Saturday 1st May – Do it in a Froq

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 405

1,561 cases: 0 new, 28 active.

Sleeping

I had an event I’d intended to attend that started at 10 AM, but having not got home until 3:45 AM last night, both Bronwen and I overslept. I did actually wake up shortly after my event started, just long enough to realise I’d missed it, and then went back to sleep.

520 Green Hills Road, Cannon Creek

By the time we got up it was well into the afternoon. We had a look at the Do it in a Froq event on Facebook and realised that most of the cool climbing in a frock stuff had already happened and we’d missed it. Nevertheless, we threw everything into the car and rushed westward, towards some mystical point on Google Maps that supposedly represented a campsite. Google Maps, in its wisdom, took me down a long and windy gravel road that was probably technically shorter than going the right way, but involved many more kilometres of slow gravel road than I needed to take, before we arrived at the Google Maps point, now very much in the dark. There wasn’t actually anything on the road at the point, which would have been confusing but luckily we’d been given a photo of the gate that we needed to find—so all we had to do was find this gate.

Unfortunately, the nearest gate clearly wasn’t the same gate that we’d been sent a photo of, and after some investigation we found that there were no other gates nearby, so lots of confusion ensued until Bronwen figured out that the trees on either side of the gate were the same as the trees in the photo—but the gate itself had changed (or more technically, now had a big Brumby Farm sign on it, instead of the little gate sign in the photo)

Having now found the correct gate, we discovered that there was no chance my car would be able to get out if we drove into the campsite, so instead we parked and walked down the slippery mud drive to the campsite, expecting to find a group of crazy climbing people partying—but there was no one at all there.

After deciding this was a terrible place to camp without a 4WD we drove into Boonah—via mostly bitumen roads, Google having given up on its attempts to send me via the smallest gravel roads it could find—arriving just in time to meet the crazy climbing people leaving the pub where they’d been having dinner.

We drove back to the campsite again—though this time with people who had been there before and knew what they were doing, so we all parked along the roadside at the top of the hill, avoiding the muddy driveway entirely, and walked down the hill to the campsite—and before long, the previously cold and empty campsite was full of crazy climbing people, a fire, and frivolity.

I tried out some long exposures using my new camera, discovered that my tripod ball head had seized up since I used it last, and eventually—no one having caught fire or anything—all of us who didn’t have 4WDs climbed back up the hill and went to bed in our cars (or vans—it seems climbers like vans) beside the road.

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Sunday 2nd May – Do it in a Froq

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 406

1,564 cases: 0 new, 17 active.

520 Green Hills Road, Cannon Creek

I had set my alarm to wake me up for the dawn and sunrise, which sadly wasn’t very impressive due to clouds. The area was very scenic however, now that it was daytime and I could actually see it.

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Frog Buttress

After a quick breakfast we headed off to Mount French, parking in the carpark and walking down to Frog Buttress, where we spent the rest of the morning. I took a few photos, but sadly very few people were still climbing in frocks. There were many millipedes.

It began to rain around midday and didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon, so everyone gave up on their absurdly difficult methods of getting back to the top and instead used the steps like a normal person, and we all went to the Dugandan Hotel for lunch.

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Games at The Australian Hotel

After lunch we drove from The Dugandan Hotel to The Commercial Hotel, where we were expecting a riotous welcome and some “games”—but there was no one there. A short confusion later, and we discovered that the booking had accidentally been made at The Commercial Hotel in another town, so now we were to go to The Australian Hotel.

Having now gone from someone who had only ever driven through Boonah before, to an experienced local who has been to every pub in town, I spent the afternoon watching crazy climbers do crazy things, like bouldering over each other, intentionally entangling themselves and then trying to untangle themselves, and seeing who could place a cup on the floor furthest away from themselves.

Do it in a Froq climbing event, Boonah Do it in a Froq climbing event, Boonah Do it in a Froq climbing event, Boonah Prize awarding at the Australian Hotel, Do it in a Froq climbing event, Boonah

Human Bouldering

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Untangling

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Wrestling

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Cup Moving

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Trivia at The Dugandan

After The Australian closed and everyone had to leave, we went back to The Dugandan, and finished off the night with a trivia competition. After this, Bronwen and I drove back to Brisbane, and went to sleep.

Bronwen, Trivia at Dugandan Hotel, Do it in a Froq climbing event, Boonah Trivia at Dugandan Hotel, Do it in a Froq climbing event, Boonah