Today I got to go on an outing.
Rock climbing!
And not in one of those indoor rock climbing places but outside on a real rock face!
Are you impressed?
I drove a van full of campers to a place near Branbury State Park along with Tim and Bec (who is a past counsellor and is visiting for a few weeks - she is from Langwarrin, small world). We met Steve who ran the day & hiked into the forest (or whatever they call it here) until we came to a place with some good climbing rock face. I hadn’t actually told anyone that I was afraid of heights when I agreed to go on this trip. Partly because I didn’t know until the last minute where we were going (I thought it was probably indoor climbing like Amy did the other day) and partly because I really wanted to try.
After all what is more outside my comfort zone than climbing up and down the face of a huge rock?
Well, maybe skydiving or bungy jumping is but still……………
I have realized a few things today. That when you are standing at the bottom of a rock face about 25m high baleying for the person climbing, it looks so much easier than when you are actually the person trying to climb it, desperately looking for foot holds and things to grab onto to drag yourself up.
Secondly that things are scarily slippery when the night before it has bucketed down for hours on end (this was kind of obvious and not something I really only worked out today).
Also that it’s cheating to use your knees to help drag yourself up (they don’t look to good later on either).
Lastly that when you decide to trek up to the top of a 30m high rock face and baley down on your own it’s only scary at the very top when you go over the edge. After that it’s not so bad.
As long as you don’t look down.
I have included some photos of the day with Bec, Tim and myself as well as a video of me repeling down the rock face. Yay me!
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