Winter seems to have set in and along with the increasing rain and decreasing temperatures comes the season of illnesses. There is currently talk of the big three hitting Western Australia being COVID, respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza A; and it seems that possibly during my trip to Perth I caught the latter. Starting to feel a tad ropey on the following Wednesday and not really coming good until Friday last week. This put paid to any hopes of a trip out last weekend, despite having had plans for a session in-between the showers. Instead I spent the weekend laid up, allowing the body to fight whatever I had:
It is pretty rare for me to get proper sick, so even while I had the bug I was working from home. Despite being low on energy my brain doesn’t slow down quite so willingly, resulting in getting bored senseless if I don’t have something to focus on over such a long period. Gotta to love the flexible working opportunities, which in my mind is one of the good things to come out of COVID. But after nine days of not leaving the house I was keen to get out to blow the cobwebs away, as was Rongy. So we endeavoured to re-enact the plans from last weekend, and head out for an afternoon climb:
Thoughts had crossed our mind of a longer trip to a Perth crag, but for various reasons such as not knowing the area and also whether I was recovered enough for such a big day we decided to play a safer option. It was a good decision, as Mario advised the place we had considered visiting in Perth usually seeps heavily in winter. Earlier I mentioned how the season was well and truly upon us, a statement that is based on how many fronts and belts of rain have been hitting us. It does seem much earlier in the year than what we have previously experienced so I did a quick check:
So it seems that April was a very wet month with the total rainfall hitting the 95%ile based on near a hundred years of records, and eclipsing anything we have had in the last ten years. In contrast, May was below the 5%ile from all records and only just sneaking in as the second driest in recent years. If June carries on like it has started, it’ll be above average across the hundred years and the second wettest in the last ten years. Temperatures show a similar inverse story with April and June looking pretty cold and May relatively warm. Regardless of what the records and statistics may tell us, it certainly feels like we have had a lot of wet days:
It was therefore entirely possible when we got to Wilyabrup that we were going to find a crag with water seeping down the cracklines and runnels. On arrival our first surprise was a full carpark and my usual spot for parking being taken, which may be a first. Fortunately, most of the cars belonged to walkers. Other than us there was only small school group who were squeezing in a couple of abseils, in-between two legs of hiking the 14km’ish from Gracetown to Moses Rock on the Cape to Cape track. It was this group that had stored all their rucksacks near the toilet, as shown in the first image:
This was the second surprise, as the rucksacks where the same style as Rongy’s. I did wonder if he may have been scoping them to see if there was one in better condition than his, but as it is pretty rare to see someone with the same brand, let alone a whole row of them, he was just soaking in the sight of them. I can liken it to when I owned a Triumph Dolomite (car) in England and whenever I passed another one on the road we always waved and flashed our lights at each other, despite having no idea of who the person was. They say familiarity breeds contempt, although it can also lead to comfort:
Our third surprise was the crag being in mint condition. The group was very quiet and unobtrusive compared to other school groups we have encountered, making it feel like we had the place to ourselves. With no set plans let the mood take us. While not spoken, it had previously sort of been in the back our minds to take it easy. That all changed as I was drawn to a couple of gnarly traditional lines that rarely get any attention, and Rongy was attracted to some of the steeper well featured face climbs. It all feel into place nicely, and we also thoroughly enjoying the sun on our backs when was able to sneak through the clouds:
For our final route we went searching, with packs on, for the local Carpet Python. Not being overly hopeful due to the darkening clouds and lowering temperatures, we were not disappointed when we found no trace of it. For the observant, two images up you may notice the gear that I had found here in mid-May, when I offered to be a taxi service for Lisa and Elseya who were enjoying a local wine and food experience. I finally tracked down the owner, being a local tour company, and later in the day a couple from that company turned up to retrieve their gear. I had been offered a bottle of wine as a thank you, but declined the offer instead banking the good karma:
Sandbagged 