Roadtrip to Arapiles

The BU Sydney "spring" semester (technically it's fall here in Australia) ended as abruptly as it began back in January. All of sudden, it was the end of the program, students were flying home, and I was gearing up for a two-week adventure down to Mt Arapiles, a mythical climbing spot in Western Victoria.

My first kangaroo spotting!

Oli was here visiting for his second trip down under, he couldn't get enough of Sydney (and the Blue Mts) the first trip in March, so he was back just in time for my holiday time. We left town on a train, up to Katoomba to meet my friend Nathan and begin our 14-hr journey to Araps. We drove out of the Blueys towards Lithgow, then Bathurst, then to the middle of nowhere for a long time-- we finally hit the bustling metropolis (just kidding) of Wagga Wagga sometime around 11pm.

Climbing outside Wagga Wagga at Rock Hill

Wagga Wagga is the largest inland city in Australia...which isn't saying much at all. We camped 40 minutes outside of Wagga, near "The Rock," (also aptly named Rock Hill, because that's exactly what it is). We made this slight detour to climb for a day at Rock Hill, similar climbing to Araps because of the quality of the rock, plus it's on trad. We made camp under a little shelter, woke up early to spot two kangaroos not too far away in the woods. One of them even had a little joey poking out of its pouch. It was the first time I (and Oli) had seen a kangaroo in the wild-- and it was everything I had hoped for. They are awesome creatures! And only found on this continent, which is rad. Friday we spent most of the day climbing, two routes that were under 16, both on trad. The second climb was up a magnificient crack, then out from under a roof to the top. I was slightly terrified, but Nath was right behind me on a second rope so it was all good.

Bomber anchor

[For those of you reading this and not sure what trad is, it stands for "traditional climbing" or placing your own protection. Instead of fixed bolts like in sport climbing, trad revolves around natural protection, or not leaving anything permamnent in the rock. It's a totally different headspace and mentality than sport. Gear includes wires (also called nuts), and cams (also called "friends"). Depending on the rock and your options for placing gear, you can choose between wires, cams or slings.]

I'm the master of the slings

We hit the road around 2pm to continue to drive south, I had been driving for only 20min when I got pulled over in Nowhere Ville, and slapped with $200 speeding fine. Here's the thing: they have these huge stretches of road with 100km/hr speed limits (about 60mph), but these little towns are scattered every 10km, where the speed limit abruptly changes to 50k/hr. Before you know it, you're no longer cruising but going very fast in a small town. Anyway, I had to learn my lesson the hard way. Kept me in line for the rest of the trip! I didn't go a single kilometer over the speed limit. Albury NSW, right on the border of NSW and VIC was our next pitstop for groceries, petrol and lunch, before we began the long haul to Arapiles. We drove all through the night, past these little country towns in rural Victoria with nothing more than a pub and a sorry little petrol station. It was awesome though to see this side of Australia--small town Australia. The past 10 months I've been living here I've stuck to the main cities on the East Coast; this was a real transformation and a true insight into the heart of this country.

After hitting Horsham, it was after midnight by the time we pulled into the campsite at Arapiles, the Gums, not the Pines since that's where the majority of the hippie climbers (and schoolkids) camp. Oli and I quickly pitched our tent, took turns blowing up the stupid air mattress (why didn't we spend an extra $10 on a stupid pump!?).

And the next day commence 12 days of amazing climbing....

Friday Night Lunacy

The month of April flew by! I feel like I'm still plotting my April Fool's Day pranks, and the month is already over! I spent a lot of time exploring more of Sydney this month, including going to the Marrickville Organic Farmers' Markets, going to Luna Park with Olly and lawn bowling in Coogee for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Summer is finally ended, but it's been a long run. With summer beginning in October, and finally realizing that it's over by the end of April, that's a solid 5 months of summer! As soon as the weather turned the slightest bit chillier, on come the winter coats, the hats & scarves, the high leather boots. Even I've started complaining that it's bloody cold even though I'm a New England native. Last Saturday Olly and I decided to head to Luna Park for a fun Saturday night out-- we were like two kids running around and trying all the rides in Luna Park. I faced my fears and went on the rollerscoaster (ignoring, ahem, the 6 year-olds in line...) and other rides that have you swirling and spinning around. The view from the ferris wheel at night is spectacular, with the Harbour Bridge and Opera House below.

