Acting tourist and partying in Sydney

We finally got to climb a little in the Bluies, and realised that we have to go back there some day. The climbing there is totally different from Araps, with a lot of small crimping and friction that eat skin faster that I though was possible.

Friday night we drove to Sydney and visited Lina, a friend from Trondheim. As we were going out to a place with "dress code", and me and Inga just have climbing clothes with us, we ended up borrowing dresses and shoes from the girls there. It was quite a shock going from staying in the bush for 5 weeks, to a hip night club in Sydney. On Saturday we went to see the famous Opera House + Sydney Harbour Bridge, and we took the ferry over to Manly, just to be a "normal" tourist for a day. Sydney is a nice city, and I would say it has a beautiful harbour, but one day was enough.

We have now landed in Christchurch, NZ, and spent the afternoon jogging in the city park. Chistchurch is the size of a city that suites us much more than Sydney. We also found the most amazing restaurant: "Octagon Live". It's an old church wich has been turned in to a beautiful restaurant, and they had live music with both guitar, piano, organ and singing. The food was really good, and we even got a lot of discount, just because the people were so nice there. It was the perfect way to spend the night in Christchurch. Now we can't wait to go back to the bush, and first stop is Castle Hill for some frictionless bouldering.

Lina enjoying the ferry to Manly.

Whoa. Clean and dressed up girls. That's the first time in 5 weeks.

Sydney Opera House. Been there, done that.

The cool restaurant which used to be a church.

Last week in Aussie land.

After two weeks in Araps we have accomplished our first goal: to climb 19 (6/6+) on trad. And since we still haven't really climbed in the Bluies yet, it was time to drive back north. It was sad to leave our french guy Joris and Thu & Dave from Calgary, but we're looking forward to more sports climbing again. Yesterday was warm and sunny, the total opposite of the 5 degrees we had three weeks ago, but unfortunately, a storm hit the mountains today, and we got an unwanted day of rest. Sadly we just have three more days in Australia...time passes too fast.

Amazing Arapiles!

Monday we drove further south, passing trough Melbourne to buy climbing guides, and ended up in Arapiles. We have now spent 4 days climbing both single and several multi pitches and we are liking trad more and more. Arapiles has become of my favourite places. It has funny birds and kangaroos, a superb campground (the Pines) where we have met a lot of great people from all over the world, and of course: TOTALLY AWESOME CLIMBING. We now head for the Grampians, one hour away, where there are enough hard routes for a life time (both sport and trad).

Mmm. Brownies made on the fire is good!

The Woody. V4. Really cool tree boulder.

Inga on Tannin (19)

Bluies and Nowra

Finally arriving in the Bluies, it was freezing cold and a lot of wind. We climbed there for two days, but then we decided to go to Nowra in stead, and come back later when it is less windy. Of course, I forgot my wallet (or it is hidden vey well somewhere in our van) in the petrol station on the way down. I have not managed to contact them yet; they have no excisting telephone number! Nowra is a boring town, but a great climbing spot. We stay at a camping area where we can just paddle over the river, and then we're at the crag! We have had two perfect climbing days with 20 degrees and sunny weather. The sandstone has amasing friction, Fontainebleau is not even close, but you feel it in the fingers after a couple of days. The plan for tomorrow is of course more climbing, and then we might drive south to the Arapiles. It is just unfortunate that it might rain the following days. Check out Inga's blog for more photos at ingavatne.blogspot.com.




Spinning Blades of Steel. Utrolig kult takoverheng. Grad 20 (ca. 6+/7-).