Hot, hot, hot was the forecast and while Rongy was keen to get out for a climb, he was also eyeing up the chance of jumping in the water for a snorkel afterwards. So we decided on a quick climb at Smiths Beach followed by a dip in the ocean. Even though we were planning on only a few routes we still decided to head out early. The orientation of the faces at Smiths are such that the sun hits them early, and being a zawn it traps the heat. As the weekend approached the crew expanded and Steve, Alana and Mario along with Jena and Luna planned to join us:
Seeing Mario was bringing his family, they intended to get to us at a slightly more reasonable time. So before descending into one of the zawns, and in view that Rongy was feeling a little groggy, we headed to Murphy’s boulder. My last time on these lower grade routes was with Howsie, and we both felt the grades were a little amiss. I made no mention of grades to either Steve nor Rongy today and simple let them decide if the climbs appealed to them based on how they looked. To say Steve was keen is an understatement, keen to put his rack of tricams to use:
Rongy then had to clear his head to lead the second short but fun line, which did appeal to him. Despite not being 100% he still gave us a masterclass in jamming. And while he claims not to be that great at using jams, it is all relative. Rongy recently put me onto an App to check climb grade comparisons, but I’m not sure I believe what it suggests for Australian to UK grades. It indicates I regularly climb at the top of my ability and harder than I did in the UK, something I’m not convince about. It has however been a long time since I was in the UK climbing, so it would be really interesting to get back there to check out how I go:
Grading is, and always will be, a messy business at the best of times. While Steve was going well today his view of the difficulty of his route was out of kilter. He felt his route was about a grade 14 (UK VS 4c), while Rongy and I felt grade 10 (UK VD 4a) would be fair, and way back when Craig and I first put the route up we gave it a lowly grade 6 (UK M). All the more proof that you should pick climbs based on how they look on the day, and whether you think your headspace it up to it and you’ll enjoy them. The sun popped over the horizon as we were finishing on Rongy’s route, so we wandered back towards the zawns and shade:
For my lead I was keen to jump on Crab Scuttle. The last time I was here with Craig, Mikey and Howsie I couldn’t even start the route, so I was keen to redeem myself. The last time I failed partly because it was wet, wet, wet making the moves super scary. Today it was dry and while I managed the climb there is no photographic evidence. Alana was sitting atop the zawn taking in the view across to canal rocks, the bay in which we were aiming to snorkel. It looked flat and calm, almost glassy, being protected from the wind. Steve was belaying me and Mario was yet to join us, which didn’t surprise me:
When you have a family in tow it nearly always takes longer than you anticipate to get ready and out of the door. As for Rongy, well he was nursing his head. The reason for him feeling groggy earlier, and still, was self-inflicted overindulgence while listening to Triple J’s hottest 100 yesterday. And to add to the madness of the world, which is frustrating people no end, there was a shock number one in the hottest 100. This year’s 100 was selected from votes cast by 2.5 million listeners of the national radio station Triple J:
Who would have thought a song by the children’s group The Wiggles would ever be voted the best song by so many. Maybe it is a reflection of the state of people’s minds, becoming addled by all the uncertainty created by COVID. At least, as a result of his overindulgence, by the time no.1 was played Rongy’s ability to listen and realise what was happening would have been suitably dulled. He did however have to sort his head out as we moved to the next climb. Steve was unable to get up Deceptive Looks, and there were also statements made about it also possibly being deceptively graded, and he needed Rongy to finish the route off:
The reason I didn’t offer was that Mario appeared, so I was belaying him up the Billowing Sails. He has only climbed here once and found the rock gritty and the gear tricky, in his words he wasn’t keen to come back. Something I have heard quite a few people mutter. But he loved this climb, and it offered everything my words in the guidebook said it would. Great climbing and an outrageous position, and with the good gear the route offers I think I might have swayed his previous less than positive thoughts of the place. The wind was picking up resulting in the water starting to roughen up, so it was now or never for a snorkel:
However, before we walked out we offered Mario one more lead. There was only one wall still in the shade, so he decided on Sir Lancelot. A steep wall with not so big or positive holds. It requires delicate balancy moves, and at times the available gear placements make you wish there was better. Hopefully, this line, which seemed to unnerve him a little, didn’t cancel out the positive thoughts that the previous lead had instilled in him about the climbing at Smiths Beach. I didn’t ask and will just have to wait and see if he is keen to join us next time we come this way:
It was now time for Rongy to fully clear his head, and there is nothing like going for a snorkel. The feeling of the cool water and relaxation of floating, could only result in him starting to shake his woolly head and general lethargy. The water on the west coast, from where there is nothing but the Indian Ocean, is cooler than the water in the protected bay of where I live. It still felt great and to boot the clarity was also good. The wind had picked up but hadn’t yet swung round the headland of Canal Rocks. So the bay straight off the boat ramp was still calm:
Jena and Luna joined us, and they headed with Mario to the small sandy beach. And Steve wasn’t feeling it, he’d enjoyed the climbing of the morning but wasn’t inclined to get into the water. It was only Rongy, Alana and I that started working our way round the bay. Exploring the bommies, separated by beds of weed. I really need to come here more often, there was so much life. The above Western Seacarp (Aplodactylus westralis) was one of my favourite finds, even though it slunk into a crevices and refused to come back out. But before then it looked majestic when it fanned out it’s ample and brightly coloured fins:
While many fish didn’t mind our presence, some were a little more cautious. The above small green leatherjacket, if you can spot it, is a fish I have come across before. I have not however been unable to identify it. In view that I have got nowhere after trying every possible search I can think of, I can only conclude it may be a juvenile. Below is a fish I can’t recall seeing before, a Sea Trumpeter (Pelsartia humeralis). This one is easy to identify and it is the only species of the trumpeter family that has vertical bands, with all others having narrow horizontal stripes:
My second favourite find has to be the Blue Lined Leatherjacket (Meuschenia galii). I came across a few of these and had better images than the one below, but I really liked this photo with it is long probing head peering at me from under a rocky cave. It is a fish that is sexually dimorphic in colour, making the males and females harder to distinguish. They are similar in pattern and colour with the only difference being that the females do not have a bright blue edging on the caudal, or tail, fin. As such, I was able to confirm that all three of these fish that I spotted were female:
While my wetsuit kept me warm, the wind was turning and the water in the previously protected bay was starting to roughen up. Not so much as to force us out, but it was a sign that maybe Alana and I should head back to shore. As we headed back towards the beach, next to the boat ramp, I spotted two small Southern Calamari Squid (Sepioteuthis australis). Not as small as the ones I found of Bunbury, but still worth following back out for just a while. Rongy who gets cold much quicker than us had been out for some time, and while still low on energy I’m happy to report he was feeling much more refreshed:
Sandbagged 