Friday 10am: packing; checked the weather and forecast for weekend is fine. Looking forward to some action at Four Ways. 5pm: met my new friends Rick and Pauline, later stuck on Alexander Drive in peak hour trafic. Rick and I talk continuously for 4 hours. 9pm: Due to continuous talking I miss the 70kph speed sign in Dongara, the blue light disco appears in rear mirror and I generously contribute $150 to the government. 11:30: We arrive at Kalbarri. It seems everybody is camping at the edges of our designated area, with a big empty hole in the middle. The French contingent is all piled into one small corner. Maybe we English smell.
Saturday 8am: rain starts, so much for the forecast. 10am: Remi returns from reccy with news that the rangers have closed the Z-Bend road. I want to slash my veins but cannot find knife. Pauline tells me off and says to be positive. 11am: We go to some place on the coast, it has a huge overhang which stays dry. Eric, Phillip and I try to boulder in it, succeeding only in getting filthy. Mario shows me a weird yoga pose. I discover the joys of planking and fall in love with the pointless stupidity of it. 1pm: having overpriced Eggs Benedict in some ersatz cafe, still raining. 2pm: racing around in dodg'em cars, 5 minutes of pure fun, everybody enjoys ramming everybody else, esp. Dena 3pm: rain briefly stops and we play minigolf. I win, Dena second, Gerry third, everybody else goof around led by Mario who plays minigolf like elephants ballet dance. It rains again. 5pm: we briefly visit the "Kalbarri Prawn and Canoe Show" and watch the air guitar competition. I still cannot find the knife. 9pm: Eric and Rick debate the joys of academic careers, I spend 10 minutes explaining to Brian that yes, planking is easy, stupid, pointless and dangerous...and that's the whole point of it. I don't think I got through his defences.
Sunday 8am: It raned heavily through the night and everything is soaked. Huddling under the tarp and studying forecast on Phillips's laptop. Today is forecast to be fine until late, Monday is forecast to rain. 9am: Most of us pack up tents and tarp, all of us head off to the climbing 9:30am We discover that the road to the Z-Bend is still closed, until Monday. 10am We arrive at Hawk's Head, my umpteenth visit here. The goats and marsupials flee and the crag is turned into a hive of large-mammal activity. No hard climbs. I find a new line R of Short'n'Sweet and claim it for the Queen. some time later Due to knife still missing I solo three grade 14s out of sheer boredom, but no luck, remaining alive. 1pm I watch Rick do the slowest lead ever, covering 14 metres in 50 minutes, complaining about tricky gear while placing 342 cams and 47 nuts. 2:30pm We sensible ones depart for Perth while Remi, Brian et. al. head back to camp to try their luck in the forecast Monday rainstorm. 9pm: back in Perth, slightly deaf.
Monday: Clear blue skies in Kalbarri, all day. Remi and team head out to the Promenade where Brian almost redpoints Homophobia(28). Me and six other Kalbarri dropouts are in Mountain Quarry. Loic leads Hang Ten, I do some warm-ups and then work on my project Star Wars. In the evening I unpack gear and find the knife. Too late.
