 Friday the 20th May was one of those special autumn days where the sunshine hit the water at the ideal angle creating a kaleidoscope of color bouncing of the sea and rocks. The air temperature was in perfect equilibrium with the sea about twenty degrees but with rays teasing the young bodies that threw themselves against the beach breakers. Another Pearl Beach weekend but this one rife with superlatives, a gathering like no other before and like no other after but then again they are all special. Three families no wait four or perhaps five, it kept changing but there was beauty in this flux, a peregrination of uncertainty like the famous koan: Nothing will do so what do you do?
"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like the dew on the tip of a leaf."
 One of the highlights of this trip was the incredible turn-out of people old and new. I will try to do the gathering justice and remember all the names from the brief visits to the long-term residents. So here it goes: Bryan and Nola with Leo and Oli who were kind enough to bring Louise with her children Jamai and Makenna. They also brought Jamai’s friend Annie. Thanks Louise for spending some time with us and sorry for gobbling up your scrumptious banana bread. Then there was Will with Liam, who brought his mates Pat and Jonah. Both of them were meant to play soccer with the twins on Sunday but neither of them turned up and the team was four players short. Final score, and I kid you not, was 15 to NIL. We got some flak from the coach for that one, but we will make it up to him. Oh, yes than there were Roman and Louise with twins Chris and Roman. But that is not it yet by any means. Di came for a climb and joined us for dinner thanks Di. She also brought Jason who climbed with us at the newly discovered crag at Lake View near Umina (some 5 minutes drive from the house). Louise did her first climb every and all the kids joined in for some boulder action.
Oh while I am at climbing sorry for chasing you up and down the hill two or three times maybe it was four Bryan? Actually we didn’t really need any of the gear anyway – it was just Will and my way of covertly trying to get you fit again. Really didn’t mean to give you an asthma attack or something like it. Sorry also to Nola who watched poor Bryan fall apart only to have to nurse him back to health again. His reward was that he got to indulge his first aid kit fetish and raid my car. He brought the insect repellant to the crag but God knows what else he took. The band aids, no, hopefully he left me some of the Vaseline? In the end he will always be the rainbow in our cloud. So well done we all survived – some scar tissue for sure but we are proud of it. Bryan's recovery was remarkable, a few drugs and he was attacking the lamb chops five hours later. History is always kind to the one writing it! But back to the visitors we are not done yet, Annette and her friend Elizabeth also dropped in for afternoon tea and Will’s famous crossword puzzle making a grand total of twenty something people if I am counting correctly not bad for a lazy weekend.
Okay back to the important part, no not Will’s solo speed record to Patonga Beach, although he did get his arse kicked by a local – shame on you. No I mean of course the new crag Lake View (https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/australia/lake-view) which had a surprising variety of rock qualities ranging from the typical slabish Central Coast classics, to an Arabilesian Wall, which we didn’t even touch because we got wasted on the cave climbs of surprisingly good quality rock. So lots of variety and with some hard grades to come back for.
The classics of the area were:
Quick links ahoy (16 **) with a surprisingly tough crux for the grade think18-19 slab
Step across Gap (18***) tough foot free start to cruisy steep climbing above massive cave.
Broken Drill bit (21***) steep bouldery start with rest at cave lip then cruise to top.
Forbes Fortune (21***) great delicate climbing on smooth wall just left of cave.
Far Left out (23**) mantle in cave and use the rim of the cave to gain small crimps. From here its all business on tiny edges for two ringbolts. The moves stopped us in our tracks? Finish easier on delicate climbing. We will have to come back stronger for this one. Appeared significantly harder than the grade or we maybe are just weak?
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Jason & Will on Far Left out (23**) |
Roman hanging on in the woods |
Di and Jason on Step across Gap (18***) |
Leo the scout |
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| Nola and Bryan waiting for their turn |
Jason on Forbes Fortune (21***) |
Will in action |
Louise on her first climb |
By about 3pm we had enough and after a quick shop it was cheese, cracker and beer time before we fired the barbecue. The night was long with lots of chocolates appearing all around us, water melons, ice-cream and more snacks. The next morning was spent on the beach as is customary with the sun teasing us down early on. The boys hit the shore dumpers with a vengeance and everyone enjoyed life like there was no need for tomorrow ….
“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
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Roman 5 June 2016 |
