Happy New Year and here’s hoping 2021 is a little more smooth sailing than 2020. While Lisa and I stayed up till midnight, and beyond, it was not really to see the old year out and new one in. Elseya was off to a party and we had offered to be a taxi service for her and her friends. As such I was first up with a two hour round trip, which saw me get home shortly after nine with a Chinese takeaway. After a feed and film Lisa got the late shift and left before the bells tolled to celebrate the ending of the 2020 and arriving home at 1:30am. Needless to say that due to having organised to head out for a New Year’s Day climb I didn’t get much sleep:
I left Lisa to catch up on some snooze time, as I headed down to pick Craig up from Busselton. Light was creeping into the sky as I left home, and while heading further west after picking Craig up and the sun crept over the horizon behind us. Our destination for the first climb of 2021 was Smiths Beach, where we were due to meet Rongy and Alana. It was Alana’s first time here and she gingerly made her way down into the zawn, taking in the unusually but exciting atmosphere it provides. Even with a moderate 2.5m swell the occasional wave crashed in from the end of the zawn:
Rongy had chosen the location, and the choice had been here or Castle Rock. They are quite different climbing locations, but both had quick and easy access to some good snorkelling spots. Both he and I have discussed taking the fins along when we climb, cutting back on the time we spend on rock to make time for a dip in the ocean while the conditions are good. To start with we were climbing and he got proceedings underway with the crag classic Cape to Crack. It was still shady in the zawn but the rays of sun were already hitting canal rocks on the southern side of the bay:
Alana quickly accustomed herself to the setting, kicking back with a comfy rock armchair observing the carrying on that was occurring on the more vertical rock. The intention was for her to have a climb, but not on this one. Grade 17 was probably a little stiff, not only does she not climb very often but I can’t recall when I last saw her have a climb. Craig and then I followed Rongy enjoying the route, with all of us feeling that it was about right at grade 17. Why is this relevant, well just yesterday I was pursuing The Crag:
The Crag is an online climbing database populated by everyday climbers, and while only a few ascents had been entered for this location I was interested in their comment on one particular route. But before we get to that route, Craig was encouraging me to have a lead. I really wasn’t sure what to go for so went up Bulging Pockets. A route that Craig and I established eleven years back, and one I don’t ever recall repeating. With very little memory of the climb I took my time, but it was never too hard. Afterwards Craig and then Rongy came up and we pondered the grade:
We plumped with 14 but even then were a little undecided, and checking the guide we had given it 13 back in 2010. This happened to be the same grade as the next climb, Seafood Extender. It was also the route that I had shown Alan and she seemed keen to give a go. Grade 13 would be fine, but on The Crag the few climbers who had posted about it were inclined to grade it 16/7. Like the first route of the day that would have been unreasonable to throw Alana on. As I ran all over the place to get a few different angles Craig led the route, with the sun started to creep down the wall:
By the time he was up, anchored in and ready to belay Alana, the sun had almost made it to the base of the wall. I watched with interest pondering: that the sun hits this wall early, and the place heats up like an oven and can make climbing uncomfortable; the rock here and especially on this route is rounded and doesn’t always offer positive hand or footholds, and as such it is not a technique that novices usually take kindly too; whether this route was as much of a sandbag, as suggested by the climbers on The Crag. With direction and encouragement being offered from below by Rongy and above by Craig she started her journey:
As she reached halfway, she took on the same crouched position that Craig had, and seemed to stall there. Rongy didn’t as he followed but when I went up I did. Not due to any difficulties but as a result of what we found in the cracks. Why a crab would crawl up approx. 7m of a rock face to find a place to rest was beyond any comprehension. That said some may ask why we climb up and down these faces with such glee, and so did Alana. Vanquishing any doubters on The Crag about the grade, and in truth the boys all reckoned that it was more of a true traditional grade 10. No matter the grade it is a great consistent and interesting line and Alana did a great job:
With Harbour Wall now fully bathed in sunlight, it was time to escape the heat and move to the northern face of Camelot Castle. Rongy was undecided about which line to hit. So I gently encouraged him to another one of my creations from eleven years back, which again I have not repeated and I am not aware of anyone else climbing it. I’ve got images of Craig following me up the first ascent with an intensely focused look. My memory being that Lady of the Lake being every bit the grade 19 we gave it, with spaced and tricky to find gear to boot:
