7 days to go

The past week went by really fast, as it was full of action, stress and finally success.
After my parents had left we met up with a few people beeing interested in our van. We had 3 persons test driving the van on saturday and several more chatting with us and asking about an appointment to do so in the following week.


We just wanted to get over it as fast as possible. It's great to have time to sell a car (in contrary to our last van sale in Auckland), but it's also great to have it off the mind and enjoy the last days of the trip instead. We hoped for the best but everyone wanted to think for a couple of days and so we left the CBD and visited our friends Steve, Joe and Tara 40km away from the stressfull citycenter. We spent two nights in their guestroom (Thanks for that!), doing laundry, cleaning the van and bouldering at Jessicas, a little crag nearby.

Axel in "Hairy Joe's Banana Shack", V11 - The Villas, Sutherland, Sydney

As we had more appointments for wednesday we decided to head back to the southern part of Sydney on thuesday to climb at The Villas and spend one more night in our van. We got there in the early afternoon as we were waiting for our laundry to dry off, but having so many van concerns in our mind it was enough climbing time for the moment. Katinka did "Help", V6 and "Burgers", V5 while I ended up ticking both "Savage", V8 and "Hairy Joe's Banana Shack", V11 in less then 15 Minutes each, which was really cool and unexpected.

Katinka flashing "Crack Attack", V6 - The Villas, Sutherland, Sydney

We ended the day in the Price Edward Park on a beautiful picnicarea next to the river only a couple kilometers away. Potentially our last dinner and night with the van, as our two appointments for the next day both promised to buy the van. We needed that kind of a backup solution as the first one to meet sounded a bit strange and not to trustfull. Who would be willing to book a flight from the Gold Coast to Melbourne only to pickup a car he has not seen before, if not a pisher?

Anyways we slept well and long, dropped most of our remaining luggagae at James Place in Sandringham and went back to King Cross near the CBD. The first guy indeed showed up and we sealed the deal. Now our wheeled home belonges to the venecuelean Vincente who had been on working holiday visa in the middle of nowhere for the past four months. His only chance to buy a campervan was to travel to a bigger city after sorting through available vans online and deciding for ome from afar. He even found our blog and read our story before he decided he will trust in our van.

Sold our van to Vincente from Venezuela

An hour later, after drinking an celebration cappuccino in a little café we went to a local Avis branch to pickup a tiny rental car. 9 day to go! Even though I'm still missing one month to complete the 25, the lady next to our respondant knew a trick how she could upload my drivers licence id, avoiding the systems age check.

That done, we took off. We ate a huge hamburger each and organized the next business meeting. At 8pm I would stock up my camera gear by a Canon 35mm F1.4 lens. Psyched!

We spent the night at James places, borought a rope and decided to drive back to the Blue Mountains the next night. After sleeping long we went back to the Villas for a little bit, mainly to take a few photos of the Bananashack Problem and to check out "Contact", V12 for a little bit.

20 Minutes Ascent of "Contact", V12 - The Villas, Sutherland, Sydney

The moves went down pretty fast and not even 20 Minutes adter my first try i had it on my tick list. Sick! Katinka succeeded as well as she flashed her first V6 boulder "Crack Attack". This one has taken me two days to complete and even today i needed another three gos to finish it.

By now, we have arrived at our camping spot in Megalong Valley, Blue Mountains. We borought the thermarests of our friends Manu and Marie and bought a cheep tent at BigW.

7 days to go!

www.chalkonrock.com

Back in the big City

In the Blue Mountains we had mostly good weather. Katinka climbed a cool route she had tried on her very first day here in April, "Mt Paddington" 25. Back then she was not able to do all the moves, but this time it looked quiet easy as she cruised up the wall. Other then that is was nice to get a little bit of easy climbing after three weeks of roadtripping the coast.

The whole family together.

The only rainy day in the Mountains we used for a long hike from Katoomba down into the forests valley to an old coal mine. It was really damp in the beginning with a seight of only 50 meters, but then it cleared up more and more, so we could really enjoy the beautiful scenery.

