NSW South Coast Roadie

South Coast Roadie

The last couple of weeks have been a been pretty sweet so I thought I should inform the blogosphere about the wonders of Southern NSW. I left the blueys on a high note after sending a couple of killer sport climbs that I had tried at the beginning of my time there. Sofie (my new climbing/roadtripping partner in crime) and I descended the misty blue mountains aiming for the coast. We landed in a small town on Port Hacking called Bundeena just south of Sydney. There is a large coastal national park that surrounds this town. Sofie set of on an epic coastal trek while I swam around in the beautiful blue waters of Port Hacking.

Sure beats the cubicle view

We reconvened some 15k or so south (Sofie has a lot of energy even on rest days!) and then headed down the coast towards a sportclimbing destination called Nowra. After passing this awesome headland with hangliders and parasailors, we stopped at a little coastal nook called Coalcliff. I surfed some small clean little peaks with no leash a stones throw from a nice sandy little beach. Around sunset, some local groms and loggers paddled out and shared the waves. The vibe was really mellow and awesome. I asked the lifeguard at the end of his shift if we could camp out at the beach. He says, 'Not really, but once I'm gone mate, nobody's gonna bother ya'. Needless to say we stayed... I woke up to a beautiful sunrise at an empty beach. I crawled outta my bunk grabbed my board and surfed some more fun little beachbreak nugs then feasted on some delish breakie.

Awesome parasailing and hangliding spot, looked fun as!!

Me n Sofie on the road

We played around in the ocean some more and tried to get Sofie standing on a couple waves using my finless shortboard which was pretty entertaining. Then rolled to the spectactular seacliffs at Pt. Perpendicular in Jervis Bay. I can't tell you how beautiful this place was. I'll let the pics do the talking.

Pt. Perp lighthouse

Jervis Bay Sunrise

After this we made our way down the coast to Nowra. Everything I had heard about Nowra was that it was a greasy little sport crag in a shit redneck/bogan town. What I didn't know was that the climbing overlooks a beautiful lazy brackish river with some pretty great fishing! The campground sits right across the river from the main area and offers free canoes, tennis rackets, courts and cheap hot showers. The setup was epic and we stayed longer than anticipated.

My first fish!

The climbing was better than expected too and I found myself climbing until I was wrecked day after day. Nowra has a diverse array of routes: nice edges on vertical walls, thuggy intimidating roofs with awesome features and jugs, steep pumpfests on good pockets. After spending the first few days doing a tour of the classic easier stuff, Sofie picked out a neat looking 24/12a called Pale Yellow Underwear. I was more psyched to try other lines, but Sofie was keen to hop on it. Turned out to be a radical route with really interesting moves up the wall before culminating in a radical dyno. I came close to sending the first day, but just didn't have the juice to stick the dyno on the link from the ground.

We took a rest day the next day and checked the waves at nearby Werri Beach. There was nothing doing on this day but a major swell was forecasted for the next few days. I went to bed that evening psyched and was planning on a big day of surf and project sending. Turns out the river got the best of me; I woke up the next morning feeling a little bit feverish and my foot was throbbing. A barnacle cut I had gotten on a rock in the river had become infected and I needed some anti-biotics. Fortunately the ER experience was pretty simple and I got in and out of there quickly (and fo' free...). Unfortunately this meant I was out of commish for a few days... missed the swell entirely and my climbing project was a bit derailed. After a few days, the road was calling and we needed to get going. On our last day, I was feeling well enough for a few climbs and once I warmed up I was even feeling pretty good and managed to send a popular 23/11c called Still Life. We were leaving the crag and walked past my project... I couldn't not give it a go:

I was soo close!! If I were feeling 100% I reckon it would've gone but alas it remains unticked and our roadtrip continued. Over the next few days we explored a bit of coast south of Nowra down to Bateman's Bay. The swell was really small, so I wasn't getting any waves and was kinda bummed. We spent our time fishing, swimming and snorkeling instead. I even bought a fancy snorkel it preparation for my trip to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef in May.

The best snorkel spot we found was just south of Bateman's Bay and called Broulee Island. I saw all kinds of fish, rays and even a 6ft shark!! The shark was just a toothless sleeping bottom feeder but it was exciting nonetheless. Turns out there's an epic right hand reef/point that wraps around this island. The setup was insane, quite similar to El Capitan in Santa Barbara. While chatting up a local spearfisher/surfer I learned that the spot 'Pink Rocks' had been all-time on that swell I missed a week ago (damn...), but I also learned that another swell was coming in a few days which was forecasted to be similar in size. I decided to stick around the coast an extra few days to catch the swell. It was a bit smaller than forecasted and the spot was just starting to work, but with just a few guys out at this epic setup it was hard to complain. I surfed in the cold rain for as long as I could handle. I came to the beach shivering and feeling weak to swap my shortboard for my smallish wave board. I was on the fence since I was so cold, but decided to jump off the rocks and catch a couple more. Sure enough a couple of proper shoulder high sets came through and I got a couple epic rides all the way around the point into the cove. They just might've been my best rides of the trip so far!

That said we left the coast on a high note and made our way up to Mount Buffalo with the intention of sampling some of the only Australian granite climbing. Weather prohibited us from climbing but we still went on a few cool short walks and hit an epic swimming hole (during a breif sunny spell). This part of the country is really unique and beautiful. Definitely worth a visit! Check out some photos:

Mt. Buffalo

Leaving the Blueys!

Leaving the Blueys!

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, eh? Probably because not much has changed. I've spent the last month in the Blue Mountains climbing pretty much as much as my body could handle, I spent most of the leftover time chilling and playing pool at the Katoomba Backpackers hostel. Aside from the weather, my time in the Blueys was pretty fricken awesome!

Dom and I climbed hard rain or shine right up until he left a couple weeks ago. We were fortunate enough to get a decent weather window to do a multi-pitch sport climb called Rutger Hauer (23/5.11c) at Peirce's Pass just before he left. To get to the base of the route, we had to Absail ~100m to a ledge in the middle of a 200m wall. Locating the rap anchors turned out to be the crux of the day; after wandering around the top of the escarpment for the better part of an hour we finally located the rap station and it was smooth sailing from there. The first rap was pretty wild, a 50m hanging rappel straight down to the next station. Spinning around in space 100+m off the deck was enough to put my stomach in a knot. 

I'll try and put together a quick vid, but here's a few photos from our day:

After Dom left, I met a German climber Sofie who has been backpacking around OZ since October. She's fresh outta high school, but already a backpacking veteran and a strong climber to boot. The last couple of weeks we have been touring the various sport crags that stay dry in the (constant) rain and mist. Fortunately, there are a few, so we have still managed to get some stuff done. We had an epic sesh at 'the Freezer' and we both sent the epic pumpfest Good Big Dog 24/5.12a. On a dryish day we also visited the classic trad/mixed crag at Mt.York. Sofie was psyched and danced up the beautiful wandery slab Exhibition Wall 21/11a, while I hopped on and flailed up some thin/sandy 22 slabs. I ticked a classic pumpy mixed route.The weather finally cleared (breifly; a thick arvo thunderstorm moved in...) on our last day in the Bluey's and I sent some projects on my favorite wall in the mountains, Upper Shipley.

This is the first time I've ever been able to sport climb outside so consistently; despite the conditions, my climbing has improved dramatically (in the Blue Mountains enduro/reachy style), and I've sent some super quality routes at my hardest grades ever! Highlights include: Splitwave 23/5.11c (epic Jug haul with an awesome roof); Good Big Dog at the Freezer 24/12a (Flash; soft; long enduro pumpfest on nice rock with a great deadpoint crux right at the end!); Lardy Lady Lats 22/11b (Stiff; nice techy slab to a wild bouldery sequence through an overhang at the top); Hot Flyer 23/11c (Just next to Lardy Lady; similar but with a longer and more sustained bit through the overhang up top).

Sofie made a last minute change of plans and decided to join me for a roadtrip down the South Coast of NSW (stopping by Point Perpendicular, the thuggy sport climbing in Nowra and hopefully a few surf spots ;) ), potentially through Mt Buffalo, then on to the famed Grampians and at last Arapiles (the 'World's Best Crag'). To be continued!