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Animals living at base of The Protégé

-deano-

13-Nov-2009
3:20:06 PM

The other day, a friend and i went to do The Protégé near Yesterday Gully as part of a Chimney Fiesta day. However, we were thwarted by scary sounding animal.

When rapping in i heard a growl from what sounded like a mutant possum (except scarier). If i made a noise then it cackled back but i couldn’t see anything move. So i got off the rope and tossed a few sticks and stones at a patch of grass just before the base of the route, and it cackled some more. I walked up as close as i dared (not very close at all) and thought i could see something green or blue in the grass. We made some more noise, and they (there were definitely two… or more) didn’t like that.

We couldn’t walk past them, but tried scrambling around the side to try and get a peek at them or maybe come into base of the route from the side (and hopefully still climb it!). But no dice, besides the belayer would have to stand there for ages hoping they wouldnt get their legs bitten off (that's our excuse anyway).

Not sure how long they have been there, or how long they will be there. A couple of weeks ago i was close by (the route is right near 'The Log' -- so much fun!) and didn't hear anything.

Does anyone have any idea what it was? Some sort of lizard? We figured they were parents protecting a nest or something. The more noise/disturbance we caused, the louder and scarier they replied. So we thought "let's just let them have their babies & their family, and we can climb some other pieces of rock". Bit of a shame as the route looks awesome.

ambyeok

13-Nov-2009
3:39:57 PM

The kind of people who like doing chimneys make those kind of noises. Are you sure it wasnt another party setting up for the route?

duglash

13-Nov-2009
5:36:37 PM

could be sleestacks? I think they used to be seen in that area.

Wendy

13-Nov-2009
11:17:33 PM

I heard a similar story of someone climbing Collision Course, not being bothered by bees for a change, but having something growling and spitting at them from inside the horzontal break and pockets. He came down rather rapidly swearing the devil himself was in there.

hero

14-Nov-2009
12:00:36 AM

yes, I came across them on Natimuk Kids Meet Bela Lugosi. Exactly as you described it. Very scary.

pmonks

14-Nov-2009
4:46:38 AM

"Growls when approached"
"May be aggressively protecting a mate or food"

Sounds like the average long term dweller in The Pines!

evanbb

14-Nov-2009
7:33:20 AM

So Yesterday Gully is at Arapiles?

There is a Barking Gecko down there; I found one in the Blueys one day that wasn't happy to see me. I'm guessing it was one of them. Or some other reptile.

hero

14-Nov-2009
11:50:14 AM

"what sounded like a mutant possum."

I'll give you a clue.

ajfclark

14-Nov-2009
11:54:46 AM

On 14/11/2009 evanbb wrote:
>There is a Barking Gecko down there;

Sounds like a euphemism for something else altogether... Like blaming strange noised on the barking spiders...

IdratherbeclimbingM9

15-Nov-2009
9:25:05 AM

On 14/11/2009 ajfclark wrote:
>Sounds like a euphemism for something else altogether... Like blaming
>strange noised on the barking spiders...

~>
>"let's just let them have their babies & their family"

;-)

Paulie

15-Nov-2009
11:40:46 AM

Yeah possums can be pretty damn aggressive and loud and emit very loud growling and cackling noises when you stray close to their nests, if you're lucky tho it might've been a Tiger Quoll which also growls loudly, that'd be very cool but I doubt it was one!

-deano-

27-Nov-2009
3:44:30 PM

well it seems the protege monsters (as we were calling them) have moved on. the grass at the base has thinned out a lot too. still no idea what they were. the dead bird is still there though.

the route is okay. a little bit disappointing, as i was looking forward to a big scary sandbag. but it's still worth doing!

at one point it seemed as though we'd be able to head deep into the bowels, and pop up though a hole between some rocks (like at the back of the belltower), but it's a bit too small.

by the way, the route is about 30m long to a ledge with 2 pins (belay), then it's an easy gully to walk/scramble up.

Wendy

27-Nov-2009
8:42:13 PM

On 27/11/2009 -deano- wrote:

>
>the route is okay. a little bit disappointing, as i was looking forward
>to a big scary sandbag. but it's still worth doing!
>
Have you tried red parrot chasm? I think it's heaps better value.

-deano-

1-Dec-2009
7:03:56 PM

On 27/11/2009 Wendy wrote:
>
>Have you tried red parrot chasm? I think it's heaps better value.

bloody oath it is!
i 2nded it earlier on the original day we went to do the protege and almost fell off (and i'm not joking). anna (who onsighted both electra and wizard of ice around the same time) was cussing the whole way. we both sort of off-widthed and grunted right in the back though -- a week or so later i went back and bridged it much further out, and it is actually quite easy. good fun though.

kieranl

1-Dec-2009
9:17:36 PM

Try Big Chimney at Rosea. Details in the ACA guide and if you want more beta I wrote a TR on it early this year.

There are 15 messages in this topic.