Climbing Away in the Blueys

Nice and relaxed at Sweet Dreams...

With Oli here, we were both motivated to get back up to the Blue Mountains, two hours outside of Sydney, to spend the weekend climbing before he flew back to France on Monday morning. Oli went up Friday morning (while I had to work!  So unfair.) and did an 8-pitch climb in the Grose Valley, an epic climb called Hotel California. The winds however were howling, and they had hours of battling strong winds. By the time I took the train up Friday afternoon, we had enough time for a few climbs at Medlow Bath, despite the intense wind. Barbecue at my mate's Nath's place before Oli and I hit the hay, gearing up for a big day on Saturday.

Ginger beer

Saturday morning we took our time in Leura, stopped for a coffee and croissant before driving to Sublime Point to start Sweet Dreams (14). We had tried a few weeks ago with Nath to do this multi-pitch, but by the time we got to the bottom of the crag along a narrow pathway on the side of the cliff, the climb was dripping with water from all the recent rains. This time we had our fingers crossed for drier conditions-- and it was perfect. Sweet Dreams is a rare find-- a long multi pitch, with gorgeous views (the Three Sisters in the background) but an easy 5 pitches, all graded low. We finished the 200m climb in less than 2 hrs, and still had enough steam and motivation to drive back to Medlow Bath and do another multi-pitch. The first pitch was a gorgeous grade 18, with big hand holds and really nice moves. The crux was at the roof, where you have to hoist yourself up with no footholds. I tried to make it in one move but needed to rest before on the rope. We topped out with a 15 and then walked our way back down barefoot (we left our shoes at the base, oops)

Olly on his new favourite climb

Sunday morning was gloomy and gray, so we relaxed the morning and drove back to Leura to a cozy café for our coffees. We waited for the rain to clear before we headed to Blackheath so Olly could climb a few hard 24 & 25 grades at Centennial Glen. The place was absolutely magical. Surrounding the glen were the crags, orange rock spotted with chalk marks. There wasn't a single climb under 20 (I've climbed so far up to 18 so this was out of my league) but the place was spectacular. In the centre of the glen is a small canyon, with a beautiful waterfall. We had to walk around the length of the glen to get over to the farthest wall, Wave Wall, but the walk was so peaceful and serene. Along the way, we met other climbers all working on their own personal projects. Wave Wall was wicked, with a low over-hanging roof. Olly nailed it, with 3 climbs in a row. I was belay-bitch for the morning, but I was feeling particularly unmotivated to climb, so it was perfect.

Olly sending a 25 at Wave Wall

Fuddy no longer so duddy!

Once the sun came out, we shot back over to Narrowneck peninsula in Katoomba, and got ready for our 3-pitch trad climb called.... Fuddy Duddy! Gotta love the name.

The chimney and 3rd pitch in Fuddy

It was my first time climbing entirely on trad, although it didn't make a huge difference since I was seconding on the rope. It just meant that instead of unclipping a quickdraw, I had to work to get each cam or nut out. Olly did the real work by placing all the gear!
The second pitch was all one big crack, Olly placed a cam every 2m or so but it was very particular climbing. I had to get out of face-climbing mode, and get into the crack by placing my feet on either slab and my hands in the crack. The last pitch was super fun, with a chimney so skinny at the top that you could baaaaarely squeeze your body in between! We finally moved out of the chimney on to the arête to top it out. Et voilá, our last climb in the Blueys before we headed back to Sydney and Olly caught his train the following morning at 6am.