The mid-section where Craig had looked so focused certainly made Rongy stop and think. The rounded holds for both hands and feet don’t inspire you to move upwards, especially with the lack of gear of worth in that section. It was the perfect climb for Rongy to have a crack at, just his style in fact. Craig went second and I could feel his focus being just as intense as during that first ascent, so when I followed up I was a little apprehensive. Despite one nervous move it yielded with surprising ease, but I feel the grade is worthy. A solid on-sight lead by Rongy:
The sun was now starting to tip over the edge of Camelot Castle. Meaning that any more climbing would soon be in full sunlight, and the position of the sun would result in making it very hard for the climber to see what lay ahead. In view that there was a second part to today, I wasn’t overly worried about having another lead and was happy to call it a day. Alana however had spied a short but fun looking wall in the zawn that she was keen to climb before we headed out, which Craig was equally happy to scoot up to set up belay for her:
After that the sun was in the zawn, the heat was rising and it was time to escape. We had thought to snorkel straight out from the zawn. It looks to have a rocky base full of weed and hopefully also fish. The water had looked flat and inviting most of the time but every so often the steady swell sent in a set that churned up the water. The thought of being caught out in one of those sets made us change our sights. Between the zawn and Canal Rocks is a place called The Aquarium, which is supposed to be worth a visit and snorkel:
We could see it from the top of the crag, as well as all the people already there. As we drove towards Canal Rocks we passed the carpark at Smiths Beach proper and carpark was full with cars lined up along the roads. We then passed the parking bay to The Aquarium, and that too was starting to overflow. At Canal Rocks there were heaps of spaces and very few people, so the decision was made we would simply jump in at the boat ramp and snorkel along the bay back towards The Aquarium:
I’d previously snorkelled in the main channel of Canal Rocks before exiting at the boat ramp with Rongy. But today we would head north along the open bay, the territory was a mix of small bommies, open sandy areas and larger rock reefs covered in weed. Being relatively shallow the visibility was reasonable despite the moderate swell. I immediately spied a shoal of wrasse that I hadn’t seen before, with a distinct brown line from the eye arcing upwards and then traversing along the side to the tail:
These were female Western King Wrasse, and soon I was spying lots of other wrasse. Most were way too fast for me to take an image and as such identifying them is pretty well impossible. Other fish that were not quick enough to escape the lens, or indeed were not worried about me intruding on their privacy included Scalyfins, Sweeps, Cale, Zebra fish and the above Old Wife. These Old Wife’s floated about under protected rock shelves and caves, and were more than happy to pose for the camera:
As we moved along the bay more and more shelves and caves appeared. We ducked dived down glimpsing many fish including coralfish and boxfish. They were all highly evasive and keen to get away, in addition the swell seemed to be picking up. This resulted in the sediment being stirred up and also making it less comfortable to duck dive down. In the back of my mind was the thought of being uncontrollably pushed against the reef, with no easy escape route to avoid a possible hard impact. We decided to start the journey back but not before finding a pair of striking Blue Lined Leatherjacket (above) and also a couple of stunning Male Western King Wrasse:
As we made our way back to the boat ramp the effects of the swell was reduced, maybe due to the shallower waters or maybe because there is less reef to provide pockets in which the swell could create turbulence. Again I started to spy heaps of fish. Most of which popped out of the weed only to dive back down quickly. One that didn’t was this beautiful Male Maori Wrasse, of which I was able to get a great shot due to the clearer water. I also managed to get a decent snap of a small Red-lip Morwong (second image below), and while we had spied some much bigger ones they had evaded us in the caves:
It was a great snorkel, and I’m very keen to get back here in hopefully slightly calmer conditions. I’ll also bring my wetsuit and weights to allow me to get down more easily to explore the caves, in which there were so many fish to be found. Back at the boat ramp the carpark was now overflowing and as we drove out The Aquarium parking bay had some 30 plus cars parked up and down the road. Very satisfied it was time for us to escape the growing crowds. We all agreed it had been a great climb and snorkel, trying out some old routes and finding some new fish:
Sandbagged 