A rainy hike around Katoomba, Blue Mountains

Finja walking on the table of the campervan.

The coalmine itself was less interesting to see then expected! Too touristy and too few new things after the big gold mine tour in Ballarat a couple weeks back. My mum and my sister both were really psyched to ride the (supposately) steepest tram of the world to avoid the hike back to the car. With angles up to 55º it took them up in no time, while we others did the 45 Minutes hike in just 20 Minutes. We also met again with Manu and Marie and climbed with them for a day before we headed down to the big City.

Bussiness while climbing ... talking to an interested testdriver

 Our visitors returned their huge campervan and checked into their hotel and we did almost three CBD seightseeing days together: Sidney Opera House, The Rocks, Town Hall, Restaurants, Cafés, etc...

The Sydney Opera House

We also used the time to advertise our van for sale, as we only have two weeks left in australia. We spreaded 20 car-for-sale prints in various hostels around the city and now we hope for best luck.

Yesterday we had our last evening with our guests, drinking good wine and having great dinner at The Rocks, one of Sydneys nice city parts. By now they should be sitting in the airplaine.

www.chalkonrock.com

From Melbourne to Sydney

As we drove through Melbourne again our van failed ...
It would suddenly loose every bit of power and would only work in first and second gear (on the highway!). We tried to make some more kilometers by switching between LPG and Petrol mode, which helped a little bit but as we continued our journey we had to use the emergency lane more and more frequently to let the faster cars pass by.

Breakdown, checking what's gone wrong.

 Suddenly there was a loud bang and a few moments later the car started drifting a bit. As i stopped i saw the reason right away: A flat on the highway! I switched to our spare wheel as fast as possible, because I did neither have a breakdown triangle nor a reflective west and did not know the consequences if catched by the police. The job was done fast and right at the next highway exit we parked at a gazstation where we boiled a cup of coffe and took a break.

Reataching the air filter

 Soon after, the big campervan of my parents returned to us, they had not noticed our struggles and continued for another 20km. With our sparewheel we drove back a couple of kilometers to a KMart Brake and Tyre Service. Luckily they told us the flat wheel is repairable ... but not today ... (As usually in such a situation is was friday evening ...). We had more luck at a Beaurepair Shop closeby and 30$ later the flat was fixed. The first half of the disaster was solved!

Regarding our powerless van problem we had to wait til the morning. Using Google's help we found one single garage in the whole area, which would be open saturdays. We woke up early to be the very first customers and had luck after the boss saw Finja smiling. He changed his position and started to look after our car. He cleaned the air filter which was not broken, but pretty dirty and after an unsuccessfull testdrive he changed all four ignition plugs. We paid him a fair price and our car was ready to hit the road once again.

The big and the little one

The next few days we did a lot of driving. We took the scenic costal route from Melbourne to Sydney, visited Philipps Island and had many stops at beautiful beaches. We saw many warning signs, not to go swimming, due to big waves and dirty water and indeed, the sea was not as beautiful and clear as it used to be in the beginning of our trip. A lot of brown dirt, big and uneasy waves made the sea impressive to watch, but calmed down our motivation to go for a swim.

Halfway in between Melbourne and Sydney (around Sale) we met some egrets

Finjas grandpa on a photo hunt

After 5 days of driving we had another 1100km on the odometer and finally arrived in the Blue Mountains. Here we'll spend a couple of days before my parents trip will come to an end in Sydney. On Wednesday they will return the campervan, check in in one of the CBD's hotels and after another two seightseeing days in the city they are ready to return back home to germany.

www.chalkonrock.com

Great Ocean Road

After my parents arrived at their hotel in Melbourne CBD we joined their dinner for a nice drink. They where less exhausted from the long flight as expected and so we walked through the nightly streets of Melbourne. Even though Finja was only 7 months of age when she last saw the other "Perschmann's", she lost no time in laughing and playing with them.

Finja, her grandparents, Katinka and my sister Rita.

