Robbo – The Blog of Andrew Robertson 
At the end of every year Adobe hosts the annual Sales Kickoff conference for some 2000+ sales folk in Las Vegas. This year, the week before Christmas, we headed over to Vegas for a week of training and hype up to get us ready for 2012. Apart from the resort’s air conditioning causing my eyes to dry out to the point I needed antibiotic eye drops, the conference was pretty good. Probably the best bit was that I managed to avoid partying too hard and not drinking too much.
The highlight of the trip was on the morning that I was due to fly out… climbing at Red Rocks.
Road into Red Rocks
A couple of months before going over to Vegas we had a number of the Adobe Product Managers come out to Australia from the US. One of these was Brent Watson. I had met him before, but while he was in Australia we discovered our mutual love of outdoor activities, especially climbing. So we made a tentative date to go climbing together while we were in Vegas. It was tentative because we did not know whether we would be in a state to go climbing after the conference’s gala dinner the night before.
Fortunately we both behaved at the dinner and skipped the after party, so at 6.30am we both checked out of the hotel (while colleagues were still staggering around the casino) and jumped into a cab to the airport to pick up a hire car. We hired the smallest, cheapest car we could get (we only needed it for a few hours) and drove to the outskirts of Vegas. It was still pretty early when we got out there, so we sat in Starbucks for an hour while the day warmed up a bit. The forecast was for temperatures to be in the mid-teens, but it was pretty still pretty icy at 8am.
Once we had our fill of very average Starbucks coffee and croissants, we headed up the road to the Red Rocks reserve. Brent had climbed there a few times, so we decided to try a crag he had not been to before called “Panties Wall”. The name coming from the fact it looks like a pair of ladies underpants from a distance.
Panties Wall
It took about 30 minutes to find the path and rock scramble our way to the cliff. When we got there we found a perfect sandstone wall with a dozen or so climbs all about 20m high. The area is completely bolted, so all the climbs were pure sport climbs ranging between 5.8-5.10b in the US scale (17-20 in the Australian scale).
How times have changed since I last climbed. Brent checking the guide book on his iPad.
Having not climbed on natural rock for about 12 years, I thought it appropriate for Brent to lead the first couple of climbs. I had not idea of how fit or rock ready I was going to be. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did a lot better than I had thought. Over the morning we climbed 5 routes all around 5.9 (18) grade. I lead a couple and only took one fall on lead when my arms completely gave out.
Me remembering how to climb
The crag became a very social scene that morning. Even though it was a Wednesday morning, there was about 10 climbers(and a couple of dogs) sharing the routes. We met people from all over the US and Canada and made for a lot of good belay discussion.
One of the climbing dogs
Around lunch time we headed back to the airport so that Brent could catch his flight back to Utah and I could sit around until the early evening to fly back to LAX and then on to Sydney. It was very satisfying sitting at the airport with 20+ hung over colleagues having had a great day in the outdoors. I have also discovered that a day of climbing is a great way to help getting some sleep on a 14 hour flight.
So now I have the taste for climbing again. So once we get back to work after the Christmas break, I will be pressuring Darren at work to get out onto the cliffs around Sydney.
Over the years I have done a lot of driving up and down the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney. There is a small town called Jugiong that sits between Yass and Gundagai (yes… on the road to Gundagai) within a stunning valley. The valley is surrounded by agricultural land and through which the Murrumbidgee River snakes. Jugiong always caught my eye and imagination because I (and many others) had dreamed of ballooning in the valley (which we did about 8 years ago). It also grabbed my attention because I had previously imagined what it would be like to paddle down that stretch of the Murrumbidgee.
The route
After I bought my sea kayak, I was thinking about possible multi-day paddles I could do in NSW and the idea of the Murrumbidgee hit me. I went online to see if anyone had done it and written about it. To my surprise there was a guide in the NSW Government website describing a 7 day paddle that covered the exact section of the Murrumbidgee that I was thinking of paddling.
Knowing that I would not be able to get enough time off to do a major expedition (i.e. 7 days) for a while, it happened that we were coming down to Binalong (near Yass) to our family property for the weekend. So I thought it might be a good chance to do one section of it. The challenge though would be organising the car shuffle so that I could leave my car at the top of the river and then get back to it once I had finished. Fortunately there is a great cafe (The Long Track Pantry) in Jugiong, so it did not take too much convincing for my family to agree to meet me there for lunch. This was the deciding factor in choosing the Nanangroe Reserve to Jugiong section.
