Monthly Archives: May 2015

Rockclimbing

Eighteen Again

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Eighteen Again

March 8

Booroomba Rocks

Multi pitch rockclimbing

Driving to the crag for another day climbing Charles chats about his work and his week. He’s a very smart guy (18 on his Google Scholar index I discover later). Previously an astronomer he is now an energy scientist. We discuss the current energy situation. The price has plummeted for oil. The USA, now wealthy with its own huge supplies of shale oil, has recently changed the geopolitical landscape of the energy world.  Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest reservoirs and decades of oil supplies. We range over fracking and coal seam gas. One solution I find interesting is the geosequestration of liquid CO2 from coal fired power stations into empty gas and oil wells.

We climb Denethor, swapping leads on three good pitches. By chance a piece of gear is dropped so we decide to try a more serious slab climb nearby so we can retrieve it. Equilibrium, one of my favourites from the past. The first pitch tunes me in to the harder run out moves up the sheer expanse of striped granite. The second pitch pushes me into a real climbing zone where I have to concentrate the psyche on staying in control when a long way out from protection. I feel like I’m climbing well again. Charles cruised up smiling.

“Well I didn’t think I’d be able to do this 6 months ago”. He had squashed his middle finger in the Simpson Desert. “Me neither”. I had been struggling with fatigue, arthritis and an out of whack immune system. I could now envision working up to climbing at a solid grade 18 again with a bit of training.

On the way home we stop at a wild apple tree beside the road. All the lower ones within reach from the ground are gone. “Come on. We are climbers. Surely we can get some from higher up”. It felt good to say that. They’re crisp and a little tart but they’re free.

Next day I read in the paper that the Indian government is pulling out all stops to develop renewables and cut back severely on fossil fuel imports in the near future. Adani, the Indian company driving the development of the huge Galilee coal basin in Queensland, is also switching to investment in renewables. At the same time Australia is ploughing ahead with Galilee as it tries to become the most backward focused energy nation on the planet. Wake up electorate!

Charles on Equilibrium 17
Charles on Equilibrium 17
Abseiling

Biggest Abseil

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“The biggest abseil you could do on a school trip”

March 5

Blue Mountains

Abseiling

It’s like a guilty pleasure in times of global warming. Driving at night on the highway with the headlights leading the way and loud, loud music setting the groove. I delve way back to one of the biggest selling albums of all time, 2 years in the charts. The heartbeating start transports me back to 1973 where I lay on the floor in the dark between speakers on high volume, thinking in deep teenage about life. Some music dates but this is still rich and fresh and sumptuous. A brilliant full moon rises. Themes sing straight to my heart even from the little voices in between the main tracks “I am not afraid of dying, why should I be afraid?” – I’d been to the funeral of a relative’s best and beautiful friend a few days prior, “Time, ticking away the moments that make up a dull day” I’m trying to work out how to best spend my time in retirement, the guitar soars inside my speeding metal and glass cocoon, “money, its a hit, don’t give me that do goody good bullshit”, how much do we need to live a good life? “Us, us, us and them, them, them”, we’re still at war with each other.

Dan Pitch 1

I met up with the group from my old college from which I had recently finished work. It was late. Sleeping in the staff cabin was interspersed with snorers, Siri being bumped on and the wind. 5,30 am get up, quick cuppa and muesli then off in the bus by 6.00.

We set up the ropes on the top pitch of Malaita Wall. I had wanted to do this famous descent for years. Dan, the teacher in charge, abseiled down first as the sun rose between the Three Sisters, pink clouds in the south, dawn light shining on the sheer face. He’s a great operator – experienced guide, knowledgable teacher and very skilful people person.

Pitch 1 45 m vertical and spectacular, a little scary in strong wind, to the top of a pinnacle.

Pitch 2 30m down a steep groove to a large ledge. I supervise as a trainee guide anchors the students then sends them down on a safety rope belay. Scramble down a steep but safe track.

Pitch 3 35m between two trees with the southern Blue Mountains stretching off behind into the distance, range upon range. Down a steep slab, over the first exciting overhang to a wide ledge, scramble right on a safety line.

Pitch 4 25m almost vertical wall, everyone confident by now.

Pitch 5 and 6 45m We run them both together for the students then the last person descends in two sections to minimise rope drag on the pull down.

Total 180m

Reflected dawn light Malaita Wall

Dan “That’s got to be about the longest abseil done by a school group”. He’s right. We take two groups down in the day. Punters pay about $250 to be guided down this wall. I wonder if the students, who all took it in their stride, appreciate what they’ve done.

Reflected dawn light Malaita Wall – Dan descending first

Dark again on the long drive home. I sing out, alive and wide awake like I’m at some “great gig in the sky”.

 

Rockclimbing

Back on Rock

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Back on Rock

Feb 15

Booroomba Rocks

Rockclimbing

 

Rockclimbing for personal enjoyment rather than as an educational activity for others and a huge duty of care for me. This was like revisiting some old friends – the forested granite cliffs and tracks and views that are so deeply ingrained in my psyche, climbs that felt familiar but new again after such a long layoff. Sitting on belay, still, the calming peace of the bush. An eagle soars overhead. With both Charles and myself throwbacks to the old days of double ropes and out of date protection devices that still work effectively. We both trade stories as we swap leads on two easier grade multi pitch routes (Possum, Hortensia) that provide surprisingly absorbing technical and varied climbing.

Rockclimbing has come of age now in Australia. People like me have been doing it all their adult lives into retirement. It’s no longer just the fringe sport of athletic youth. Styles and equipment, even venues, go in and out of fashion but the pursuit endures.

