A Bit of Monkeying Around

Three days in the City was more than enough for Fred to be all rested up and itching to get his hands on some rock. Unfortunately, Susy was called on at the last minute to work Saturday night and I was then left to manage the Fred show solo for a couple of days. Both anxious to get out of the City, and with some of his vagueness rubbing off on me, I just chucked a bunch of stuff in the van and we hit the road. We drove most of the way to the Grampians before pulling off the highway to bivy on a small dirt road amidst the canola fields. Having done so at least a few times before, Fred rolled out the door into the grass and was asleep before I could make my bed in the back of the van.

The next morning we spun over to Summerday Valley, on the northern edge of the Grampians, and did a couple of pitches of climbing. Fred hasn't done any rock climbing since he fell off a horse a few months back and was a bit nervous about how he was going to feel but was looking plenty solid on the steep 5.6 that we did and totally stoked to be back out moving around in the vertical.

"Australia!"

"Some of these guys are doing all this 5.12, Moonlight Buttress stuff and I just can't keep up with them. And you know, I don't want to either."

Susy came out on Monday morning with our friend Tom, a motorcycle racing engineer in country for the Grand Prix. Before they showed up, Fred and I got three more pitches in; one of which he led, feeling a bit more confident.

Next up: some monkeying at "Mt." Arapiles to find out what Fred likes better and what he wants to do some more of. We'd like to head up to Moonarie in South Australia but it could be getting a bit hot up that way so might just hang out here for awhile and then over to Mt. Buffalo for a granite fix.

Fred's in the House

After almost two hours of searching we were getting a bit worried. He was already a bit concerned about the flights; Seattle to Melbourne is a rough trip even before you miss a couple of connections. I went to do another run through the baggage claim while Susy checked another gate and had him paged again. Walking down the escalator, I caught a brief glimpse through the columns of our missing climbing partner-in a clearing next to a busy carousel crawling around on his hands and knees. I walked toward him and could see that the contents of his pack were exploded across the floor and he was uncrumpling little pieces of paper looking for my phone number. I walked up to him, bent over and yelled "FRED!" couple of times with no response. I grabbed his arm and opposite shoulder. The look on his face when he saw me was absolutely priceless; purely amped and ready for "anything". Everybody should hope to be just like that when they're 87.

The First Outing

Nearly one year in an apartment had brought us to two conclusions: stationary living is highly overrated; Melbourne housing is at unaffordable levels by any metric. The question remaining was what to do when our lease is up in December? Having spent the three years since I moved here trying to answer that we do have some idea about what our specific needs are. We've had a temporary van, lots of temporary housing, and temporary jobs but it was time for us to finally commit to a lifestyle and, for us, that lifestyle is mobile. Winter was getting oppressive and we were both about to snap. Then, a series of unfortunate events occurring over a short time frame were the catalysts to kick our van shopping back into high gear.

Our criteria basically came down to: a square shape, automatic transmission, legendary reliability, and 4x4 if we could get it. Australia is chocked full of places to get bogged in mud and sand and being limited by these factors is a bummer. On the other hand, the only 4x4 van readily available is pretty much the Mitsubishi Delica-too small for living and a terrible shape for building. Also, we already have a Toyota Townace that's a nice commuter rig. There were a few Volkswagen and MB Vitos in 4x4, but all manual trannys or in poor shape. Then we came across this one:

2000 MB Spinter 312D, 4x4, automatic transmission, 4 seats, 180,000 kms, rear security cage. Originally imported to Australia by an outback ambulance company, it was then a 13-seat tour bus in Queensland before being acquired by a family who was going to drive from Asia to Europe and had fitted it out accordingly:

But after four months driving around SE Asia the eldest of their two daughters was over it and wanted a "normal life" again. A year spent mostly sitting mostly idle in the city convinced them it was time for them to sell it and move on. The ability to walk around the inside standing up sealed the deal for Susy. Having found a great match with impeccable timing for everyone we've got our new home!

Lots of work to do tuning details in the way we want them but that's going to be a long-term project. Focusing now on sound dampening the door resonance, a layer of closed cell foam inside to block high frequencies, and then a thermal barrier or two. Need to finish hinging the security cage over the hatch on the back as well.

Did a quick trip to the Grampians last weekend with Phoebe and Dave, two of Susy's Krav Maga partners. We picked up the gear I've had stashed at the Fortress for several months and set up a top rope on the first 20 meters of Raving Loonies, a grade 24 (5.11d) steeeep thin hands and finger crack. The kids both kicked out noble efforts on their first rock climb and got much farther than I expected!

Our first big trip is coming up in October when.....[drum roll]....., Fred Beckey comes to Oz for 2.5 weeks! Woohoo, rockin' with Fred! He not only going to be first to sail in the new van with us, but he's also the first person we know to come to Oz specifically to hang out with us (we've seen a few others but they were already coming anyway and we met up). What a legend!