Back in November (before it was Christmas, how the hell did that happen!?), we went down to Nowra for a weekend. We were a bit late getting there owing to dropping the fam at the Bus for their Nepal trip, but we got down there by early afternoon.

We set the tent up at the Animal park and then headed over to Thompson’s point, where we met Andrew & Penny, and also a bunch of folks from the ANUMC on a club trip.

To start with we did a few short routes near the descent gully, and then climbed random things until it was pretty dark. Andrew kindly took photos of me dawdling up something with an awkward start over a cave, and while he was at it spotted a little native (?) mouse in the cliff!

A nice mash-up dinner at the Animal park was all we needed before hitting the sack in our new tent.

Had a pretty lazy start the next morning which was nice, and spent some time doing rope skills with Meg which was great practice. After a while we headed to the Grotto cliffline, which we hadn’t been to before, so it was an interesting change.

Meg & I wandered around for a bit and got lost. After a bit of scoping for bolts with my new Binocs, I climbed Beans on Toast (16). It had a nice unbolted ground-fall section in the middle, requiring a trad placement, though that made for some nasty rope drag. For extra fun there was a big piece of loose rock near the top. Meg decided not to follow, which I could only agree with 🙂

After lunch we climbed Blade Flake (13), which was good fun, and then walked back to the Belgian Tourist wall where everyone else was. Andrew & Penny had a top rope on Avocado Queens of Death (23), so I fell up it, thanks to Andrew for the (long) belay 🙂

To finish up the day Andrew lead an awesome roof called Spinning Blades of Steel (20), and I seconded it. It was pretty hot and I was not at my freshest, but it was still a great climb. I’ll have to go back and lead it one day.

A quick bite to eat in Kangaroo Valley kept us going for the drive home. A top weekend!