Arapiles Again
The top of the beautiful Wailing Wall (click for more)
What a difference three weeks makes! The mosquitoes have gone (replaced by flies. yay.). The green of the surrounding fields, so obvious on our last visit, has almost faded and the wheat is ripe and ready for harvest. It will be the first good harvest in some years for the Wimmera farmers.
Today, I read that Melbourne is set for the hottest start to November since 1902. It feels more like January than November right now. It reached 35.2C today and as I write this, at 9:30pm, it has yet to drop below 30C. The weekend was a little hotter than I expected, though we still did plenty of climbing. Saturday, although getting an early start, we felt the heat as we climbed in the sun until past lunchtime. Later in the afternoon we found a quiet shady spot and flailed up some short pitches. When we were done climbing it took several litres of fluid, some salts and and a lie-down to feel slightly normal again. Totally worth it, though!
Sunday, we rose even earlier and were rewarded by almost empty Organ Pipes. We ticked a classic and though the cliffs were still empty (everyone sensible was sleeping or in the shade) and it was still early, we decided that even shady routes would be too much effort and instead retreated to boulder problems on the shady sides of the Pharoes. We watched some poor climbers make multiple raps down in the vicious afternoon sun. We repeated some easier problems and then flailed about on the crux move of a V5 until the sun moved onto the holds and we called it a day.
