A full day of excitement and pain
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
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47
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Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Katoomba,
Australia
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Our good friend Scott (number 2 of our 50+ friends who said they would come and visit us on our honeymoon) was in Australia to visit and came along for the adventure. We saddled up in the morning with wetsuits, helmets, harnesses, dry bags, old shoes with bad laces, and gloves to prevent rope burn. Our guide, Rach, this amazingly cool chick, gathered our ropes and drove us out to our first absailing site. We did a practice run on a 4 meter wall and then too a breather while she set up the 20 meter ropes. Over the edge of the cliff we were about to descend was a beautiful green valley with a few farm houses, a huge forrest, and a couple small ponds. The ideal place to grow up as a kid - entirely too boring for adult ravers such as ourselves, but today was different, today we were outdoorsmen. Outdoorswoman - for me.
The first absail was a bit nerve racking for me, but the boys just bounced their way down and sat at the bottom looking all puffed up from pride and accompishment. I was shrivelled and shaking, somthing I just recently develope as a way to deal with fear. Rach offered up a feel-good, "maybe it's just the adrenaline." But I'm pretty sure my legs were shaking uncontrolably due to the ridiculous feat I was about to attempt.
The first time Rory and I went absailing was in Colombia. There, they call it reppealing and I believe my blog entry is titled Holy Shit Balls. The feeling this time was the same even though we were starting on a dry rock wall 40 meters shorter. However, this time the guide spoke English, thank god.
As the absailing continued we all became much more comfortable and were pushing off the wall with our legs, releasing the rope to allow for a swing and then catching ourselves against the wall again with our feet only to push off again. Surprisingly enough, absailing in this manner made the whole thing much less scary. It's the slow 'one foot, two foot, one foot, two foot' descend that's really scary. Especially if you look down.
Our second absail was a 60 meter cliff where the bottom was carved out so for the last 10 meters you were free falling without a rock wall to push off of. This absail was definitely more exciting than the first but proved to be a bit more dangerous. The ropes at the bottom of the cliff got caught in a tree for Scott on his first run causing him to get a nasty burn on his arm from the figure eight clamp. (Side note - the rope you are absailing on runs through a figure eight clamp attached to your harness. When you start sliding down the rope the friction heats up the figure eight and it gets burning hot.) On my second run I decided to turn my head at the bottom and look out over the valley, still dropping down which turned out to be a terrible mistake. The minute I felt it I knew I was in trouble - my hair started to slide up through the figure eight with the rope and there was no way out. Too get my hair out I needed slack on the rope, but slack on the rope would only lower me down further. Luckily I was close to the bottom so by the time my tippy toes touched I had no more pony tail left to run through the clamp and was attached head to harness. I side-stepped up the cliff a bit to gather some slack and successfully released myself, but my hair, on the other hand, was not too impressed. My pony tail had turned into a huge knot with fried ends. And because of the heat of the figure eight I was sure that they whole thing was ruined and needed to be cut off. What a way to loose your hair, huh? Later, when I finally got a shower in, I was relieved to find out my hair looked fine - maybe a bit more layered than before, but was in no need of a serious chop.
The morning was over and the absailing behind us, but the afternoon had just begun and we were starting it off with a heafty lunch of snacks, sandwiches, and fresh veggies. Yum! On the way to lunch the boys feel asleep in the car and Rach and I had a good chuckle. They both looked like little boys tuckered out after a big day a Disney World. haha. Rory may have been drooling...
The second part of the day was by far my favorite and I believe we were all in agreeance. The hike started down a valley and into the canyon where we dressed in our wetsuits, helmets and harness. We all looked like completel idiots - acutally, more like short bus riders. The canyon was full of sunlight and bright green moss on either side. We waded down the center and made a couple water jumps over little falls. The temperature of the water was perfect. Putting on a wetsuit is a lot of work and gets your heart racing, so we couldn't wait to get into the water and cool off.
At the end of the canyon was a 30 meter waterfall and this was what we had been preparing for all day. As the girls - we added another female guide to the group - set up the ropes, we splashed around in the big pool right above the drop of the falls. This absail was exactly like the first one we did in Colombia, but this time I was ready. No worries. The day ended on a high note and we were all smiling with accommplishment at the bottom. This was defintely one of the best day trips we've done so far and with the best guide. Recommended!
