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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Eastern	(General)	(General)	(General)

Author

Kilcunda

Bob Saki

4/02/2010
8:05:26 AM

Too Right and the other spots we roped up were a treat.

Just need a boat to get to that almost cube shaped rock island out there looks like great routes from straight out of the water.

Fish Boy

4/02/2010
6:22:25 PM

Bob, that's called Skull Rock (or the Anser Islands). It is a fair way off, like several kilometres even if it doesn't look it. There has been climbing on it before too, but any landing on the islands is a no go, unless you are with a scientific team or whatever. I started thinking about this a while ago too...

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/8854637.jpg

http://www.foons.com.au/aerial/skull%20rock.jpg

http://www.wpe.com.au/photo/skull.jpg

Bob Saki

5/02/2010
8:22:16 AM

Those photos make it look so tempting. Thanks for posting

Well I can access a boat but that all seems in vain with the restrictions, mind you I have always wondered what the effect Pacfic Gull Poo has on rock in isolation over a long period of time......................

Routes look amazing. I will be back at prom next weeknd with kayak & gear, is here any island we could climb on i.e. the one with two humps, one consisting almost solely of granite?

dalai

5/02/2010
2:06:51 PM

I wonder what the fine would be for climbing on Skull Rock? Could be worth paying for the amazing sport routes that could go up inside that impressive cave!

Fish Boy

5/02/2010
2:51:52 PM

Bob, from my memory there are some nice things to visit out near tongue point (Derby River)...I was surfing so not paying attention to the rocks....elephant is I think it is called, maybe 1 km out? Looks flatish, but you never know.

Kaj

7/02/2010
7:43:32 AM

Well there you go again! "Almost barren feel"? I'm not familiar with this perception of my home country.
"Windswept" maybe. For "barren" I'd look more closely to my new parched home. The "over reaction"
was moderate by my usual raging standard. Can you enlighten me as to what British proclivities you are
used to? Surely you're not jumping on that cliched whinge wagon are you? There's a million different
characters kicking around those islands and most of them don't whinge nearly as much as me. When
they do it's usually sardonic humour lost on many other nationalities : ) In my case the whingeing is
purely my miserable spleen expressing itself. It's increased in frequency since I moved from somewhere
30 minutes cycle ride from God's Own Rock to a place 5 hours drive away from anything more solid and
worthwhile than a cinder pile : (


Paulie

7/02/2010
1:41:07 PM

I would highly advise not going DWS as this area attracts (Kanowna particularly) some of the largest Great Whites in the southern Hemisphere!

"White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) occur in Victorian coastal waters and large animals (3.5–4.5 m) tend to predictably aggregate in particular sites, notably of the breeding sites of the Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) in Victoria (Lady Julia Percy Island, Seal Rocks, Kanowna Island and The Skerries) (Warneke 1995)."

http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/17721/shark_assess_report.pdf

I also read this somewhere else...(that the largest GWS are found off Kanowna area and the Neptunes)....tho I can't find the document anymore.

Bob Saki

8/02/2010
11:08:32 AM

Well Kaj your ranting does take it to a new level I must say. I'll let you ponder on the proclivities I am referring to, the whinge is only a small part of the piece.
Perhaps my use of barren is ill advised but having seen the Irish and Scottish coatlines and the dales and moors of the hinterland the bleak and lifeless feel struck me but there is a charm there. I certainly wasn't using barren as some sort of derogatory term.

I will be back in the UK in Sept and want to have a look at "The Old Man of Hoy" and some other venues, perhaps some grit. No doubt I'll meet some great folk.

I am sorry you are missing home so much but I'm sure you are maing the most of the great rock here that is often worth the drive. I hope this post may elicit a full blown response ;-)

Kaj

8/02/2010
2:38:37 PM

Nah! Not today. I'm too hot and weary. I'll just ask you to please save me the pondering and come clean
on the proclivities. I'm genuinely curious what stereotypes you subscribe to. I'm green (like my homeland)
with envy of your upcoming trip. Look more closely this time and you'll be surprised how much life thrives
in those bleak and barren places. Most of it doesn't stand 8ft high and bounce around for attention
though. You may have to sit still and keep the noise down for the wildlife to come out of hiding. Keeping
still and quite. Not natural propensities for some Aussies, eh? ;-)

widewetandslippery

8/02/2010
2:44:04 PM

Gods own rock? Are you refering to grit? Grit is shit.

Kaj

8/02/2010
7:34:26 PM

Oh boy! I can't argue with that. Just like I can't prove the none existence of gods and unicorns.


Paulie

9/02/2010
8:46:57 AM

On 8/02/2010 Kaj wrote:
> I'm green (like my homeland) with envy of your upcoming trip. Look more closely this > time and you'll be surprised how much life thrives
>in those bleak and barren places. Most of it doesn't stand 8ft high and
>bounce around for attention
>though. You may have to sit still and keep the noise down for the wildlife
>to come out of hiding. Keeping
>still and quite. Not natural propensities for some Aussies, eh? ;-)

Yeah the midges certainly aren't 8ft tall but they still completely distract you from any form of vertical movement in the lowlands...(or sometimes even up high for that matter)so saying, there's a damn good reason it's so green, in fact I'd still be living in the central highlands if it wasn't for that single factor...rain, rain, rain...it drives me insane.

Kaj

9/02/2010
9:37:43 AM

in fact I'd still be living in the central highlands if it wasn't
>for that single factor...rain, rain, rain...it drives me insane.

