In their wisdom Australia decided the day to pay respects for the passing of the Queen was Thursday this week. It does seem an odd day seeing her funeral was on Monday and the school term, at least in Western Australia, ends on Friday. But Thursday was chosen to suit just one state, Victoria. That state already had a public holiday on Friday this week for the plain and simple reason that it is the Australian rules football grand final weekend. This resulted in all the other states having a bit of an odd ball week, with having Thursday as a public holiday and then needing to go back to work for one day before the weekend:
Reasons aside, whether right or wrong, it was a public holiday today so Rongy and I decided to head down to Wilyabrup. The intention being to jump on a few of the longer climbs, and picking lines that would require us to focus. Whether it was because they were sustained, lacking in protection, or just very delicate and balancy. We were joined by Sarah, who had come down to search out for our scaly friends, as Rongy and I scaled the cliffs. We were not too hopefully that she would see many reptiles, based on my recent trips here and the gloomy start to the day:
This obviously didn’t put Sarah off and as we were walking down I could see her eyes scouring the scrub on the side of the track, and then the crevices and nooks in the rocks as we got closer to the crag. I mentioned that she might a python sunning on top of the exposed rocks just above the beach, to which she replied that they were probably also waiting for unsuspected sea birds to fall prey to them. I hadn’t thought about this before, but it made sense. As we walked down the path Rongy was also looking out and spotted the above Fairy Orchid (Caladenia latifolia) in the bush off the side of the walk track. We also spied two tour guides, a sign that a group would be turning up:
They advised that they would use three faces with two ropes on each, and these would not interfere with our plans. Before heading off to check for reptiles, Sarah hinted at being keen to give the first climb a go. Having climbed indoors a long time back, but never outdoors. So we picked a route that you should by now recognise, and one I did last week. She climbed slow and steady, and looked to be in control the whole time. And it wasn’t until she was next to me, safe on the ledge, that she began to shake. While she had really enjoyed it she admitted that it had been a scary experience. Afterwards Rongy and I both agreed that we would never have guessed it considering how calm she stayed while climbing:
Happy with one climb under her belt, off she went to look for reptiles while Rongy jumped on Glory for his warm up. As he climbed the flakes he looked deep behind them and shouted down to me. He spotted not one but two juvenile Carpet Pythons (Morelia spilota), in two separate locations. This amazed me as I have been checking these spots out on each trip here and not seen any for close to a year and half. It is a great sign and I hope to see them more often, which might happen if it doesn’t get too busy like last year. When Rongy topped out, Sarah happened to be sitting there looking out for dolphins. She hadn’t got far with her walk when someone mentioned they had seen them playing in the waves:
So she had randomly picked that spot to sit and check out the waves, and while she didn’t see any dolphins she got a surprise when Rongy popped his head over the edge. And an even better surprise when he told her that there were two snakes to be seen, although this would require abseiling back down the climb. It is fair to say Sarah was even more scared by the abseiling, than the climbing, and really didn’t enjoy the experience. However, she was determined to get a glimpse of the two snakes whatever it took. Being very excited about the opportunity, as we all were, even though they were buried deep in the cracks:
Afterwards Sarah really did head off on her walk to see what she might see. I feel like she was also heading off to get away from the crowds, as there was not just one group but at least two big school groups had turned up. This was a little surprising seeing it was a public holiday, but I imagine these excursions take a lot of organising and I guess they didn’t want to change their plans. It did result in lots and lots of ropes being placed on many of the faces, mostly for abseiling but some as top ropes for climbing and I lost count how many we saw. This put a damper on Rongy and my planned routes, due to both the ropes hanging down and way too many people milling about at the base of the lines we had been keen to climb:
So I decided to jump on Fishing with Dynamite. This is a bit of a controversial climb because at least half of it was recorded as a traditional climb, and someone had bolted the direct start and then bolted the upper section too. This practice of placing bolts on existing lines is a bit of a no-no in the climbing world. It is however a great climb, and I have tried to lead the route without clipping the bolts, a very long time back. For the best part there is ample and very good traditional gear placements, such as the above bomber cam. But there is one run out section that I got spooked on, and clipped one bolt for safety:
This time round I was armed with micro cams, which I didn’t have before, and this allowed me to unlocked the full traditional lead. So with Sarah was super happy to have seen a couple of snakes and I too being extremely pleased with my lead, it was now time for Rongy to find his piece of gold for the day. And that ended up being the first pitch of Mob Job, a climb that in part picked itself being on one of the very few faces along the entire crag without ropes and people crawling all over them. It is also a climb he hasn’t been on for a long time, and he suggested it may have been eight years. Then to boot it is one of the traditional climbs that is up there as the very best at Wilyabrup, and being pretty pumpy and tricky it also ticked the box of our original intention for today:
It was touch and go at one point, but he managed a clean ascent. The bottom section packs a serious punch but he was able to absorb that and keep going, while the mob milling about just twenty meters away were out of sight and out of mind. As he set up the belay, Sarah returned and told me she had been very successful in finding plenty of South-Western Crevice Skinks (Egernia napoleonis), https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/28/training-day/, with one even running into her hand. We both then went back up the cliff, she wandered up the track and me following Rongy’s very fine lead. After I climbed the second pitch I met Sarah again and she had just spotted a couple of King Skinks (Egernia kingii), https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/27/time-for-a-cuppa/, so she had a very successful day of spotting our scaly friends:
Rongy joined us, after thoroughly enjoying following up what ended up being the final pitch of the day. We decided it was time to mosey, all of us ending on a high note and being very satisfied with our varied finds and experiences of the morning. Despite the place being unexpectedly very busy, we had managed to put that to one side and just like D Mob’s only studio album enjoyed ‘a little bit of this, a little bit of that’. The trip was topped off with a quick pit stop before we hit the tarmac of the main roads, to check out a patch of Dunsborough Donkey Orchids (Diuris jonesii). Plus one more pit stop, at Rongy’s request, for some hot chips from the Carbunup Road House, which unlike the crag was unusually quiet:
Sandbagged 