Tuesday 3 July 2007

#10: Automobiles


The sun is shining. I mean it. No hint of sarcasm. Not even a cruel joke. It's actually sunny out there. Some of yesterday wasn't too bad either. Good enough to enable a trip to the Toll Road and to climb the boulder problem I was pussying about on last time. It just needed a bit of commitment. Oh, and the use of the hold that I hadn't seen on the first trip. Its actually a good little problem. Not too hard when you know where everything is - isn't that always the way. If I was a real boulderer (i.e. a good boulderer) I'd go back and put a 'sitter' on it for the start, but methinks that is a bit out of my league the noo.

The new problem


I just go back in from another trip down there (spot the guy with no climbing partners). I'm amazed how much stuff its giving up. There is actually a pretty huge amount of climbing, all be it bouldering with the odd 'micro-route' thrown in. You park on the Toll Road and climb down some metal steps to get onto beach-level. Facing out to sea you can turn left from the bottom of the steps and shortly reach a small buttress with a few nice problems, including a big, rhino horn prow that looks scarey and is yet to be climbed (by me at least). Turning right you pass, in turn, the stack, Prowd area, the Cave, then the Ceiling, then the Second Cave. All of which have a few good problems kocking about, and lots of things way too steep/hard for my weekling arms. What with all the rain we've been having there is quite a lot of seepage about, so with a good dry spell the number of possible problems would be much higher than at the moment. I can't help but feel that more people should be getting down there, what with all the climbers in the area that regularly climb at Cheddar and Avon. Maybe no-one has heard of it, though it is briefly mentioned in the Bible: CC's Avon and Cheddar guide book.
Away from my depressingly lonely climbing adventures I've been looking for a car to buy so have spent much of yesterday and today visiting garages and responding to adverts. Nothing amazing yet but enough to be getting along with.
The run on Saturday went well too, about 20km, and very little disomfort from the knee. Things are looking up for the weekend.

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