The guide described the first leg of the paddle as being 32km and should take 6 hours of constant paddling. You never know with hour indicators in guides and on walking trail signs what type of person and fitness they rate it on. However based on the 6 hours, I know had to get up pretty early to drive (about 30 mins) to the start point and try to be on the water first thing so I could be in Jugiong by lunch. Plus the forecast was for 33 degrees Celsius, so I wanted to get the bulk of the paddle done before it got unbearably hot.
To get to the start of the leg you turn off the Hume Highway in Bookham, you head down the Childowla Road through spectacular hills and valleys. You head through a couple of sheep properties down to the river. Nanangroe Reserve is a tiny piece of crown land on the edge of the river that sits in the middle of nowhere. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to see that the water was flowing quite quickly because it is about 10 kilometres downstream from Burrinjuck dam. This would mean that the current would help make the paddling easier.
The road to the river
I ended up getting on the water at about 7.30 and headed downstream. As I went around the first corner, I heard the sound of rapids. To my surprise there were quite a lot of rapids (little Grade 1’s) on the river. Whilst they were not difficult rapids, it was interesting learning how to use navigate my Sea Kayak around the various rocks and snags. It reminded me of watching the barges steering around obstacles in the canals in Europe, in that you had to turn early on and hope the boat made it around in time. I also spent a lot of the paddle lifting and lowering my rudder so it didn’t get ripped off by any of the rocks.
One of the mini rapids
The bird life on the river was fantastic. Every variety of Australian bird and duck you could possibly imagine to see or hear was there. The two stand outs was what I assumed and later confirmed was a massive white and brown Sea Eagle (that apparently do come this far inland) and a cormorant sitting on a rock that proceeded to cough up a massive fish as I went by.
Getting warm
About 2 hours into paddle, I came up against my first major obstacle. The river forked around a small island, and both forks (which were moving very quickly) were blocked by fallen trees. I knew I would have to somehow carry my boat around these blockages and since the banks were too steep, the only option was to push through middle (at some speed) of the fork and portage through the bushes on the island. Paddling as hard as I could as not to get sucked left or right into the trees, I smashed up onto the rocks on the island and proceeded to carry the kayak through the bushes to the other side of the island.
Portaging through the trees
At the point where I felt like I was about half way to Jugiong, I managed to get some mobile reception and called Kath to tell them to meet me at Jugiong at 12.30pm. I don’t know why, but for some reason I had convinced myself that it was a 5 hour paddle rather than the 6 hours in the guide book (I only just realised this as I am writing this). So my good old friend Murphy and his stupid laws visited me as soon as I had committed to a meeting time. The river suddenly widened into what felt like a series of mini lakes, hence slowing the current down, and a strong head wind picked up. So what went from a leisurely drift down the river became a 2.5 hour workout.
The times when the river did start speeding up from that point on was generally because the river got shallower. I was met with a number of “pebble runs”, which are shallow rapids that you end up dragging your arse across lots of rocks and scratch the shit out of your boat. On one occasion I had to get out and walk my boat down the pebble run because I was stuck and fear trashing my boat too much. There is nothing more painful the sound a rock screeching down the bottom of your new kayak right under your butt. However my philosophy with kayaks (and it is the same with new cars) is that you need to get a scratch them early on, otherwise you spend your whole time fearing you might get one.
Slowing down
After a couple of hours of paddling against the wind, hoping I would make it on time (my GPS said I would be there dead on 12.30pm if I didn’t stop), the river turned West and I started hearing traffic on the Hume Highway which meant I was getting close to the end. I pulled up against the steep bank at the finish point and scrambled up to the top to see Kath, James, mum and dad driving up to the meeting point. So it was perfectly timed in the end.
With the kayak lashed to the roof of dad’s car, we headed across the road the Long Track Pantry and I scoffed down my lunch in record speed. Apparently I was somewhat hungry.
The Long Track Pantry
Despite the hard work, the paddle was fantastic. In hindsight, I will not try to do a 6 hour paddle non-stop. A leisurely lunch half way along would have been a better plan. As write this it is the following day and I am happy to report that I am not sore in the arms at all. I did however crash last night at about 8pm.
One day I will take on the rest of the Murrumbidgee.
I have been down in Melbourne for the last couple of days for work. I ended up having some meetings on Monday, so I have stayed down here for the weekend. Rather than just hanging around mum and dads doing nothing, I thought I would get out and do something interesting.
