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Australia's first 9a(35) 31-Mar-2016 At 1:47:29 AM deep Van Winkle

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Well, well ! My first post-inaugural post and it's taken over a year since joining. Asked Joe about Albatross 23 tonight and he replied that although having been there and at least seen the line, he couldn't remember much about it but that if he had done something significant like actually freeing it, then he would have retained the memory.
Some of you may be interested to hear the circumstances which led me to meet Joe who seemingly hasn't climbed for several decades and whom i don't remember actually ever meeting in the 70s or 80s. I was at Bowen Mt in the lower Blue Mtns visiting my father-in-law and his partner, a lifelong bush regenerator and ecologist, who introduced me to this Joe character who was staying at their place for a while and researching certain east coast rainforest species like "Red Cedar". Sniffing each other out by dropping botanical nomenclature in a similar way climbers will, with varying subtlety, quickly ascertain on meeting a new unknown climber whether they're a bumbly or hardcore, talk turned to lithophilic Australian Dendrobium orchids and words or terms he used must have aroused suspicions, so I asked if he'd ever climbed or similar. On admitting he used to climb a bit I might have asked "What, like a bit of abseiling or top-roping in the scouts or something?"
He replied "Well I wrote this book called 'Classic Climbs of Australia' ". Penny dropped.
"What about you" he asked. "Ermm, did a few 2nd or 3rd ascents of some of your big mid 70s Moonarie routes with Col Reece, maybe removing the odd aid. Some of your pitches on Buffalo north face".
That was about a year ago, not too long after my comeback and have met Joe a few times since.