Friday, November 1, 2013

Rock Climbing In Cairns

As we all know, Google will find just about any piece of information you need, and a lot you don't. Looking for rock climbing in Cairns I came up with two main hits on Google, one the free bouldering park on the Esplanade which I have visited a couple of times, and the other an old quarry in Aeroglen (suburb of Cairns). Finding the exact location was pretty easy and, when Doug and I hiked up Mount Lumley along the Whitfield trail a few days ago, we stopped by the crag and checked it out. In Canada, where developing climbs is much more common and the government much less intrusive, the two tiers of rock that make up this little climbing site would be strip mined for routes. But, this is Queensland, nanny-state supreme, so there is only one line of bolts, and the upper crag is fenced off and marked by “NO ENTRY” signs.

Instead of riding our borrowed bicycles down we drove as carrying a load of climbing gear and a stick-clip (the first bolt is high) on the bikes is tough. Doug did well leading the bolted line as our last climbing day was way back in June. Feeling very rusty, I managed to claw my way up after him. There are no other bolted lines so we had to top-rope from some anchors that are – as usual – set way to far back, but we did climb another line and, overall, for a small area, the climbs were not bad. By about 8.45 am we were both drenched with sweat from the tropical humidity and we packed it in.

A fun little diversion at a close by location that will at least keep us from forgetting completely how to climb. You want to be early, however, as the crag is black, comes into the sun early, and the humidity will suck all the liquid out of body in an hour or two. 

Doug leading the only bolted line

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