Pour mes amis francais! Pour ce dernier week end de 3 jours avec Olivier en Australie nous avons loué une voiture pour aller grimper dans les blues moutains. Notre point d'attache se trouve à Katoomba chez Jimmy and Nathan. Nous allons faire 3 jours d'escalade pour profiter du superbe rocher que nous offre les blue mountains, le "sandstone". Vendredi Olivier grimpe seul une voie mythique "Hotel California" pendant que je travailles. Je rejoins en 2h de train Katoomba directement aprçs mon travail pour aller grimper avec olivier et mes potes le reste de la journée.
Le lendemain, samedi, on prends le temps de faire le petit dejeuner en ville avec un bon café et des croissants, no stress ! L'objectif du jour est une voie en 8 longueurs "Sweet Dream", magnifique mais plutot facile puisque ne dépassant pas le 5b... L'escalade est cependant magnifique et l'impression de vide très présente. Vraiment parfait ! Le soir nous allons faire une autre petite voie en deux longueurs que Nathan nous avait conseillé. Dimanche c'est notre dernier jour d'escalade et c'est aussi le dernier jour d'Olivier en Australie. On en profite donc au maximum et après le café rituel à Leura nous allons grimper à "Centiennal glen". Un site impressionnant mais trop difficile pour moi. Mais olivier a envie de faire quelques voies dures et ca tombe bien parce que ce matin je ne suis pas très motivée. L’après-midi après un bon pic nic au soleil nous allons vers le vrai objectif du jour : une voie en trad de 5 longueurs avec une cheminée étroite de 30 cm... C'est parfait et c'est pour moi l'occasion de faire ma première voie de trad. Ça ne change pas grand chose pour moi, il faut juste retirer le matériel qu'Olivier met soigneusement en place pour protéger l'escalade. Mais cela rajoute quelques choses et un nouveau jeux à l'escalade.
Nous rentrons sur Sydney vers 21h... olivier fait son sac, on se couche à 00h30 pour se lever à 04h00 et aller à l'aéroport !
Voila comment se termine très brutalement ces trois semaines ou nous avons profiter de tous les instants jusqu'à la fin pour grimper, rigoler voyager et vivre à fond !

Placing gear: trad climbing

40m abseil down Narrowneck

Copy cats!

Finisher!

Perfect napping spot, only 200m high!

Exploring New Zealand's South Island

Little lambies in NZ!

My friend Olivier is visiting from France! We spend a glorious 10 days cruising around New Zealand in a rented campervan, covered in flowers and butterflies, and called "The Hippie Camper." And hippies we sure felt like! We slept overnight parked in forgotten fields, bathed in freezing cold glacier-fed rivers and sniffed out the cheapest eats (actually that's not true--we ate quite a lot of Ferg Burgers. Go to Queenstown and you'll understand why)

Our hippie campervan was simply delightful

From Christchurch, we bypassed the city and headed straight for Mount Cook in the center of the South Island. The landscape is gorgeous, with the Southern Alps in the distance and rolling hills covered in yellowish green grass. We stopped overnight at Lake Tekapo, a crystal clear lake with the outline of Mount Cook in the distance. In front of Mt Cook is yet another arrestingly blue lake (if there's one thing this tiny country has, it's fresh water! And sheep.) fed by a glacier. Steep, jagged mountains, green hills and the lake that is bleu pétant, water the color of the Caribbean!

We hiked around, a beautiful route that takes you over a few cable bridges over a pumping river. All around the valley you can see the destruction of the glacier as it tore away, leaving massive amounts of rocks, morènes and steep rockface. The wind was unbelievable strong, as was the sun! NZ's sun is underestimated how strong it is, within 2 hrs we were both sunburnt.
Next stop was Queenstown, and the drive from Mt Cook to Qt was a highlight of the trip. We were just in awe the whole time of how magnificient the landscape was, how untouched and unsettled. One thing I appreciate most about NZ is their biosecurity laws, and doing their best to keep the country clean. I noticed significantly less rubbish, even though there were very few bins around. Another aspect that I loved (as would my mom) is that there are public toilets everywhere, and I mean clean public loos practically every 10km on the road! I'm convinced that this aids significantly to keep the landscape clean because you don't have human waste everywhere, nor people leaving their loo paper in the grass.

Elles sont où les chiottes!?!?!

NZ's vigilance when it comes to the environment is apparent everywhere, and discourages you even further to litter. We were extra vigilant not to leave any waste, and try and find a public loo since they were much more accessible (as compared to China for instance!) This led to our constant giggle fits, and one of the few phrases Oli has perfected in the English language: "Where is the shitter??!!?" The joke stems from his plans to show up here in Australia, kicking down my door and using this incredibly useful phrase. It became our favourite inside joke all over NZ, with a photo op wherever we could of me kicking down the door.