We spent the next two days seightseeing in Melbourne. We walked through the famous SeaLife Aqarium (which had one impressive pool, but besides that was less impressive as expected), the Federation Square (with an really well done Exhibition about Dreamworks Animation Films, worth visiting!), the Eureka 88 Skydeck (Melbournes tallest building, offering an spectacular view over the city) and the many little cafés and shops.

Finja in Melbourne's SeaLife Aquarium

Melbourne at Sunset

The nights we spent at a friends place in North Melbourne, using their shower and laundry and sleeping in their parkinglot, in the mornings we took the tram to the CBD to avoid parking struggles and fees. On their third day, my dad picked up heir campervan rental and we decided to check out a restaurant called Lentil as Anything before we would start our roadtrip. Volunteers offer a selection of 5 or 6 different meals, desserts and water, but instead of a cashier there is only a donation box: "Pay as you feel!" The food was delicious, the ideas is great and we did not eat for free. We might come back, when we pass through Melbourne again!

A Koala at the Kennett Jeep Track - Wye River, Victoria

The next 3-4 days where spent along the Great Ocen Road, seeing Koalas from a distance of 1m, awesome coastline views and the famous Twelve Apostels. It was easier then expected to find good and free sleeping spots for the night, as we are here in the off season now. We were not sure if rangers or police officers would wake us up at night or fine us, since my parents huge campervan is a bit harder to hide then our 'small' backpacker van, but no one cared!

Twelve Apostels - Great Ocean Road

We drove all the way to Portland, where we had seen the white Kangaroos two weeks ago, but couldn't see much of the impressive Blowhole landscape of Cape Bridgewater, due to heavy raind and wind. Today the weather was calm and sunny, making the Blowholes less interesting then the surrounding landscape. It looked quiet similar to Utah Desert, except for the endless blue water next to it.

Cape Bridgewater - Portland, Victoria

Cape Bridgewater - Portland, Victoria

We spent a few last days in the Grampians, not climbing to much as we had been here for to long now. We picked up the crashpads we had stored in a rain protected spot up in Buandik and did a last photoshooting in "Northern Fire" for Katinka. Yesterday we came through Ballarrat, Australias most famous gold rush city. Sovereign Hill is a huge open air museum presenting Ballarats 1860's life, gold mines and industries. It was very interresting to see and to chat with volunteers. Several Schools around Victoria use he oportunity of this place to send their students back into the past for a couple of days. They walk around in 1860 cloths, listen to 1860 school lessons and play 1860 games on the street, which must be an great experience as a 12 year old.

www.chalkonrock.com

Success

We had some phenomenal weather just after finishing our roadtrip. The Sky was blue, we had a little bit of wind and the temperatures in the shade where quiet chilly. "Simplicity" had always been one of the very last boulders in the whole area to be dry, since the crux of it goes straight through the main water runnel of this 20m x 15m block. Expectations where low to try it on our first or even second day back, especially after noticing the many deep puddles and rivers on the approach to Buandik.

Finja and her toys

Surprisingly the rock at the top of the hill was in better conditions then the ground and as a first warmup I climbed the tree next to my Project and gave my best to prepare my holds with towels, toiletpaper and heeps of chalk. It would be climbable in the afternoon, or perfect the next day!

Drying the holds

We enjoyed climbing on other problems sun so much that day, it was a big relief after so much rain. Katinka got back on "First One", V7 and we did three new lines between V5 and V9 which where put up my our american friend Chad a couple of days ago, before we hiked down for dinner.

The clear sky and the wet campground made the next few nights feel terribly cold. So we did not spend much time outside or around the fire, but cooked inside and where once again very happy with the interior and electrical setup of our van. Finja loves to play on our matress in the bright light of the many LED's and we always have enough energy to charge Ipad and macbook. While she plays we can listen to some music and while she sleeps we usually listen to audiobooks, while I'm editing the latest photos.

