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Country Road and bottles of wine 24-Jan-2005 At 1:16:29 PM IdratherbeclimbingM9

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Country Road at Buffalo (Australias 1st Grade 24), indeed has a wine bottle tied to one of the bolts of its belay.

Done in Jan 1976 it is unlikely that the wine bottle (as someone once said), is that same one pictured in "hard road to the top" news article of Baxter/Dewhirst guzzling a celebratory drink for the Oct. '69 ascent of Ozy!

More clues although the lable is 3/4 illegible;
*The brown tinted bottle is empty; (Damn my belayer!).
*The original cork wrapping on its neck is maroon in colour.
*The top of the white/pale yellow? lable clearly has the word 'Castle' as part of its brand/type as the last word in its headline sentence.
*Low on the lable is clearly the word 'Hobart' (probably as the origin of the winery in question).

Other points of interest:~
*The bottom belay setup options are now a bit 'iffy' since the recent fires, as the trees are dead, the cracks few and the loose after fire wash-out underfoot is abundant.
*The belay at the end of pitch one consists of a 1/4" button-rawl with fixed hanger and a 3/8" carrot (nil hanger though one still fits over the wine bottle thread); with a decayed 'bong' piton as backup in the nearby crack. The crack easily takes small cams as further backup.
*The offwidth top pitch has a fair amount of moss growing higher up in it, in places, (though would clean up with traffic).
*The shrubby-tree obstructing the topout is largely dead and now has a 'tunnel' through the middle of it!
*The rock architecture in that location is very pretty / quite amazing; the exposure is excellent (great); the climbing varied and problematically interesting; ~ All up I'd rate it M3 on clean aid (with large cams essential for the final 10m), and well worthy of its single star rating in the present guide.