When this trip to Melbourne was planned, I thought about doing a 2 day hike somewhere. The first place that came to mind was the Cathedral Ranges, which are about 100km NE of Melbourne. I used to go there a lot when I was at Uni, because we used to go climbing there. Plus it was the location of 2 of the Big Bush Bashes, which were camping trips I used to run for my friends who did not normally go camping.
Cathedral Range
I read a couple of blogs about the 2 day work in the Cathedrals and decided quickly that it was not a great idea. The blogs described the pain and awkwardness of lugging gear up to the top of the range and the scrambling over rocks with a full pack. It also was going to be a hassle to organise the gear, so I decided a day walk would do.
The plan was to do one of the legs of the 2 day hike which goes from Neds Gully (at the north end of the park) and hike up to the top of the ridge to the Cathedral Peak and to Little Cathedral. The guide book “120 Walks in Victoria” and the various signs said the entire walk was 4 hours.
The climb to the top of the ridge is brutal. It is just constant up. I don’t think my heals touched the ground for about an hour. The video below sums it up.
On the way to Little Cathedral I had my first encounter with a horrible little plant. The area looked like it had been burnt in the bad bush fires a couple of years back. This plant seems to have taken over the undergrowth and has horrible little spikes. My legs got really scratched up, plus because of my hay fever they got really puffy and itchy. It ended up that half the walk had the path surrounded by this plant.
Spikey little bastard
The view from the top of Little Cathedral was stunning. There was absolutely no wind and I remembered that I had always had an ambition to fly over the range in a balloon…one day.
Cathedral Peak from Little Cathedral
I then hiked up to the top of the Cathedral Peak, which was meant to be the turning point of the walk. Another spectacular spot to sit and contemplate the view.
On top of Cathedral Peak looking back at Little Cathedral
I had only been walking for a couple of hours and I was not ready to head down yet. Plus it was only about 11am and it was such a nice day, so I decided to extend the walk along the ridge to Jawbone. This basically meant I was embarking on the 2 day walk in just one day.
The walk along the ridge is spectacular. You have to basically scramble along the top of the angled rocks that make up the knife edge ridge. I eventually passed a couple of other walkers along the ridge.
The Ridge Walk
Unfortunately the path ended up getting very overgrown with the prickle plant and made it a bit difficult. So as soon as I got to the Jawbone Creek track I headed down the 100s of steps down the hill. On the way down I passed the North Jawbone cliffs on which I basically learnt how to climb with the RMIT climbing club in 1993. It was a very nostalgic moment.
North Jawbone cliffs
The Jawbone Creek track meets up with St Bernard track that takes you down, through the forest, to Cooks Mill camp site. This was where the Big Bush Bash was in 1993 & 1995. It hasn’t changed much. It was nice to get down to the river and cool off. I was pretty low on water at this point.
The final leg of the walk was along a relatively flat track along the river. My feet had developed some blisters on the way down the hill. Fortunately I had stopped off at the supermarket in Ringwood on the way and built up a basic first aid kit. So a few Band Aids later and I was on my way.
Little Creek Track
Four and half hours later I was back at Neds Gully. I promptly stripped off my shoes and socks and stuck them in the river. It was freezing but a refreshing way to end the walk.
Ahhh... bliss
I had basically done a 7 hour walk in 4.5 hours. So it was good to see I am fitter than I thought. I do have a niggle in my left knee’s tendon, but I normally get that after long walks. Hopefully it is something that a beer will fix.
The route... I went anticlockwise
All in all it was a fantastic day. I really needed to get out and do something like this. Lots of things on my mind and it definitely help having some time to go through my thoughts.
I went for a lovely paddle this morning from Clontarf (in Middle Harbour) to the Bachino Bar cafe on the beach at Clifton Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the water is getting noticeably warmer. The route took me out of the Middle Harbour heads which face the main harbour heads. Going around this headland gets quite a decent swell from the ocean. It was the first time I have usd the kayak in any swell (other than boat wakes).
I have been listening the Steve Jobs biography at the moment on my iPhone. It is a facinating book and allowed me to completely tune out to the physical work of the paddle and I could just enjoy the day.
The paddle to the cafe took about an hour. I was able to sit at the cafe for 15 minutes or so and enjoy a coffee in the sun. Then I started the paddle back.