In Queenstown, we stayed with our gracious host, the lively Perg, who Claire and I climbed with in Yangshuo, China last December. It was great to see him, have some laughs (Pergie has one of the most epics laughs I've ever heard, especially great when he loses it over his own joke!!)
We had one day of cold rain, but by Monday it cleared up and we even climbed a bit at a local crag in Qt. At the crag, I met a guy who lives in the Blueys and we have a mutual friend! Small world. We grabbed some locally brewed Speight's beer with some guys we met at the crag, and then hit the road for Wanaka. We climbed all day the following day with Perg and his two friends Amanda and Jocelyn, with perfect weather. Wanaka is renowned for its climbing scene, and known to generally be graded harder than other regions. I'm not the biggest fan of schist, I prefer limestone or sandstone in the Blueys, but it was a fabulous day regardless. I was still recovering from a sprained finger from a canyoning accident two weeks ago, so unfortunately I wasn't climbing my best!

Pergie!

Climbing = awesome in Wanaka

Bacon n eggs n sandflies

We said our goodbyes to Pergalicous and the girls, and hit the Haast Pass towards the South Island's West Coast. Rugged coastline, lots of forests and lakes and streams everywhere, more stunning scenery every kilometre we drove. The only downside was the pesky sandflies! These things must be little minions of the devil himself, because I have never experienced such a pernicious, indefatigable bug! Perg did well to tell us not to kill the sandfly but simply brush him off (which, obviously, he'll come back for more) If you smack them, they give off pheromones that only attract more sandflies to annoy you! They also refused to die-- we were wave them out the window, where they would only stick to the window despite the wind, with a determination surpassing anything I've ever seen. Needless to say, this created our own special hell in the van for most of the West Coast. By the time we reached Golden Bay, we were used to the little minions devishly biting away at our ankles and eyeballs. Poor Oli was absolutely covered in bites from these little suckers.
We stopped at the Fox Glacier, which flows down from the west side of the Mount Cook, towards the sea. We walked about 2km to the front of the Fox Glacier, and got within 100m of the serac. It was magnifient! We climbed up on the rocks and walked out about 10m on the glacier (to Oli's excitement, and my dismay) My first time on a glacier! Got me excited about the Mont Blanc in September.

Oli doing some real work, upside down on Rawhide Roof

Then a longggg drive to Golden Bay, the very tip of the South Island, where we headed since I had a climbing guide book lent by a friend. It was certainly my favourite part of the trip, since we had 3 days to relax at Takaka, right near the ocean. We had three perfect days of rockclimbing, on fun, slabby yet slopey limestone (more like dolomite). I accomplished a few lead climbs, and successfully did my first 6a climb. There were two main crags: Payne's Ford in Takaka, a long stretch of rock hidden behind a jungly forest. The birds there were fantastic, it sounded like we were in the rainforest as we climbed. There was a river nearby, where we did fun jumps and lay out on the rocks. We also spent a day in Pohara, right on the bay. It was idyllic with the waves gently lapping the rocks, and climbing at Cathedral Wall. There was a beautiful arête that we were looking forward to climbing, but for some reason wasn't equipped. Tant pis.

Paynes' Ford Crag, Golden Bay

Hangdog is the local camp for climbers, run by the friendly Butler family, and filled with chilled out climbers and friendly folk. We recognized a few people from the crag, and stopped by the camp to have a shower. But our favourite scene by far was in Takaka, at the burger shack and then next door to Roots Bar for a glass of pinot noir by the fire.

We tried our best to make our holiday last as long as possible, including stopping for a swim in a river halfway back to Christchurch. I'm already thinking of returning to NZ, this time to drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound and check out the fjordland national park.

Surf Camp 2.0

Back at Seven Mile Beach!

