After seeing my first Bee Orchid yesterday, this one starts with a Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). A worker bee collecting nectar and pollen from Coast Banjine (Pimelea ferruginea), whose bright pink flowers lit up the round, small and compact shrubs that were popping up between the granite boulders. This bee was busy as shown by its pollen baskets, or corbiculae. Flying from flower to flower the bee builds up a positive electrical charge on its body hairs. This draws pollen from the negatively charged flowers, coating the bee:
The bee will use its front and middle legs like combs to scrape all the loose pollen off its face, head, and thorax. Transferring it to corbiculae, where it is held in by curved hairs. Amazingly a bee can carry pollen weighing up to 35% to 50% of their body weight. No wonder foraging worker bees don’t live any longer than 6 weeks. All work and no play, doesn’t sound like fun to me. And today I was here to play, and in case this sight is not familiar I was once more at Smiths Beach rocks. With a swell a quarter of the size that smashed this place last week:
The winds were also more favourable. No longer strong to gale force and only gentle, plus blowing off shore from where I was climbing. I did not expect the rock to be dry. It wasn’t. But today, for those that know, the blue rope indicates I was flying solo. With a rope above and the great friction this rock provides I was sure I would be fine. Plus I aimed to hit the easier Harbour Wall. Picking off six fun lines. While they shouldn’t present many difficulties I would still have to work as I played, relax your core on a route here and you usually come off:
From blue to purple, with my 0.5 Camelot matching nicely with this Swift-footed Rock Crab (Leptograpsus variegatus). It watched me nervously. Not able to back up, the crab shifted this way and that, as I placed the piece of gear. One of several that I wanted to prevent me from taking a pendulum swing if I fell off. I’m pleased to say that I didn’t force the crab to relocate, and also didn’t fall off. I did however have to work reasonably hard. Howsie and my regular visits to the steep climbing at Welly Dam just doesn’t prepare you for this place:
The rounded holds and blank faces demands use of friction. It took a while for me to get into the style. The first few routes felt way tougher than they ought to. I should probably take a breather between each ascent, but struggle to deviate from my solo session routine that has been embedded over many years now. While the grades went up so did my familiarity with the rock condition and climbing style required. Although I almost blew it on the last route. The final move being the biggest move on any route today, massively relying on a foot smear:
Another pair of shoes hit the wall. The toe blew out just as I pushed up on it to reach the very far away next hold. Making my foot slip. Just like when you have a blowout while driving, it is a case of staying calm. I somehow managed to stay on the wall, adjust the foot placement, and finish up with twelve clean ascents. Being way more successful that the real reason I came here, which was to find that elusive Limestone Spider Orchid. Giving up after scouring the scrub for way too long. I probably should have pinned the location of the spike found last week. At least I was rewarded by finding a Western Bearded Dragon (Pogona minor):