I lived in Yorkshire in the rainshadow of the Pennines. Climbed 5 days a week in the dales when I was
at home. There it rained only sufficiently to keep the landscape verdant throughout the year. Most
days were dry and a pleasant mild temperature with sun dappling the rock through emerald forests.
Leaves fluttering in the cool gentle breeze. The friction was perfect almost always. Weasels and
stoats scampered through the bracken and over the boulders chasing their lunch, occasionally
stopping to eye us quizzically from close by. The occasional glimpse of shy fallow deer between the
trees. Owls, foxes, badgers along with numerous songbirds and small mammals, the country was
vibrant with fauna of all kinds. At the end of the day we would descend from the rocks, fingers weeping
lymph from our days efforts. Below in the ancient stonebuilt village that straddled the slow flowing
meanders of the Wharfe we would sit in the late evening glow of the summer sun in the beer garden of
a 400 year old pub. There we would rib each other over failed attempts and over exaggerate the drama
of successes, lubricating the tales with well priced fine old traditional ales long into the night.

Well that's how I remember it ; )


nmonteith

9/02/2010
9:54:20 AM

So why did you move to Australia?

Kaj

9/02/2010
11:22:22 AM

I like it down here very much too. I want the best of both worlds. It's not unusual to pine for what you
leave behind. I'm sure your ancestors did. It's one reason for all the European place names down here.
Arapiles is named after a couple of escarpments by Salamanca, Spain as I'm sure you know. The list
is almost endless. I didn't leave the UK because I don't like it there. I wanted to give myself a kick up
the arse and force myself into a new situation. I love surfing the great waves by my home here but I
do miss the ease of access to great rock climbing and mountains all over Europe and that part of my
life. Most of my comments on this thread were meant in good humour which is lost a bit on the
internet. Sorry if I came across as down on the lucky country. I'm not really, but I do miss climbing on
rock as often as I used too. I'm not the first person on this website to be constantly incredulous at the
lack of worthwhile climbable rock within a regularly tolerable traveling distance of Melbourne. I have to
say I am only in this specific part of Australia because of visa restrictions. It probably wouldn't have
been my choice if I'd been free to go anywhere. Sydney certainly has more to offer climbers than
Melbourne. Upshot I do like it here, lots, but I didn't migrate for the weather or climbing.

Bob Saki

9/02/2010
11:56:14 AM

On 8/02/2010 Kaj wrote:
>Nah! Not today. I'm too hot and weary. I'll just ask you to please save
>me the pondering and come clean
>on the proclivities. I'm genuinely curious what stereotypes you subscribe
>to. I'm green (like my homeland)
>with envy of your upcoming trip. Look more closely this time and you'll
>be surprised how much life thrives
>in those bleak and barren places. Most of it doesn't stand 8ft high and
>bounce around for attention
>though. You may have to sit still and keep the noise down for the wildlife
>to come out of hiding. Keeping
>still and quite. Not natural propensities for some Aussies, eh? ;-)

My Notion of the English propensities - on a superficial level of course*;

1) Hardy
2) Guarded
3) Yet quite hospitable
4) Pedantic
5) Friendly and happy to talk to strangers etc
6) Tendancy to moan at times
7) Ability to "make-do"
8) Eccentric

*Discalimer - No offence intended. I have a number of great friends who are from GB.

Kaj

9/02/2010
4:05:57 PM

Crikey Chris,

That's a good list I can't disagree with at whatever level. Some of them are pretty flattering. 4 and 6
certainly and unfortunately apply to me. I hope I've got a bit of 1,3 and 5 and I certainly have a bit of 7
as I'm stoney broke most of the time.

I'm sorry if this thread was hijacked by my nonsense. I'd have been really happy to have read that you
had found rock at Kilcunda. I wish there was some out here on the Peninsula that didn't belong in a
kids sand pit.

It's a shame your not going over to the UK right now. Have you seen the spectacular winter season
they're having all over England, Scotland and Wales? I see you're into Ice from your profile. If you
haven't already, check these out:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=51628

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=51697

As I've said, I do like it here a lot but why the hell did it have to wait until I migrated before the UK
turned real wintery for the first time in decades.

I hope you can sense 5 in my tone and my attempt to undo my forays into 6.

Cheers, Karl

Bob Saki

9/02/2010
5:03:04 PM

You're a good sport Karl,

Those links are cool. I really want to do some Ice at Llanberis and then settle down with some Innis & Gunn Beer in the evening.

That list is merely my impressions and by and large I enjoy a healthy relationship with our colonial overlords ;-)

rgs

cs

Kaj

9/02/2010
6:34:07 PM

Llanberis. Have you done much in North Wales in the past? And, back to the original thread, have you
climbed at Gogarth? If not you should. There's lots of horror stories about the crazier more extreme
routes from Dawes and Pritchard etc, but there are heaps of excellent less nerve-wracking climbs on
those sea cliffs. Have you done much in Scotland? The sea cliffs at Reiff are a joy for leisurely single
pitch routes above the sea on immaculate sandstone. Mid summer you can climb till well gone 10.00
pm in the light. My partner and I used to go every year. The cliffs of Lewis are amazing too. I know
you said you were up for The Old Man of Hoy on Orkney. I haven't done it but have climbed the lesser
Old Man of Stoer several times which is still a great adventure on more solid but easier graded rock.
Swim across, set up tyrolean for your mates and gear. 4 pitches. Rap off, tyrolean and swim back.
Climbing the diminutive South Stack at Rubha Hunish on Skye was memorable less for the climbing
than the 25ft basking shark that swam around the stack throughout our climb. I swam with it in my
undies after we'd finished. Great memories. Sea cliffs and in particular sea stacks are pretty magical
places to climb. I hope you post some kind of report on here when you get back.

Cheers, Karl

There are 39 messages in this topic.