our bags for the morning session.  The climbing is that bit more draining than at other places, so we both knew we would deserve a treat on the way back.  So it was that as we drove home we savoured the taste sensation of crisps and chocolate bars: