The perfect playground

I am still in “work a four day week” January, so decided once more to bail on the boys and not join them in the early morning Welly Dam session.  I’ll probably do the same again next Friday.  With a bit more time on my hand I returned to Smith’s Beach, this time with Jaime.  There were two main reasons for coming back here so soon.  First I really enjoyed the trip on New Year’s Day with Craig, Rongy and Alana, and second during that trip I remember how scary the climbing can feel here and that makes it a great place to push your mental limits:

Jaime was the only one to bite when I put my intentions out on WhatsApp, and that added a third good reason to come to Smiths Beach.  It has a couple of chimneys that I felt she would love.  We began proceedings on the easier of the two chimneys Seafood Extender (13), which I debated the grade of in the last post.  When we visited Moses Rocks Jaime seemed to enjoy the rock style and climbing techniques it demanded, but added to that she loved being so close to the ocean.  It was evident that she felt the same about the proximity to the waves here, but I wasn’t initially sure about the climbing (and descents):

I say that as I have often described Smith’s Beach as Moses Rock’s big brother, some might say the big brother is a bit of a bully.  Most will come away from here with a few scars, not necessarily from falling but from the sheer roughness of the rock and need to hug it so closely.  In addition many fear leading here, which keeps them away.  Rather than enjoy the chimneys back to back, I threw in a harder line in-between to give Jaime a real flavour of the place.  The obvious line being Cape to Crack (17), and it certainly tested her.  Like slab climbing, total and utmost trust in smearing with your feet is required:

While it was a challenge, she wasn’t put off and to boot there didn’t seem to be any scars to speak of.  So we then jumped on, or should I say into, The Drunken Sailor (14).  One of the most fun chimneys in the south west, in my opinion.  Kym put up this true classic that is so much fun, before I came along and sieged the area stealing nearly every other line.  I wormed my way up this crevice, and was happy to see Jaime adopt a similar full body wedging approach.  Giggling and laughing her way up it, and still managing to come out at the top relatively unscathed:

The sun was now hitting Harbour Wall, so we left the other routes there for another time and headed to Camelot Castle.  Here bolder and more vertical routes awaited.  Jaime blindly follows me, having faith that I don’t do anything too silly myself and that whatever it is she will have a good chance of getting up.  This next line may have been a bit cheeky of me, even before I set off she looked up and indicated she didn’t like the idea of it.  Sir Lancelot (19) is one of those lines I put up that took a few false starts, due to me insisting on ground up first ascents:

It isn’t too hard really, but the gear for the crux in the lower section is marginal and the landing isn’t pretty.  Even today I had to down climb this section, recompose myself and then got for it.  Before heading back up I popped a pink tricam in.  On the first ascent I didn’t have these nifty bits of gear and that made it so much more spicy.  My obvious nervousness put Jaime on edge even more, but I’m pleased to say I managed a clean lead and then Jaime learnt the art of getting super up-close and personal with the rock.  She admitted to enjoying the route, and I could then sigh with relief.  Truth be told I climbed this one for me, as it scares the be gibers out of me:

With that line under our belt and shade still on this magnificent wall we headed for Excalibur (19), which goes right up the guts of the wall and is the route that probably links the most number of technical moves.  It’s probably also the most climbed route on the wall, with plenty of gear but again rounded holds making good footwork essential.  For most of the route you trust smeary footholds and use rounded hand, well mostly finger, holds for balance.  On this line, and with a slight height disadvantage, there was the need  Jaime to really work those feet.  That she did and it paid off, it was great to watch:

There was one more line I had in my head that we should climb.  Billowing Sails (17) is not as much of a mental challenge for me, but I feel it is the most out there climb here.  The belay is on a pedestal and with a 2-3m swell today the water gushed up on both sides and the spray occasionally hit Jaime.  The stance is exciting and exposed, so much so we anchored in.  I was setting off up the many varied features of the arête and, as with The Drunken Sailor, all I could hear was the fits of laughter and pleasure as Jaime thrived on one of the best belay stances you’ll get in the South West:

That all stopped after I had set up my belay and pulled in the rope.  Jaime will openly admit she does not have a lot of upper body strength, which I think is debatable.  However, this was route number six and with the limited climbing she has done her arms would be feeling it. As such my focus was more on her than the images this time.  On occasion I could her calls, not of distress but certainly indicating it was testing her.   This route is steep and overhung in places so I couldn’t watch her progress or offer any advice, but eventually she joined me.  This time the bully had come out and she was sporting some impressive battle scars, ones she hadn’t noticed till she got up:

With scars on her shins and some bark taken off her hand what could be better than a dip in the ocean.  But before talking more about that I’m pleased to say Jaime wasn’t put off Smiths Beach and is eager to head back. We had been watching the ocean during the climbing, the 2-3m swell wasn’t ideal but the winds were easterlies so seaward and that was in our favour.  It was too rough to consider going in straight off the rocks so we drove towards Canal Rocks.  The carpark to The Aquarium was again overflowing and people were parking dangerously on the relatively narrow road as we passed by:

Jaime has great memories of The Aquarium from when she was a kid, it was quiet and full of fish.  These days its insta-famous and I wonder if I will ever find a day when I can get it to myself.  As we stood at Canal Rocks we looked out, the water looked clear but the surface was a little choppy.  It was always a possibility that the swell would have churned up the sediments, but we decided to risk it and got ready.  Jaime winced as her wounds were submersed, but once the head was underwater all was forgiven.  It was clear and there was great visibility:

We saw a good variety of fish, although they were mostly individuals or in small shoals.  Above the weed you needed to keep a sharp eye out, as they would appear and disappear from sight way too quickly.  Check out the small green and black fish above.  I saw lots of varied fish along here but there was no hope of getting down in time to snap a close-up.  So I just enjoyed watching them from above.  As the water deepened I started to go down to check out the caves and ledges, and to start with it felt like I would be out of luck:

As we carried out more and more fish came to sight, and it is the first time I have come across a female Herring Cale.  It was about a foot long and as it swam this way and that, it was either confused or curious.  Coming in closer and then deciding that wasn’t a very clever idea and swimming away, before changing its mind.  All the time on the move making it hard to get any super clear images.  I popped my head up and found Jaime stood on a submerged rock looking cold, like Rongy she doesn’t function well when cold and in the water gets cold quite quickly:

She headed in to allow the sun to warm her up on land, and told me to stay in as long as I liked.  So I continued to explore for a little longer, continually checking under ledges and caves and it started to pay off.  Below is a Moonlighter and a couple of Old Wives.  The Moonlighter looks to be a juvenile that is getting close to adulthood, the young have a clear black spot in the top of the upper rear dorsal fin.  On this one the spot is visible but starting to fade, they usually grow to 35cm but can be a bit bigger.  This one was probably only 20cm long:

On my return swim I was going up and down like a yoyo, and came across a large cave that was thriving with life.  One area was full of fully grown Common Bullseye and a few juvenile Southern Silver Drummer, each time I went down they would swim to the furthest recess. This and the swell pushing the water back and forth made it impossible to get a good image.  I also saw what I believe was a very striking and beautifully patterned male Rainbow Cale.  It was stunning but like so many other fish just too fast to get away.  There was however one fish that just sat there:

Despite me going down several times it almost seemed reluctant to move.  I’ve been searching high and low and can only assume that the above is another female Herring Cale.  The body shape, fins, size and distinct yellow eye makes me think I’m right, but it looks so different from the first one I saw.  My next find was by far my favourite of the dive, this colourful Puffer sat there content with me invading it’s privacy and even did a very slow twirl for me.  The shape and fin configuration makes me convinced it is a Puffer, but as yet I have not been able to narrow it down to which sort:

It was then time to head back and as I snorkelled over the shallow weed I spotted a Southern Calamari Squid.  I made the mistake of swimming towards it, and it took on that familiar torpedo shape as if to say I’m about to go into warp speed.  It never did and when I stopped swimming it visibly relaxed, the tentacles moved into a downward position and it started to move towards and past me.  The colours of the body also changed and it no longer moulded into the background with this lined pattern, almost as if knowing I wanted to see it more clearly.  As it moved slowly past me and then away I didn’t follow it:

The final stretch was very shallow and there was no diving down, little fish scooted this way and that including this one.  I believe it is a Pretty Polly, the size, body and head shape, eye and fins seem to match and these are “strongly associated with weeds and seagrass in coastal bays”.  Looking back I wonder if that little green fish in the first image may be a juvenile of this fish.  As I came out of the water I found Jaime absorbing the heat from the sun and rock she lay on, periodically moving to a new part of the rock to suck out the heat.  When we wandered back to the cars, we both agreed that we are very lucky to have such a playground on our doorstep: