Melbourne: Less Crappy Than Giardia

I don’t know if there is some sort of international city motto committee, but if there is, I should be appointed head chairman. “We gather strength as we go”, pffffft…  mine has a lot more zing.  No pun intended.

I didn’t get any pictures of Canberra last week, and it’s a shame because it’s quaint little artsy city.  So how about a few pics from Christchurch that I never posted up instead.

Punting down the river Avon:

Chess at Cathedral Square:

Little Asian dude was unstoppable.  Watching him try to move the king was rather funny though.

Cathedral Square at night:

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I spent my time in Canberra running from shop to shop trying to get supplies for my trip up to Blue Lake.  I learned at the last minute that we would be climbing in the foothills below Australia’s highest point, Mount Kosciusko.  I had three T-shirts and a fleece in my pack.

I got an invite to climb at Blue Lake from a random on the internet and jumped on it, not knowing anything about the area.  Nick was so kind to not only invite me along, but came all the way into town to pick me up at the hostel so I could crash at his house the night before.  After dinner we were hanging out in the backyard watching the storm roll in when a pair of ‘birds’ landed on the tree next to us.  He called them birds, in the states you’d find them in an exotic pet store being sold as parrots.  I commented on the uniqueness of Australian fauna, and my desire to see the kangaroos before I left the country.  “Wanna take a walk, there’s heaps of them just down the street.  Yeah, right on the side of the road.  Close enough you can kick one if you want”.  I assured Nick that I had no desire to kick a kangaroo, and off we went.  He wasn’t lying, they’re everywhere:

 

 

It’s funny that they wouldn’t move when you drove past them, but on foot they’re rather timid.  Well, all of them except for this guy:

 

Blue Lake

The blue lake trip was fantastic.  Met up with a great group of very experienced climbers, a lot of them helped develop the area.  The weather was pretty good, for an alpine setting.  It was still a bit wet from the storm that passed through on Friday night, but we found some dry granite to climb.  I partnered up with a  motivated climber name Ken, so I spent most my time climbing instead of taking shots.  I’m still waiting to see if I get some pics from the others that were there.  A couple that I shot:

 

The clouds to the left of Ken are literally to the left of him, not above:

Camping Saturday night as the weather moved in:

Ken just happened to be heading through to Arapiles from Blue Lake and invited me along.  He was a strong climber, with a rack of gear, knowledge of the area, and a car.  Things couldn’t have worked out better… until I woke up Sunday morning

I had been told by the locals that the creek water was the cleanest in the country.  It was against my better judgment to drink it straight from the stream, but they were doing it, so…  when in Rome.  One of the older guys chimed in “Aw mate, you don’t want to drink the water, there’s giardia in there”.  Great.  I had second thoughts about sitting in a car for 12 hours driving down to Arapiles so I headed back to Canberra to recoup.  The next morning I found the only hostel in town was booked, so I caught the night bus down to Melbourne.  Been here for a couple days healing up and getting plans set for Arapiles.  I’m glad to say I don’t have giardia, but I’ll leave out any further details of my trials and tribulations for the sake of my readers.  I’m taking off tomorrow for Arapiles with a local who’s heading up, and I’m going to float around with different partners I’m met online and see what happens. It’s prime season up there, the weather’s perfect, lots of people to climb with, and the Goatfest party is next week.  Should be good times.  There’s not much there except rock, so this will probably be it for awhile.  See you then…

Dogs on Lead

Lead \ˈlēd\

transitive verb ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan; akin to Old High German leiten to lead, Old English līthan to go ------------------------------ 1a: to guide on a way especially by going in advance ------------------------ 1b: In Rockclimbing – the first person to climb, anchoring in the rope as he or she progresses upward. On lead.

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Kiwi’s are hardcore, eh? They even make their dogs lead.

I found a sport climbing Pomeranian that I wanted to to ship back to my friend Snupes so it could hang draws for him on his long-standing project Luscious (5.11-), but the kennel owner said I’d insult the breed. He said that sport climbing starts at 5.12, and recommended getting a less ethical bloodline, like a French Poodle. Sorry Snupes, maybe you’ll send next year.

Perhaps I’ve just been on the road too long, my sense of humor has turned from eccentric to just plain odd. The sign absolutely cracked me up. I can only imagine what the kiwi’s were thinking watching some Yank tourist taking pictures of sign. Well, I liked the pics so much I decided to change the name of my blog. Since this trip seems to be getting more centered around climbing I though it was apropos, and more original than AWOL. So there you go. In case you were wondering.

Canberra: Better Than Sydney

That's what their motto should be anyway. I hightailed it out of Sydney yesterday in the pouring rain, jumping on a bus for the national capital - Canberra. I arrived to find mild dry weather and a centralized, laidback little town with an artsy flair. Very nice.

Spent most the day running around town spending WAY too much money on stuff I have sitting in bins back home. I didn't realize when I linked up with some local climbers that I'd be heading up to do some Alpine climbing. It's suppose to be a high of 10 c.

http://www.canberraclimbing.org.au/news/blue-lake-weekend.aspx

Looks like some fantastic granite, a place called Blue Lake. Be back on Sunday.