Back to Surf Camp! This month has been packed with activities, from my trip with BU to the Australian capital, Canberra, to canyoning in the Blue Mountains, and Surf Camp down the South Coast. After a long week at work (I'm now working 3 days a week at BU and 2 days a week at an osteo clinic), I was ready to get out of Sydney and head south! The Surf Camp bus picked up Friday night--between our 20 BU students and another 40 other people, we had a very international group. We had a lot of Scandinavians, a few Mexicans, some from the Netherlands and France, and one Australian. Saturday the weather was gorgeous, bright blue skies and a strong sun. With all the time we spent in the water, we all got a lot of sun. I tried desperately to re-apply every chance I got, but that much sun is too much to handle. By Saturday night, my cheeks and nose were bright pink and puffy. Saturday we had a morning lesson, going through the basics, and a Saturday arvo lesson with our instructor, Jordie, from South Africa. The girls in my group did great, by the afternoon they were all catching waves and looking like pros!
The arvo session the waves were quite flat, only a few baby waves every 10 min, so Jordie suggested we play the "ladder game" and hook all our surfboard together, and saw who could walk to the end and back without falling! The results were hillllllarious, especially when a wave would hit and send us flying!

Check out the footage about 1.5 minutes into this video!

After surfing all day Saturday, we packed it in and walked up the world's biggest hill to the Fisherman's Club, also known as The World's Greatest Pub. Well, the view, not the company. Barbecue on Saturday and early bed for me since I was truly exhausted after spending all day in the sun and on a surfboard!

Perfect day for surfing

Sunday morning early rise again at 6am, and in our wetties by 8am. This time the weather wasn't nearly as gorgeous but at least it wasn't raining! Surf in the morning, and our lesson in the afternoon about waves, rips and the best places to surf around Sydney.

Tropfest

On Sunday, I accompanied our group of students to the airport for their 4-day fieldtrip to Melbourne. Peace at last! I enjoyed having the building all to myself, the peace and quiet, while all the staff & students were in Melbourne. Sunday morning I had brunch at sunny Cafe Giulia, where they make a mean soy flatwhite and even better waffles. I biked to Newtown to feed the kitty cats, and then met up with my new friends Kaye and Claire to go to Camp Cove in Vaucluse. What a GORGEOUS drive to get there-- you're up high, looking out on the entire harbour and Sydney. It's stunning. We lounged on this quiet beach all day, my first time at a harbour beach! Since there are no waves, the water is calm and warm, perfect for swimming and a cool-down. We had famous Doyle's fish n' chips on the pier, and then hitched it to TROPFEST! This is the world's largest short film festival, started here in Sydney 20 years. The founder wanted to screen a friend's short film in Tropicana Cafe in Darlinghurst, and every year the crowd grew a little more until it finally became the world's largest festival in short film. They screen them out in the Domain, attached to the Royal Botanic Gardens, with the palm trees and Opera House as a backdrop. We got great seats despite showing up so late, right in front of the 4-sided screen. Claire bought a few cases of beers, and it felt like the perfect summer moment. Cold beers after a sunny beach day, good friends and free short films in the park.
I loved the first one, with this old couple who play practical jokes on each other about the other one dying. For example, the husband fakes a heart attack to make his wife laugh, and in turn, she pretends to fall down the stairs to get him to chuckle. You'll have to find out how it ends.... Very sweet.

There were 16 in all, and the festival had quite the star-studded panel: Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Toni Colette and others. Sammy and Az even got VIP tickets to sit just behind the celebs!
About halfway through the screening, clouds rolled in and we got a drizzle, then rain and then a DOWNPOUR, absolute deluge of rain. The girls left fairly early, I stayed to watch as many films as I could but high-tailed it outta there when thunder and lightning started to crack overhead. But with the lightning as a backdrop to "Min Min", a suspense film set in the Blue Mts...it was unreal.
"Lemonade Stand" ended up winning 1st place, a sweet, heart-warming, quirky film about a grandfather/grandson relationship....and the neighborhood bully.
Check it out online!

A Good Start to 2012

Rocky Creek Canyon

Has it really been 3 months since my last blog entry? Oops. Well, between rockclimbing in Yangshuo, China and sunbathing in Bali for a month, and the start of a busy semester here in Sydney, let's just say it hasn't exactly made the priority list! But I'm determined to blog and keep in touch about my recent activities, especially as the new year kicks off (Shhh, I know it's nearly March 1...)

Endless fun. You can climb up the right side and jump off as many ways as you'd like!

