Less than twelve hours after completing the twenty eight hour door to door trip home from the UK I was meeting Rob in the Capel, at the slightly tardy time of eight in the morning. He was a little surprised that I was keen to get out, but I find that getting straight back into a routine is the best way to overcome jetlag. And what better way to do that than heading out and about on the first day into the fresh air and being active. Rob kindly offered to drive today, and I was more than happy to accept his offer:
What a way to come back home, wandering down to Wilyabrup and be greeted by orchids and a good half hour display of aquatic acrobatics by some fifty plus dolphins. I found out that Rob’s wife also likes orchids, so to allow him to remember what we saw I’m going to recount them but have only included an image of a Pink Fairy (Caladenia latifolia), which was out in abundance. The others in flower being Purple Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera brunonis), Murdoch Snail Orchid (Pterostylis ectypha), and Cowslip (Caladenia flava):
And just because I am so stoked to have spotted it this year, I couldn’t help myself from also showing him the tiny basal leaf of the Sandhill Helmet Orchid (Corybas despectans), the flower of which was now completely gone. It took a while before we started to climb, as the dolphin display continued. Each time it looked like they were moving away they came back for another play in the waves, until finally they continued south out of sight. Despite already being past nine we were the only ones to enjoy the show, having the place to ourselves:
We continued to be alone the whole time with no other climbers, tour/school groups, or even walkers being about. It is a rare occasion these days not to see a single soul, but we did not complain. Having the pick of the climbs, I left Rob to let me know what he was keen to have a bash at, whether on lead or second. Picking off some of the relaxing classics with nothing too serious, which suited where he is currently at with his climbing and I was at with my slightly woolly feeling head and slightly lethargic feeling body:
I was a little surprised when he suggested one particular line, being a long and very enjoyable climb that has a start that puts many off. Fairly graded, in my opinion as a traditional climber, but gym and sport climbers claim it is a complete and utter sandbag. This made me think about a TV series called The Climb, which I watched on the flight back from the UK. A bunch of amateur climbers were given the chance to win sponsorship to launch their professional career, and of all the climbs they were put up against there was only one traditional climb:
The rest were sport climbs with bolts, bouldering problems protected by crash mats at the base, and deep water solo routes above the ocean. Interestingly, traditional climbing was talked about as being the most dangerous form of climbing, despite the cuts and bruises they got on the dynamic sport routes; several scary falls from the boulder problems with one that resulted in a knee injury requiring care; and the numerous up to 20m falls into the ocean for which if the entry into the water was at the wrong angle could have resulted in serious injury:
On the plus side if such fallacies about traditional climbing keep areas such as this relatively quiet then that is fine with me. And getting back to the line I was surprised Rob was keen to follow me up, I thought it may have unnerved him to take on another lead. He did waiver for a bit but I managed to encourage him to keep going. He managed a clean lead on a line he had never been on before, which was great to watch. Despite coming to these local areas so often I am still surprised at what I have overlooked, such as the sight in the above image:
How I have missed seeing the contrasting calcified roots or branches right next to the dry bare roots I have no idea. I also missed this little fella, which Rob spotted, and despite the orange colouration of this specimen it is a Red Jewel Bug (Choerocoris paganus). I was starting to tire but rather than walk out we decided to climb out. Hoping to, but not, finding one more scaly friend in addition to the many Southwestern Crevice Skink (Egernia napoleonis) and Buchanan’s Snake-eyed Skink (Cryptoblepharus buchananii) who today, like us, were just enjoying being out:
Sandbagged 