It’s often not the accomplishment of the climbs for me, but the journey. That includes the approach or walk into the crag, and then back out. Going up the routes of choice is almost a bonus. And for really big crags, which we lack locally, the descent is also great fun. Howsie and I planned to go to Welly Dam, where the approach is non-existent but that can be convenient for quick trips. Sadly he started to feel unwell. Next David indicated he would be keen, but as he predicted he got called into work due to other workers feeling unwell:
Third time lucky and Craig was feeling well, so we wandered out to Lost Buttress. Of all our local crags this one has the longest approach. At least it is the way I head there, along the coastline. I was possibly a little optimistic today, but Craig went along with it. The swell was at five meters, it was high tide, and fresh to strong winds were aimed at the coast. Bays such as the one above, which we normally rock hop across, were awash. And others, like below, were coated in foam, resulting in the boulders being incredibly dangerous to step on:
We attempted to follow the rocky coastline as much as possible, without getting too silly. But had to occasionally escape by scrambling up short faces and corners. Then needing to bush-bashing a path higher on the ridge, until it looked safe to descend back down. I will always remember a family trip to a place called Woody Island. Sat on the boulder strewn beach, a woman screeched at her kids ‘STAY OFF THE BLACK ROCKS!!’, because they were slippery. Today however the black basalt rocks had the best friction, and we did exactly the opposite:
It took us a while longer to get to the crag, but we were in no rush aiming for a fun relaxed day out. Nothing too silly, not that this place offers too much of that. It does however have a fine selection of lines that I knew I could point Craig too, which is exactly what I did for the first lead. Taking his time and complaining that it was all wet. We had just been hit by a short squall so it was quite possibly the case, but by the time I followed up it was dry. Even if it hadn’t dried between the showers, the routes are of a grade that it wouldn’t have stopped us:
We were however somewhat distracted by the ocean. The waves crashed into a short wall next to the crag, sending water towering into the air. Then as it came back down, it created cascading waterfalls along the length of the wall. This did stop us climbing for a while, and as Craig inched closer trying to get that perfect image I did wonder if he may have been trying his luck a little too much. On this occasion he remained dry, and needless to say sights such as what we were lucky to observe today simply can’t be captured in a single picture:
The image below shows a plume of sand splaying out from the vegetated slope into the boulders. It is possible to drive to this crag, and then wander down this slope. The scramble down to the beach has over time created a more defined path, and place for water to flow. The path is eroding badly, turning into a deep incised track with more and more sand being washed down. To be fair very few climbers come here, but it is also a popular place to camp on the Cape to Cape track. And those people along with fishers, do use the track:
This erosion does have a bearing on why I don’t like driving in, and prefer the walk along the coast. But the walk in along the coast had felt a little too dicey at times today. As such when Craig suggested we could make our way up to the Cape to Cape track to walk out, I felt that would be OK as long as we followed the more solid and rocky ridgeline to get to it. This started with a scramble up the crag but before we could do that Craig went to pick up a bit of flotsam he intended to take home. The buoy was tied to the rap line, so we could haul it up:
We did however carry our packs up as we solo’d up a new line, which Craig aptly called ‘The Rambling Buoy’. Probably no harder than a grade 7 or Diff in UK grades, but a fun route all the same. While soloing a new route with packs on may not seem sensible, taking the Cape to Cape track back certainly was. We spotted a couple of orchids in flower that I’ve mentioned previously on recent trips to Wilyabrup, and signs there are plenty more other ones on their way. We were also greeted by this very sluggish Bobtail Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa):
Sandbagged 