To the Blueys!!
After leaving Yamba, I made a short
(unsuccessful) jaunt back up to Lennox/ Ballina in search of some
waves. The waves weren't great but I at least got wet a few times. I
also watched the dismal superbowl at some semi empty bar in Lennox.
In the end it was nice to cruise around and say farewell to the beautiful stretch of
coast that is Northern New South Wales.
Next, I made my way down the Pacific Highway looking
for surf here and there but not finding much. I did, however, end up wandering into some more
pretty spectacular empty beaches. On the way down I decided to take a
side trip up to the mountains above Coffs Harbor which are home to
the 'Dorrigo World Heritage Rainforest'. It was a rainy rainforest indeed. Nevertheless, I went on a very unique and enjoyable hike through
a wonderfully lush prehistoric jungle. The trees were giant, very
green and ancient with a thick canopy that was home to all kinds of
birds and apparently a few pythons. There was a 'skywalk' through the
canopy where I saw plenty of birds, but unfortunately no pythons
(probably because they are nocturnal). On the forest floor we spotted
a few wallabees, many lizards and turkeys and I forget what else.
This forest was definitely crawling with critters, which was pretty
cool. Eventually our track took us past a few pretty cool waterfalls,
the swimming holes at the base looked nice for a hot day, but this
day was not. I did decide to get up close and personal with the
running waterfall only to discover that there were leeches
everywhere! These little suckers are harmless, yet every bit as gross
as you might imagine. They intently stick on to you and suck your
blood. When you try and flick them off, they kinda flex and stick
straight out before curling back up into a little goo-ball that are
stuck to your legs. When you eventually do flick em off, you bleed
for longer than you feel like you should due to some anti-coagulants
in their suckers. Gross!
After my Rainforest tour I swung
through Sydney to meet up with my friend Marie from college. Marie is
a French transplant who is loving the Sydney life and was 'keen' to
show me around the Bluies. We caught up and ate dinner at her place;
she was nice enough to let me take a (necessary) shower and crash on
her comfy futon. Bright and early the next morning we made the
pleasant and remarkably quick drive into the Blue mountains. It's
really amazing how quickly you go from urban to full on 'bush' in
Australia. In no more than half an hour, we were out of the suburbs
of Sydney and winding our way up into the mountains passing a few
interesting small towns along the way.
On the drive I was surprised that I
didn't see a whole lot in the way of cliffs... Shoot is this place
over hyped? Is it just not that extensive an area? WRONG!! Turns out
the highway and most of the roads are on a large plateau from which
the 'escarpments' plunge away into deep and wide canyons. As Marie
led the way down a short and very well maintained
trail/rock-staircase (did I mention the Aussies don't mess around
when it comes to breaking trail?), it quickly became abundantly clear
that this place was holding the goods, and a LOT of it. These
escarpments consist of tall gently overhanging orange and grey
sandstone cliffs which are amazingly featured and contain some
fantastic gritty rock. I would describe the rock here as
a hybrid of the sandstone at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky and the
good varnished stuff at Joshua Tree. If that sounds amazing to you,
that's because it is. It's like this stuff was made to be climbed on!
I was determined to have an easy day of
climbing with Marie, but alas I failed. It's just really hard not to
get pumped silly here. The lines are steep, featured and inspiring.
The climbing is a great mixture of technical vertical climbing, pumpy
overhangs and thuggy roofes. Edges, pinches, sidepulls and pockets,
you'll find em all and probably on the same pitch. My mind is
officially blown. I may never leave here.
After flailing around with a patient
Marie belaying me, I checked into the Blue Mountains Backpackers in
Katoomba where I a met few Aussie guys who were going cragging the
next couple of days. I joined their excursion and ended up at an epic soaring sport crag called
'Upper Shipley's'. The money routes in my grade range consisted of
about 50 feet of awesome techy vertical climbing leading to a nice
rest on a horizontal break before launching out into the steeps on
amazing edges and jugs. I felt thoroughly out of shape and got pumped
out of my mind way too quickly. Fortunately, I left the weekend with
a few projects and plenty of psyche to get back in shape!
At Shipley's, I met my new
homie/climbing partner for the next couple weeks called Dominic. Dom
is from Canada, and is young, energetic and climbs hard. He's taking
a couple years to travel the world before starting university (which
I think is a phenomenal idea!). He's living out of a backpack which
has: a tent, a rope, quickdraws and a lot of cans of tuna and not a
whole lot else. Frankly, I thought I had this dirtbag climber thing
pretty dialed, but Dom is on a whole 'nother level. I'm camped out in
the parking lot at Shipley's and his tent is pitched nearly at the
crag. We've been climbing pretty much every day, sometimes working
out afterwards before cooking cheap, healthy and delicious meals on
our stoves. I'm spending pretty much zero dollars and having the most
fun I've had on the trip so far. Check out the edit and a few photos
of my first week of climbing in OZ! (The other/ more badass climber in the vid is Dom)
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| Three sisters |
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| Upper and Lower Shipley's |
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| Crags for days |
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| Thuggy sportclimbing |
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| A close-up of the goods |
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| Wave Wall |
