 Pondering the universe from forty-nine is an amazing thing. No longer young and not quite old yet?Lost somewhere in between but only for a short while. Liberated for a moment in time-fortynine is a perfect square: it is the smallest number which is the concatenation of two prime squares (22 and 32) creating another prime square. So it is pretty perfect. It is also amazing because its cube ends in the same digits: 493 = 117,649 for some special reason? Therefore it is safe to say that not all those who wander in a sea of numbers are lost. So what,there is no better reason for a weekend at Peal Beach to let our imagination of the hook and run wild a little: ‘shoring,’ slacklining and climbing it was all there for the taking. Friday after work was as usual our gathering time in our new favourite place at Peal Beach. Appropriately the place has no name it just ‘exists’ on semi-precious Tourmaline Road number 61 where all the action is taking place. The Rosenbaums were first to pick up the keys and the Crockers arrived shortly after with Adele. Rafaela brought her friend Brittany along, Gabriel had Christoph and after Will’s arrival we could add four teenagers to the house which was awash in a smorgasbord of excitation. Willbrought Christoph, Liam and Jona to keep the boys entertained. Feasting on several lashings of pizza and a palette of carefully selected wineswith some beer thrown in for good measure, we got the weekend off to a good start. The slacklines were up and eagerly awaiting their customers in the backyard but Friday drew to a close much quicker than expected.
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"Like a drop of water falls from the summit, that's the line we shall take."
 Saturday was activity time and those who could escape family duties did so eagerly and reasonably early. The four teenagers Chris, Roman J., Liam and Jona hit the incredible shore break at the Northern end of Pearl beach. The further you walk up North the heavier the wavesbreak on the sloping beach. It is terrifying to watch and even with bogey boards the impact on the body is audible. This is only for the young at heart or the silly elder ones amongst us!Just check out the fancy cossie shot of Mat. With the boys out of the way, Louise and Adele with Roman managed to escape to the shady confines of the lobster cave some twenty minutes of driving through the central coast. Probably the most immensely overhanging cave at the coast it is a heaven for heal-hooking and a hell for the upper bodily challenged. The climbing palette is extraordinary from the smallest crimp (Pinchy Lobster) to the roundest jugs and some truly monstrous jugs in spacious roofs (Red Lobster)– it is like climbing in a candy store. We caught up with Jason for half a day of vertical amusement and thanks to two local climbers Kelvin and Erin who showed us the more hidden routes we managed to saunter up a slew of new routes:
The warm up classics:
Pinchy the Lobster (17**) tiny pinches the name says it all
Second Cave Carrot (19***) underclings and slopey goodness
Lobster (20**) first pitch of the mega classic with tricky sloper moves low down.
The mega-classics:
Roast Lobster (23***) the climb to do, finish lobster with tricky final move and conquer the horizontal roof.
The hard classics:
Spider Monkey (21**) heal hock heaven both of your legs across acres of horizontal haven.
Calamari (25**) tough boulder start to slopey ledge, tough mantle to rest then steep jugs to finish.
"The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it's the opposition."
| It was probably Adele who had a day of superlatives: her first climbing day at the central coast? Her first outdoor lead? and probably her first ridiculously steep roof with a heel hookingmegafest thrown in for good measure. Not bad for a day’s work: for the record Louise, Jason, and Roman also tried hard. By 2pm in the afternoon with the sun sneaking its way beyond the cave rim and the temperature rising quickly, it was time to return to our house at the beach. Shopping for barbecue on the way back, there was still time to hit the pumping swell at the Pearl Beach seashore. Meanwhile Diane and Cam had joined us and the slacklining competition was in full swing. There were some brave attempts but alas the closetchampion Emma was missing in action. The gauntlet had been cast and there are many buddying champions trying to dethrone the masters, but not just yet. |
In the evening it was time to bring out the collage of wines and start the barby. The cakes were baked and the birthday celebration was in full swing. Let there be no question this was the best birthday ever thank you all and may there be many more happy moment together.
 "When you get to the summit of the mountain, keep climbing."
Roman 26 February 2016 |
