Back to Australia

Last week we rearrived in Australia. Our little holiday ended with an exhausing overnight flight back to Melbourne, where the immigration officers took a real close look at us. They pulled us out of the line and asked, why we would return to austalia after an such short absence of only nine days. We had to proof the purchase of our ticket back to germany and they wanted to see our bank account.
Luckily they were happy with what we could show and let us in.

 After just 30km of driving we pulled over at a gas station and stopped for an two hours nap. We were so tired of the journey and couldn't make it any further. After that stop it went better and we finaly arrived at Buandik Campground just in time for dinner. We reunited with my brothers family and went up the hill again in the morning to see what boulders Jochen and Miriam had found in the past days.

Northern Grampians

My own project was still soaking wet, so we climbed other lines and the little girls where pretty psyched to plac again together in the mud. The day before it had rained a lot, so the conditions were not as good as you want them. But for bad luck it was the best day for a while ... The weather turned into really bad. Lots of wind, freezing cold and heavy showers at the same time. We jumped back into the van and drove north. We found a few problems in the northern grampians, that were accessible, even though most of the areas are still closed due to the bushfires.

Generally the weather is way drier up there. For every 10km you drive south, there is 25mm more rainfall per year in average. We got to climb a little the next few days. I repeated problems I had already climbed five years ago and Katinka managed to climb "Happy Camper", V7.

Jochen found a problem in his style, marked as a Project in the guidebook and really hard. After grabing a one finger pocket and pulling really hard on it the line tops out through a better-don't-fall zone. Scary and hard!

He almost did it, but destroyed the rubber on his shoes, which made him slip off. Next time might be sending time!

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