Taking the plunge

The cooling night time temperatures are bring on the morning dew, and driving out of Peppermint Grove Beach the hundreds of orb spider webs on the fence lines on the roadside become so much more visible.  It was a later start than normal today, so with sufficient light I stopped to check out and take a few images of the webs covered in water.  There were lots of egg sacs resembling large cotton wool buds.  Some of which looked to have burst open, and the tiny baby orb spiders could be seen slowly breaking free of their eggs:

The sun hadn’t quite hit the webs as I drove past, and I might pop back out in better light today to get a better images of this spectacle for my own collection.  It was however a blue sky promising a lovely morning up at Welly Dam despite the temperatures being single digit.  As is so often the case, on approaching the final few kilometres of the journey, where the road starts to drop down into the bowl of the Wellington Dam National Park, the clouds could be seen hovering just above the trees:

Getting lower and lower until at the dam and reservoir, which is a stone’s throw from where the quarry is located, the place was shrouded in mist.  Something I am quite used to seeing here, but there was another sight that greeted me that was a surprise.  It’s been maybe three months since my last visit, and they were still busy with works on the approach road to the quarry.  The works seem to nearing their end, and this includes a formalized parking arrangement.  Not quite at the same extreme level of control being placed in the Grampians that seemed illogical, but still bizarre:

The quarry is the only picnic area here, and in spring and summer we have witnessed upwards of thirty cars safely parked here, with lots of families enjoying the great facilities.  And they have now seemingly limited the parking to ten cars, four spots of which are reserved for disabled parking.  I’d love to get into the mind of the people who make these strange decisions, to work out what they were thinking.  We however had no problem securing spot.  Howsie and Nadia arrived shortly after me, with Fergus and Frank:

Despite today being Howsie’s birthday climb, he had to wait a while because the boys were keen to get on rock.  Last weekend, the night before he and I went to Wilyabrup, Fergus had asked if he could join us to climb.  It would not have been very practical for that trip, but today was a different story.  And the boys had plenty of time on the end of a rope.  I knew it would be it was a slow start to the day, and I didn’t even put my harness on until Josh and Emma rocked up.  Josh is still learning the ropes but is keen to lead, however Welly Dam is not a great beginners place to learn:

While most of the routes are pretty hard, I had heard he had recently climbed here Howsie and had done pretty well.  So I threw him cold onto one of the only tad lines here, which he led as the sun burned off the last of the mist.  While it made him nervous and put him on edge, especially when the climb steepened up and got a little more tricky, he got a clean and safe lead in.  Being both tried and deservedly happy when he topped out.  Meanwhile, Howsie finally got to have a climb, and picked a climb I thought would never get a second ascent:

After Nadia followed up Scraggly Daggly, a top rope was again set up for the boys.  And the pace slowed.  Josh was keen to have a crack at Welcome to Edges, but not on lead.  It was the last climb he had followed up last time here, and it had completely smashed him.  Today while the tricky and technical start had him floundering with his footwork, due to the slippery smeary holds, he was pleased to manage the rest of the climb without a hitch.  Soon after Dazza rumbled in on his bike, and despite having done his fair share of climbing in the past he said he, like Emma, was just a spectator today:

He made it just in time for the main event, not the great morning tea feast that Josh laid on, but Howsie’s clinical and controlled ascent of the very fine, technical and exposed Pole Voltz.  Another 22 was in the bag for 2022, and what a great line to.  After that the food and hot cuppa courtesy of Josh was very welcome, and also in keeping with the slow and social pace of the day.  The harnesses didn’t come off and were not quite done with yet, and it didn’t take a lot of persuading to get Josh to step up to the plate for a second lead:

He’d climbed Murky Corner before, and in Howsie’s words cruised it.  Being on the sharp end however changes everything, and he had his first lead fall.  Just one, and this climb tested his mental, as much as his physical, strength especially at the steep final moves above the last bolt.  The whole crew moved together and were now sitting under the trees chatting, allowing Howsie another lead on one of his favourites here.  Taj Vs the World, such a fine fingery steep climb.  At this point we found out that Dazza had in fact brought his harness and shoes:

He belayed Howsie, but had no intention of climbing the route.  But then when I asked Nadia if she fancied climbing Murky Corner, she put him on the spot and said she would if Dazza also climbed it.  As would be expected there was a lot of rope swapping on the day like today, Nadia doesn’t climb a lot so the routes at Welly Dam are pretty challenging for her.  With an understanding of where her mindset was at with this place, it was great to see her have a crack at a couple of routes.  And it was also great to see Dazza have a climb after his two year hiatus from rock:

Nadia’s mind got the better of her, so she didn’t finish the route but she had fun.  Dazza then walked it, he only stopped once to think, which was where Josh had taken his lead fall.  Better still he came down saying how it felt great to touch rock again and that familiar flow of movement.  Next time I’ll have to try a bit harder to get the only spectator of the day, Emma, to have a climb.  The boys were continuing to have a quiet moment, no doubt a bit weary from all the climbing and running amuck with kids from other random families, who we did not know, that had over the time had arrived and left.  So Howsie took advantage of this quite period to bag another climb, Ebonie Road:

The timing was good and as soon as he came down the boys were once again itching to climb.  Allowing Josh and then Dazza to have a crack at the harder Ebonie Road, Nadia didn’t show any hint of interest in this one.  Not surprising, and both Josh and Dazza ended the day a little like the boys, climbing up a bit and then enjoying swinging on the rope when it all got too hard.  A very fitting way to end, and in keeping with the fun and social feel of, the session.  Dazza and I headed off, leaving the others to drive to a pool in the Collie River, where they intended to, and I hear they did, have an ice cold dip: