Howsie will admit that sometimes the weight of all the hats he wears can be a little overwhelming. Today for example a voluntary afternoon commitment came up, being half way up to Mandurah north of Bunbury. After last weeks failed Friday foray Howsie was still very keen to get out this week, and as Friday approached we played with the options. Boomer Crag up near Pinjarra or Welly Dam would have suited due to being on the right side of Bunbury. Cutting down how much travelling he’d have to do:
But when pushed for a decision late on Thursday he plumped for Castle Rock. This surprised me a little, being 80 odd kilometres in the wrong direction. This hinted to me that he may have been after a more relaxed climb. The small outcrop, does have a few punchy routes, but most are fairly cruisy. After he jumped in my car at Capel, for the second leg of the journey to the crag, he admitted to feeling pretty weary. Several days on site of doing mechanical weed control with hand held tools in difficult locations, hadn’t helped:
And while I am very much a desk jockey with my work, after a couple of weights sessions in the shed with Lisa and a couple of bouldering sessions this week, the thought of a more gentle day also appealed to me. To the point that I offered up all the leads to Howsie, so he could dictate how the morning would roll. This was in part as he still had a little voice inside of him, telling him to jump on one or two of the more challenging climbs here. And in part because I’ve led all the routes we were likely to try more times than him:
We arrived just after sunrise. In time to watch the fiery red ball rise above the horizon, and then start to turn orange as it crept higher. Dumping our bags below the main wall, which was aglow with the morning light, I left Howsie to ponder how the day would start. While I rock hopped a bit further along the coast to snap a few artistic shots at the water’s edge. Holding tightly onto my phone to avoid another expensive incident. On my return he was still stood in the same position looking up at the wall, eyeing up a tough route:
His brain was working hard, struggling to make a decision and using up precious energy. To break the cycle, I persuaded him to jump on the most gentle of warms ups we could do on this side of the castle. Allowing him to stretch his muscles and see how he was moving on rock. This led to another two easy but fun routes, above and below, which I was surprised to hear he had not climbed before. Despite having enjoyed the three lines, he still couldn’t make his mind up as to whether to go hard:
The only way to know, was to step it up a notch. And hit the main wall, on which even the lowest graded climb can feel pretty steep and pumpy. His approach immediately changed. The need to mentally prepare kicked in, and he started to procrastinate before heaving himself off the deck. On the plus this did mean we spotted this Punctata Gumtree Hopper (Eurymeloides punctata), at not much more than a centimetre long. There are some 20,000 described species of Hoppers making them one of the bigger families in the Hemiptera order:
And while I get side tracked. This is the order that includes insects known as true bugs, which makes sense as Howsie and I first though it may have been a Cicada that is a group that falls in the true bug collection. Hoppers feed on the sap from plants, and excrete the excess sugar which attracts ants. The ants in turn provide a kind of protection. Protection, at least, on this climb being ample and easy to place. So once he got moving, he kept the momentum going, maybe also being motivated by me recording the ascent:
Despite the pleasing ascent his body was still not convinced it was ready to step it up a notch. So a fifth route was slotted in on less steep terrain before the options started to run dry. By now it was also starting to warm up a tad, being in full sun. Adding to the factors working against him for the sixth route. The number six is considered to be lucky in some cultures, and even symbolises smooth progress and good fortune. But today climb number six it was the one that sapped what energy remained:
It seemed that even the honey dew poop of the Punctata Gumtree Hopper, if it could be produced in large enough quantities, was likely to sufficiently replenish Howsie’s battery levels. Having had the luxury of the rope above me all morning I offered to take the lead. Not that I managed a clean ascent, but at least the rope was above for Howsie. When he made it up after me, it was official. The line being eyed up on our arrival would have to wait for another trip. There were however two more reasonable climbs, thankfully in the shade:
I was more than happy to gobble these up, wrapping up a fun morning with eight routes. Yet another number that I have read is considered lucky. In fact it seems quite a few single digit numbers could be considered lucky, depending on what culture you want to adopt for the day. But eight was enough and we felt like we had had our fill, a bit like we thought these bees had. They were busy collecting pollen from one species of shrub, which Howsie didn’t recognise, even though the pollen baskets on their hind legs looked to be overflowing:
Sandbagged 