On the way back, a massive tanker came into the harbour, accompanied by a couple of tug boats. I paddled out to as close as I dared to watch the massive hunk of steel cruise past. When you are that small in the water looking up at that wall of steel, you certainly get a true sense of scale.
The trip back took just over an our. All up it ended up being about 10.5 km and very enjoyable. I am not too tired as a result.
Last night I finally went climbing again. Darren from work, who is a long time climber and I headed down to ClimbFit in St Leonards. Darren hasn’t climbed for a year or so because he has a couple of young kids that have been taking up all his time. Sean and Indigo also showed up a bit later but we really didn’t get much time to catch up.
The climbing was great. I haven’t done it for a couple of years, so I was expecting to be crap. However I was pleasantly surprised about how long I could last on the wall.
Darren has a great method of indoor climbing, where you must do 10 climbs in the night. It doesn’t matter how simple the last couple of climbs are, you must still do 10 climbs. We managed this last night which felt good.
The plan is to start climbing at Lindfield Rocks when the sun starts setting later. It will be great to get on real rock again because it has been about 12 years since I have done that.
Today was my chance to take the new sea kayak out for a long paddle. At 7am I headed down to Pittwater and emparked on a 16km paddle. Pittwater was amazing today, there was no wind and the water was like glass. Plus there was hardly any boats out at that time of the day, so there was little swell.
The paddle took me 2.5 hours all up and at the end I felt like I could still keep going. So that is a very good sign for if I want to so some longer trips and some point.
One thing I did discover was that The Basin, which is a popular camping spot on Pittwater does not look like a very appealing sort of place to camp.
This is my first blog post using the WordPress Android App. Seems to work ok.
Finally I did it. I bought a sea kayak. For the last 10 years I have been paddling my Dagger Transition (white water boat) on flat water. It has been killing me. It is like paddling a bath tub. The tail drags and it has no keel what so ever.
So this weekend, while down at Binalong, I decided it was time to invest in a boat. Helped along with a surprisingly bigger pay cheque than expected, I went to a Kayak shop in Canberra and went shopping. Fortunately they had a 30-40% off sale so it was fate.
I ended up getting a Riot Edge 14.5 plastic Kayak. It is so nice. It ended up being the only one I could really fit in, but it had all the features I wanted and it is nice and light.
I just rode (and walked a bit) to the top of Kileys Hill, behind our house at Binalong. It is a killer ascent.
I have done the ride a few times before from the south side, but not for many years. Today I decided to do it from the North side, which involved a lot more riding across (rough) sheep and cow paddocks.
Heading up the hill I got to the point where I was riding along a fence line and had to set myself mini goals of the numbers of fence posts I had to go before resting.
The ride down the hill was short but fun. I did realize half way down that breaks don’t work so well on wet grass. With all the hidden rock in the grass this did become a little alarming at times.
There was plenty of wildlife on the way. I got chased by cows and a bull. Was visited by a couple of horses. On the way down the hill I ended up chasing a lot of sheep and a couple of kangaroos.
Distance: 6.9km
Time: 1:04:28
When we went to Fiji, I left the car at the office. Since Kath is unwell, I decided I would ride into Chatswood to pick up the car. Rather than doing the direct route via Warringah Road (and the step Roseville Bridge road), I decided to make it a bit more interesting.
The route went via the Cascade Track (Garrigal NP) and up into St.Ives. The hill from the base of the Cascades into St.Ives is pretty killer and involved a fair amount of walking.
The route was about 12km in total and a nice way to start the day (and see how fit I am). I think next time I can will extend it by some more distance or even do the return trip.
On Friday night we got back from the most fantastic holiday. We had a week on Malolo Island in Fiji.
The resort (Malolo Island Resort) was a very friendly place and the majority of the staff were from the local village. They were really good with kids and almost all of the staff knew James’ name within a couple of days being there (even without him participating in the Kids Club).
The snorkeling on the island was fantastic. We could snorkel right of the beach outside our buro. We also did a number of boat trips out to some of the other reefs. The fish were plentiful and very friendly. I had plenty of opportunity to test out the GoPro under water. At one point I was going down to the bottom of the reef to retrieve the camera (which I had placed on the sand) and just as I was grabbing it, a black and white sea snake swam towards me. It was spectacular and (apparently) very poisonous. Unfortunately the camera ran out of batteries before I could get a shot of it.
The video below pretty much sums up the entire holiday. We will definitely (one day) go back.
