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Animals living at base of The Protégé 13-Nov-2009 At 3:20:06 PM -deano-

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The other day, a friend and i went to do The Protégé near Yesterday Gully as part of a Chimney Fiesta day. However, we were thwarted by scary sounding animal.

When rapping in i heard a growl from what sounded like a mutant possum (except scarier). If i made a noise then it cackled back but i couldn’t see anything move. So i got off the rope and tossed a few sticks and stones at a patch of grass just before the base of the route, and it cackled some more. I walked up as close as i dared (not very close at all) and thought i could see something green or blue in the grass. We made some more noise, and they (there were definitely two… or more) didn’t like that.

We couldn’t walk past them, but tried scrambling around the side to try and get a peek at them or maybe come into base of the route from the side (and hopefully still climb it!). But no dice, besides the belayer would have to stand there for ages hoping they wouldnt get their legs bitten off (that's our excuse anyway).

Not sure how long they have been there, or how long they will be there. A couple of weeks ago i was close by (the route is right near 'The Log' -- so much fun!) and didn't hear anything.

Does anyone have any idea what it was? Some sort of lizard? We figured they were parents protecting a nest or something. The more noise/disturbance we caused, the louder and scarier they replied. So we thought "let's just let them have their babies & their family, and we can climb some other pieces of rock". Bit of a shame as the route looks awesome.