Week Two in the Grampians

Just a quick post from Horsham Public Library where the lady at the desk was kind enough to not charge me for internet!

Climbed in a bunch of different areas and on loads of different routes already.  The rock is an awesome really unique type of sandstone.  The closest thing I can compare it to is Hueco Tanks in West Texas, (at least the parts of Hueco with dishes and open hand holds, it's not nearly as crimpy).  I've climbed nothing harder than V7 (higher numbers mean harder boulder problems, or climbs) so far, but one of those was a flash (I climbed it first try), and I've almost got two V8s and a V9.  There's a V11 I want to project (spend lots of time perfecting the moves so you can climb the whole route from start to finish without falling) that I did all the moves on but the crux (hardest) one.  Here is a video of someone climbing the V11, it's called Forced Entry because there's a mono (a pocket you can only fit one finger in) on the route that is really hard to use well becaue it's so small.  I also climbed this really fun highball V4 (highballs are boulder problems that are high enough that there is potential for injury, but V4 is a lower difficulty than I warm up on, and I had lots of spotters below me) called Volume 1000, next time I have interent I'll bring my camera and upload the pictures I got of me on it.

I did my best to translate the climbing jargon into english in the italics, so I hope the paragraph above is readable by everyone.

So an awesome ten days and that's just the climbing.  The climbers I've met so far have all been really cool interesting people.  I started the week climbing with a couple from Sydney who showed me around, then a group from Melbourne, and now another guy from Sydney.

I'm looking forward to climbing some harder stuff this next week, now that I'm used to the rock and have worked out what I want to project.

Grampians Tomorrow

Just cooked myself some dinner in the hostel in Melbourne, pasta and tomato sauce :). Just about the only thing I can cook. And by tomato sauce I mean ketchup.

I went to two different rock gyms today and yesterday looking for climbers going to the Grampians this weekend, unfortunately the forecast isn't great so not many people are going up and I couldn't find a ride. But I'm going to take the train up tomorrow anyway. Some of the climbing is so close to horizontal that it stays dry even in storms. On a positive note I onsighted (climbed first try without falling) the hardest route in the first gym I went too; impressed the guy I was climbing with haha. For any climbers reading it was a 28, or 5.12d in american climbing grades. And the second gym I went to a really good bouldering gym, and packed with serious climbers so that was fun. 

The weather in Melbourne hasn't been great. It was nice the day I arrived, cool but not cold. Today however it rained all day, and I got drenched in the early afternoon because I walked really far away from the hostel as it was sprinkling, then by the time it truly started raining I was about almost an hour away....

So I won't have Internet when I'm camping, but when I do I'm sure I'll have a load of climbing photos to upload. There's a McDonald's in the town nearest the campsite, so if I can get there I'll use the their wifi.

Thanks for reading!

Montville

The top left picture is from an overlook by Montville, a town in the hills further inland from the Sunshine Coast.  The other two are from a lake near Gwyn's house where on his birthday (today), we took out his two radio controlled sailboats.  Gwyn has a group he takes out the boats with regularly.

The boats are actually really hard to sail, especially since from the shore it's hard to tell exactly what the wind is doing to the sails.  Not to mention the fact the last time I sailed anything was at least 3 years ago, if not more.  My boat spent quite a bit of time zigzagging or sitting still haha.

Tomorrow early start to fly to Melbourne, then a couple of days enjoying the city and getting last minute things together for my trip into the mountains.  Probably won't be uploading photos for a while since any blogging I'll be doing will be from my iPhone.

Lunch by the Beach

Here's a photo of me from yesterday, when Gwyn and I enjoyed lunch in Caloundra.

I've been talking about making the most of my jetlag and getting up early to photograph the sunrise from the beach (I've been waking up around 5), but then I think about getting out of bed and decide to go back to sleep haha.  When I eventually made my way to the beach at about 9 this morning I brought my book, and after reading for an hour or so walked down the beach to Cartwright Point.  I kayaked in the afternoon to the nearest mariner, unsurprisingly managing to get myself a little sunburned.

It's lovely here but after looking through my climbing guidebook for the Grampians (which I ordered to here so have only had this week) I'm psyched to climb there.  Monday to Melbourne, then Thursday to the mountains :).

Arrived in Buddina

Here is a photo of the beautiful beach in Buddina.  Took a walk up and down it this afternoon after a relaxing morning recovering from 16 hours on a plane.  The weather here is great, 70s and no humidity with clear skies :).

And now 'cause the drinking age is 18 I get to enjoy a beer in front of the sunset, it just gets better haha.

Waiting at DFW Airpot

I thought Popeyes was an appropriate last meal in Texas before I catch my connection to Brisbane.

Plans for the Year

I guess an appropriate first post on this travel blog would be an itinerary for my year.

On September 10th, I'll be flying from Houston to Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast of Australia, where my Uncle Gwyn has been kind enough to let me stay with him in Buddina.  From there I travel to Melbourne, only staying a couple of nights before I head out to the Grampians.  The Grampians are a mountain range that have recently become more and more a focus of hard bouldering, with professional climbers establishing dozens of hard new climbs.  I'll be camping, but I'll probably retreat to a hostel for a couple nights in the middle as I'll be there for almost 3 weeks, till October 9th.  October 10th I fly from Melbourne to Perth to stay with my friend Kat, visit some family friends, and enjoy the beach.

After Perth I leave Australia, flying to Hanoi on October 15th.  On the 17th I travel south east to Ha Long Bay in the South China Sea.  It's a crazy place for climbers because the bay is filled with limestone towers and arches with huge stalactites and climbable features, and because of the deep water you can climb them without ropes or gear.  Falling just means a big splash.  This short video (less than 5 minutes) shows people climbing in this style (deep water soloing) in Ha Long Bay.  I'll climb there for 6 days before returning to Hanoi until the 29th, when I fly to Mumbai.

When I first get to India I'll stay in Mumbai for just a night as I'll be going to the a festival held in Hampi, Karnataka.  Hampi was the capital of an early Indian empire before being conquered, and is now just a village surrounded by royal and sacred ruins.  The annual Hampi Festival is a cultural event, and has been celebrated since the ruins were a city.  In modern times the original reason Hampi was chosen as a capital, the existence of thousands of granite boulders that were used as construction materials, has now made it a climbing destination.  Here I'll do more bouldering, while enjoying the cultural festival.  Three weeks later, I'll head back to Mumbai to do a week long yoga course.  I haven't been doing much yoga recently, but studying yoga in its country of origin is an opportunity I can't miss.  By then it will be the 1st of December and I will travel south to Goa and its beautiful beaches.  Two weeks there and I'll be ready to return to the hustle and bustle of Mumbai for a couple of days, before flying out of Mumbai to London on December 17th.  The end of my Eastern tour, just in time to celebrate Christmas with family.

January 2nd I fly to back to Houston.  But it's not over!  After staying there for couple of weeks, I'll work my westward across the South, visting friends in college and climbing everywhere I can.  When it starts to heat up towards the end of spring, I'll either travel northward, or maybe fly to Europe early for the climbing season there.  My family will be visiting the UK and our extended family over summer anyway, so I'll end up spending some time in Europe regardless.  But it's starting to seem more likely I spend most of my summer in the US.  It's cheaper over here, and without a car in Europe I'd have a hard time reaching the mountainous and more remote areas where the best climbing is.

Either way, I am extremely excited for the next year, more so now as I only have a week until I leave!