I had a great start to the New Year with a day-trip to two beautiful canyons in the Blue Mountains, with my new friends Glenn and Nathan (I met Glenn thanks to my sister Claire, they met in China at the Roctrip). I met up with Glenn for a day in the Blueys to get out and climb--to my dismay, I was absolutely rotten. I was already pumped during my first climb, and wasn't used to the rough edges of sandstone. Believe me, I was spoiled for choice over in Yangshuo with all that limestone goodness, and my fingers simply weren't ready for the cutting edge of sandstone. Still, I managed to claw my way to top, while Glenn looked on with a look of half pity, half revulsion -- not unlike seeing a parent throw up from drinking too much booze.

Water slide!

I was cuit as I like to say in French, or "cooked" by 2 climbs (pathetic, I know) but I was captivated by Glenn's climbing. He was trying to finish an incredibly hard climb, I could barely keep up with him on the belay end. It was like watching a monkey climb up a steep rock face! I've never seen anyone climb like that, and believe me it was inspiring.

The picturesque Rocky Creek canyon

I was back in the mountains that weekend, for a fun day of canyoning before Glenn kicked off to Thailand/China for 5 months (lucky bastard...) I met his friend Nathan, who also happens to be a guide for High n' Wild (the company BU uses to take our students canyoning every semester). His friend Amy was along for the ride, so we all hopped in and drove about an hour into the middle of the bush. The Blue Mts have the 2nd highest concentration of canyoning (after the Grand Canyon region in the US), and there are over 400 in the region. Luckily, canyoning is Nathan's passion and he has explored over 200 of them. Our day was pure fun and adventure-- we didn't need harnesses since there were no abseils, only wetsuits and LOTS of jumps. I love the jumps! In Twister canyon, we found a slide that you could climb back up, so you could do it as many times, to your heart's delight. There was also a very high jump, probably the highest I've ever jumped from...Maybe 10 ft? 12? No idea. Well it was high but I loved it.

My biggest jump yet!

Glenn thought it was a bright to climb into the tree high above and jump from there...Bright idea!
We bushwalked for another half hr to Rocky Creek, the second canyon for the day. It's a beautiful, picturesque canyon, but I found it wasn't as much fun as Twister. Not as many jumps!

In early Feb, I organized a BU trip to the Blue Mts to do Empress Falls. I must have talked it up because 40 students signed up! It was quite popular this semester. We had four groups, three of which did Empress Falls and another group who did Grand Canyon. The morning was beautiful weather for the lesson on how to abseil-- the sun was out, which meant all the eucalyptus were hazy blue in the distance. Luckily both Jimmy and Nathan were our guides, so we got to hang out all day.
A little rain and wind during lunch, but before we knew it, the rain had cleared and blue sky again! Weather in the Blueys can be quite temperamental..
This was by far the most fun I've had doing Empress (now my 3rd time). With all the rain, there was SO much water in the canyon, which made for better jumps and a more intense abseil at the end with the water pumping out of the 30m-high waterfall. Nathan showed me and the boys a little trip to climb back up through a rock (you have to crawl through a tiny hole, thru which all that water is gushing) to redo the jump. It added a new dimension and lot more intensity to the canyon.
Our students did a fantastic job with the abseil, they rocked it! It's amazing to see that only that morning they'd learnt how to abseil, and now they were doing down a 30m waterfall!

abseiling down the depths of Zorro Canyon

I stayed over Sat night and crashed on Jimmy & Nath's couch, up early with Nathan and Glenn's bro Neil to do another canyoning. The time it was my first "dry" canyon, which means there's little water in the canyon. There were a few abseils and lots of adventures traipsing around the bush trying to find this mythic canyon. But thanks to Nathan and Neil's orienteering skillz  using a map and compass (I was profoundly useless...sorry Girl Scouts) we found Zorro Canyon. As usual there was a surprise around every bend, and an hour later we abseiled our way out of the canyon and back into the bush. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do Sunnyside canyon, only one for the day. The road back was over an hour, and thankfully we were in a 4-wheel drive Land Rover because the terrain was rough. I've never been so tossed and turned in a car before, felt like we were on safari.