I wonder how long I will be able to keep climbing. Considering Armando Corvini who has lost many of his fingers and toes to frostbite in the Himalayas decades ago and is now at least 75 and still climbing I’ve got at least 20 years yet. Yay. Here we go again!

Surfing

Surfing in the lucky country

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Surfing in the Lucky Country

2 – 8 Feb 2015

Point Plomer – mid north coast NSW

Surfing

Day 1 – We arrived late afternoon, set up the camper on a small rise with a view looking out beyond the beach and over the bay to the headlands of Big Hill and Crescent Head in the distance. From camp we could see the small swell wrapping cleanly round the point, almost too small even for me to catch and ride. Work had slipped away as the miles were driven. A wild wind swept the headland that opened to the rugged vista south.

Day 2 – Rain and buffeting wind overnight, morning cool, windy, tiny surf. We cycled along the back beach road to another headland and took in the shipwreck scene – crashing swells onto ragged rocks, wind blown spume. Hopefully the waves would improve as the tide goes out and it shallows across the reef flat off the point.

Surfing the north coast with time to spare and a lack of crowds in beautiful places where waves peel gently off a point – this has been a very long term dream. Having fallen in love with the ocean as I started surfing in my early teens I read Tracks magazines, watched Morning of the Earth and longed for the freedom and wherewithal to be able to live the dream. It occurs to me now that I have taken one path to be here. My family moved to UK for several years and on return I took up teaching and discovered other adventures eventually making a rewarding career in outdoor education. I sometimes got goose pimply close to this dream when I led surf trips up the coast for college students. We’d stay about 10 km north and surf from dawn till dusk. We even made it on safaris up to Byron Bay a couple of times. I surfed occasionally between times in amongst family coast trips and remained a beginner with an ancient wetsuit and a couple of boards that were never quite right. Then Kevin Rudd bought me a shiny new MacT malibu with a $900 government stimulus package in the GFC. A new wetsuit and I was away. Suddenly I felt like I could surf a little and progress to advanced beginner stage. I love small surfs where the green peels across and I can play up and down the face. On another trip with Cath we stopped here and I had the best surf of my life so here we are back again this time as the launch of my retirement from full time work. We’ve got the smart 4WD, best tough camper trailer money can buy and comfortable superannuation. We are set up on a rise with a view to the break.

Day 3 – I stepped awkwardly across slippery rocks into the shallows. The longboard and wash is hard to negotiate. After a set I paddled furiously across the reef hoping another big wave wouldn’t thump me backwards. The swell has picked up. I sat in the takeoff zone – too far wide and the waves would be too fat to catch, too far in the water wasn’t deep enough to quell the fear of being smashed. It’s a friendly scene. Small group. Plenty for everyone. A bigger one looms and I was in just the right spot. Paddle hard. Jump up. Down the face. Bottom turn then it walls up ahead. Green. Spray being blown gently back. The lip holding up just a little. Slice an arc to the top then slow backhand. Float across the slope. Feel the power of the swell. A few more slow dancing turns. Glorious. Then cut back across left and ride the break into the beach. Walk back out along the grassy track. Stoked.

Another path could have led me straight from school up the coast seeking an alternative lifestyle, searching for waves and meaning beyond the mainstream. A step straight off the pancake. Living simply, in touch with the ocean. Work, money. Maybe it got too hard to sustain or maybe I found a niche where it all worked out. For others the journey led back to the city when family and children struggled for better options. I didn’t take this path.

I could feel the crossroads right here. The real and imagined. So many others too that were let go or chanced away in multitudes of small and large choices. I feel tuned in to past possibilities, and maybe futures. Being here where one of my dreams becomes reality. A heightened sensibility at the end of one major stage of life with the opening up of another.

My brother, David, arrives in the evening. He’d taken a couple of precious days out of his long service leave between taking his family on an extended holiday and returning to work.

Day 4 – We went out early and David got the wave of the day. A good size. I watch him bottom turn then fly across the face which appears translucent as the early morning light shines through from behind. The lip curls over above his head. Past the fast section he plays with the fuller wave face and rides right into shore. He calls in at camp to down the rest of his earl grey before walking back out to the point for the next wave.

Surfing bros

Later we sit together in the take-off zone. It’s been many years of work and immediate family and a million other commitments since we’ve spent time just being together.

Cycle along the beach at low tide to the other headland.

Day 5 – Cath makes more tentative beginner steps with the wave ski. She practices the basics then we both go out the back. I catch a nice wave and stand up. Up ahead Cath paddles in as well. It’s her first proper wave and we ride it in together hooting with her excitement. The surf drops. Snorkel the reef at the take-off area to investigate the rocks that are covered with kelp and growth. They sit just below the surface at low tide. No wonder the bigger waves rear up there. Cups of tea watching the surf ebb and build through the day. Fire, dinner overlooking the ocean, “Brothers” wine. It’s meant a lot to David going surfing up the coast with his brother – to me too. I feel totally spent physically at the end of the day, nothing at all left in the tank.

Day 6 – Another nice small surf and plenty of fun. Cath catches more waves on the ski. We visit Crescent Head and I marvel at the perfect landscape of the headland and beach. It’s one of Australia’s surfing reserves. There is a perfectly formed line of waves curving along the point with a good crowd of surfers even on this small day.

This is the first time I have surfed whenever I’ve liked and for as long as I wanted. I feel satiated now. Normally I can remember each good wave but they all now merge into a deeply happy feeling and sense of great satisfaction at being fit enough and skilful enough and strong enough to be able make the most of the high quality swell here. It’s a marvellous way to start retirement from full time work. It seems like a rare treasure of health, personal financial security and the astonishing chance of being born in the lucky country. What bliss. What luxury. Gratitude. Fire, stars, the full moon hung in a Norfolk Island pine silhouette.