With no hurry and great weather I continued my work on "Simplicity". I rather climb many different boulders than focusing on one really hard line. It's fun and rewarding to put a lot of effort in one thing, but at some point it turns into a head problem. Over the time individual moves will feel easier and smoother while the mind says, "It does not feel hard, I should have climbed it already", but starting from the beginning this one move won't work, no matter how hard you try. It's frustrating, I hate it and it's what happend the next few days. I think in total I arrived at my hate move around 30 times, while making it past that point on only 3-4 occassions?!

Katinka in "Northern Fire", V8/9 - Buandik

Anyway, the sun was a nice change and Katinka started working "Northern Fire", V8/9. When I did the First Ascent of this one, she decided not to try it, since I only found a tall person beta where I extended my 1,84m body to the maximum to reach the holds. But a few weeks had passed and other climbers found better beta. Katinka found a great technical solution with some slippery heel hooks, requirering body tension and precicion.

Later that week we spent our very first restday on the Buandik Campground. Just outside the van, without any need to drive 80km One Way to hide from the nasty rain or to do some shopping. We used the day to relax, and do some van work.

Katinka busy with sewing works

After that it rained again, but we were in urgend need for a second restday. We went to Halls Gap to do laundry and showers at a friends place. The next day was absolutely windstill and humidity was around 150%. It was not possible to climb much, so all our hopes were focused on our last day in the Grampians, before heading towards Melbourne, where my parents and sister would arrive the day after.

Everything worked out! After some warmup at a new boulder called "Where is the wind?", V5 (which we put up that previous day), I finally climbed the full version of "Simplicity" from sitstart to top in my second go of the day! It's the boulder I spend the most time on ever and I would guess it's the hardest approach I have ever taken to get to the summit of a piece of rock. Yiphhiie!

Sticking the crux move of "Simplicity", V12 - Buandik

We went on to Katinkas Project and she did it right away on here third day on it.

To celebrate the successful day we went to Halls Gap with our french companions and ordered massivly good Hamburgers and drank some wine. Now we are on our way to Melbourne, sleeping at a friends place in North Melbourne. In about two hours our guests will arrive at the airport and we might see them in the CBD later or tomorrow morning.

www.chalkonrock.com

Roadtrip

We tried to climb at the Campground Boulders on Thuesday, but the weather was not to pleasant. Katinka couldn't warm up her body and lost her motivation to try hard and give her best. As she was finally ready to climb her project it started to hail...

We packed the van and decided it's time for a little roadtrip. Through Hamilton we drove south towards the sea around Portland, Victoria. From there on we turned towards the neighborstate South Australia. On this trip we saw some white Kangaroos, the sea, lighttowers, huge waves, massive blowholes in windy seastorm weather. We made it to Mt Gambier a city surrounded by lakes created by vulcanoes long ago and now we've passed the rainy days. We've just checked the weaherforcast and it looks like a good amount of blue sky.

Weatherforcast for the southern Grampians, Victoria

Tonight we will return to Buandik, chansing the sun.

Arapiles

The past days we spent in area on the other side of Horsham. Instead of sitting in the rainy Grampians (the weather has not improved yet ...) we enjoyed some sunny days in the Arapiles. There is a little bit of bouldering, but not to much and the sandstone is by far not as good as in the Grampians.

Katinka in a V6 Traverse - Arapiles (Finja is enjoying the sun in the back)

We used the times to empty the area, pretty much all available boulders are climbed, next time we have to jump into our harness and go for some sport or traditionalroutes. Also we did a big clean up in our van. We sorted through all our luggagae, got rid of hidden rubbish and some dirt and mould. We bought some paint to protect the wooden construction within our van from pulling water and the sun was a big helper in letting everything dry.

Axel in "In Between Fear and Desire", V10 - Arapiles

Now we're back in Horsham, just having had a refreshing shower in the local Aquatic Center. We refilled our kitchens cupboards and watertanks and are prepared to return to the Grampians. The weather is still worse than we like it, but sitting in the van or in cafès is not a great alternative.

Finja playing with the Baby Roobiks Cube

Together with Yannick and Florien from Belgium we'll return to the Stapylton Campground Boulders tomorrow, in hope for great success in Katinka's Project "Happy Camper Traverse", V9.