Piddo by Public Transport

Will and I headed up to Mt Piddington on Sunday by public transport. There was trackwork on the western line, so we ended up catching a bus from Central to Blacktown, then train up to Mt Vic. Rain at Medlow Bath on the way up, but it was only very lightly sprinkling at Mt Vic so we walked down to Piddo anyway.

Jumped on Phantom (15) as a warm up. Excellent! Great rock and pro. Linked both pitches since Will had done it before - not recommended due to rope drag, but I just spaced out the gear and extended like crazy and put up with the drag at the top of the pitch. The traverse at the top of the first pitch is pretty cool, although you could take a nasty fall if you're not careful (the only protection is back at the top of the corner, so you'd swing back into it if you fell off).

The sun was almost breaking through the clouds by this point, so we were getting pretty keen to have a big day. Many climbs were a tad damp though, so we wandered along to the Cottage Boulder to have a lash at Abracadabra (14). A stunning crack up a stunning wall, but rather wide through the crux! Will led up it (complaining about his lack of strength) and got through to the easier headwall before the heavens opened up and it started to piss down. He then proceeded to get slightly lost, and after a lengthy battle with loose blocks, wet slabs and dubious protection he topped out.

With water now running down the crux I decided to bail, so we tied off the rope and jumped under a comfy overhang with our packs to dry off and have some lunch. Will rapped down during a lighter spell of rain and cleaned all the gear. With the rain continuing, we decided to call it a day, so we packed up all the wet gear, put on our wet weather gear (the rope bag, in Will's case!) and walked out.

It rained the entire way back to Mt Vic, varying from absolutely pissing down to your more average downpour. Luckily we reached the big open fires of the Mt Vic pub before too long and had to rough it a bit while we dried out - irish coffees, beers, and enjoying the colourful characters who frequent the place (including a lively "young" lass from Bathurst called Adrian who kept inviting us to "come an ave a drink wif us").

The epic return trip then began - it turned out that the next train left Mt Vic at 6pm (we'd arrived at about 4:30pm, thereby missing the previous train by half an hour). So we waited around a bit more, then wandered down to the station and jumped on the train to Blacktown. Blacktown interchange was a circus - a mixture of Scandinavian back- packers, chain smoking westies and morose commuters all fought for a place on the small number of assembled buses. While waiting around for the next bus to arrive, a coke machine ate my last $2 which really summed up the whole experience.

Finally we boarded the bus, and I started to snooze off.....except that the bloody bus driver kept on stopping the bus and doing something to the windscreen wipers. The third time he finally announced that the bus was unsafe to drive cause the wiper blades were rooted and if we'd all wait calmly another bus would be along soon. So we spent another joyous hour sitting in a crowded, smelly bus in Seven Hills at 8:30pm at night in the pouring rain. The Seven Hills office of Century 21 has a lot of houses for lease if anyone's interested...

Anyway, we finally made it to Central, and being 6 hours since we'd left the crag Will and I decided to call it quits and catch a cab back to Coogee. The night wasn't over, however, and after a couple of close calls in the cab (a stupid woman in a merc doing a U turn on George St, a yuppie in a Range Rover blabbing on his mobile phone and drifting across lanes on the Eastern Distributor, apparently at random and without any warning) we finally arrived home.

I guess at least we can be content with the fact that we did a couple of good routes up in the mountains, despite everything else that went on!!