rootlessdreams

…were the main course of our first homecooked meal in Australia.  After a boarderline epic in Sydney, which consisted of spending a lot of time in the Sydney airport using their free internet, hostels booked up, couchsurfing last minute, no car rentals available, and sleeping in the Airport, we made it to Melbourne and happily greeted by our friend Mark (who we met while in Squamish).  Mark took us to an Irish Pub close to his house, we had a drink and then were happily sleeping somewhere other than an airport!!  Mark lives with three other guys, Matt, Mike, and Mickey, who have been super cool and very hospitable.   Matt and Mike are the guys who whipped us up some “Roo” as they called it, and it was amazing.   With a roof over our head, nice hot showers, and cool guys to show us around Melbourne, our first few days in Oz have been great.

With temperatures soaring to around 40 degrees Celsius in the Grampians and Arapiles, Mark decided to take us to another climbing place that would be a little cooler called Mt. Buffalo.  It has a lot of Trad routes, some sport, and amazing huge free-standing Granite boulders everywhere…..only to my disappointment, they were very undeveloped and even more unfeatured.  Most of the boulders were boarderline unclimbable:(  at least for only having 3 days.  Mt. Buffalo was extremely beautiful never the less.  Eric and Mark did a handful of routes while I looked for boulders and hiked around.  My expeditions usually ended in me getting lost, stuck on some mountain, or in the middle of the bush, with no boulders being found.  We had a blast though. 

I’m not 100% sure of this, but the data suggests that my feet attract Foxes.  Yes, there is a story behind this.  Our first night at Mt. Buffalo,  Eric and I decided not to set up a tent.  I crashed out in some grass so I could check out the stars while Eric was close to all the other campers by the tents….I was alone, the key point.  In the middle of the night, a flipping fox snuck up and bit my foot!!!  Crazy, I know.  I was scared the rest of the night and actually put on my shoes inside my sleeping bag for the rest of the night.  Didn’t get too much sleep that night.   No one really believed me until there were multiple fox sighting the next day, including a sighting by me and Nick (campmate), apparently as the fox was coming for another nibble off my foot.  I thought I may have run-ins with crazy snakes, spiders, or even kangaroos but never a Fox….Andrea, he was “crazy like a fox”

Anyways, we camped with a few of Mark’s friends (Nick, Kate, and Rich).  Luckily they shared their site with us, because the entire camp was booked up.  They were really nice and fun to hang out with.  They didn’t do any climbing with us, but they did give us a couple beers and teach Mark this intense game (Mark actually crushed them at).  Owned.  The other highlight of Mt. Buffalo was this group of Family/Friends that apparently camp there every year at the same time.  They were beyond generous.  They gave us all kinds of food.  Sausage our first night, bacon and eggs in the morning, random Ausie snacks, and most importantly Coffee everyday!  It was great to meet such giving and friendly people.  You can check out pics of everyone that we’ve met so far in the Friends Picture Gallary and there should be some other Oz pics, as well…..just as soon as we upload them:)

Eric and I have been learning all kinds of Aussie phrases and words that, until this week, would have totally confused us.  Example:  “Hey Mate, could you get me the billy out of the boot, and also grab a few beers from the esky?”  “No worries, Mate.”  Hopefully this new understanding will help us as we travel this week to meet Eric’s Brother, Carl, in Arapiles for some bouldering and route training for our assalt of the Totem Pole.

I guess that does it for now.  More posts to come.  And as always, Taker’ Easy

-Matt