moving on from South Africa

Two months goes by incredibly fast when you're in a great place having a good time. We left Rocklands yesterday to head to Cape Town for a couple nights before our epic two day flight to Australia.

Orange Heart. A beautiful piece of rock v4/5

We don't have any amazing accomplishments of the last couple weeks, just a bunch of good fun climbing was done. Matthew had focused a lot of his time and energy on a project called Weichi which was a 7c+ or v10. This was the first climb of the grade he had really tried and while he gave it everything he had and got incredibly close (fell off the final hold), it didn't quite come together on this trip. That's the problem with setting your sights high and trying something that is harder than what you've done before, it doesn't always end in success when you want it to. The positive side of this is that he now knows he can do something this hard so will be more likely to try that grade again. With any luck there will be a post with Matthew sending his first v10 sometime soon.

the project Weichi v10

Bullet Proof an amazing v5ish dyno

Cassie spent a bit of time focusing on a climb that is much different than the normal style she enjoys. Generally she seems to favor slightly overhanging climbs with crimps (thin holds) rather than open handed slopers especially when those slopers require compression (squeezing the arms together to maintain contact). Considering her finger injury Cassie stayed away from crimpers and started working problems that had slopers. I think she did quite a bit better than even she expected and possibly we'll see her spend more time on compression and sloper problems. In the photo below she is setting up for a double heel hook double sloper position. It's basically squeezing the rock with your hands and feet while upside down. It's hard (and requires serious strength).

Against the Wind v6/7  7a+

the right hand sloper on Against the Wind

the left hand sloper on Against the Wind

In the last two weeks, we returned to a number of problems and areas we hadn't been to since early in the trip. We were both able to finish up or do a number of classic problems that we hadn't tried or didn't quite finish earlier in the trip. It felt good to finish up these problems that felt so impossible the first week of the trip.   Matthew also tried another classic v10, called Caroline on our last day here. It's a beautiful line and he was able to work out a few of the moves pretty quickly.

Caroline v10 7c+

We enjoyed the climbing in Rocklands so much that we're already trying to figure out if we can get back here next year. For now though, all good things have to come to an end, or move on to somewhere else.

We were excited to head to Cape Town where we are staying at the same bed and breakfast we stayed at our first night here. Again they upgraded us to a nicer room and we are really enjoying the comforts of living inside with a great shower, comfy bed, and TV to watch the Olympics on. We left our new found comforts today to explore a bit. We drove down the coast to see the African penguin colony here. And yes, penguins are amazingly cute and fun to watch.

penguin chicks

While we're a bit sad to leave rocklands, we're off to another great location and are looking forward to climbing in Australia and seeing friends there.

Rocklands Update

Time to Sit: Our Climbing Sundial: Sleep,Coffee,Sit,Send!,Eat.

Loaded up for a day of climbing

It'd be almost a lie to not admit that as I write this post I'm drinking incredibly cheap scotch (called 100 Pipers by Seagram) and sitting by a dying fire at our campsite with the southern cross and the milky way overhead. The scotch is about 90 Rand for a bottle and that works out to about $10 a bottle. Cassie in the meanwhile is over at the campground bar (open Monday,Wednesday,Friday and Saturday and only about 100 meters from our tent) having a beer with Nancy to celebrate their sending of a very stout 7a (v6) called Human Energy. Let's see, it's been about a month since our last blog post and since it's going to take a little while let me throw another log on the fire as it's putting more smoke in my face than warmth.

Now lets see where did we last leave off. I guess that we caught everyone up with our first few weeks of climbing and our rest week of traveling. Since then we've been doing nothing but climbing. Cassie's finger is slowly improving. I usually ask every day how it feels and some days it's much better, but usually after climbing it's sore and a rest is needed. That being said I see her trusting it more and more each day and though I don't think it'll be totally healed by the time we're in Australia it seems that Cassie's ability to crush may be fully restored sometime when we are there. Why am I talking about Australia already? Seems surprising that we're only 2 weeks away from the end of our two months in Rocklands. It's been an amazing trip so far and we've even had a few discussions about coming back next year (for the parents reading this yes that would mean extending the trip by two months) but who knows this far out?

One of my favorite parts of the trip so far has been spending some time at a new area that some of the climbers in the campground are developing. Currently it's named Donkeyland and has some very good moderate climbs as well as a few harderish ones. In one day I managed to put up 7 new climbs all of which were fun and reasonably easy, plus I got to climb a bunch of lines others had climbed. Very cool when you know you're the first person to climb a particular line and the rock is so good it's already perfect for climbing.   We are planning on going back for another day in the near future.

Cassie on a Donkeyland roof climb

Matt on a Donkeyland arete

As for Cassie it's unfortunate that there has been a ton of climbing she has been obliged to walk away from given her injury and that's a really tough thing when the whole reason you are here is to climb. She did complete Human Energy though which is a problem most climbers (even those who have climbed v12) fall off of, so it's a very difficult climb and is well worth the effort she put into it. Even though it's been a whole month I don't have any other really cool sends to report for Cassie which gives you an idea how limited she has had to be with her climbing. It's not that she hasn't been trying things, it's just that there is usually a move that hurts her finger so she backs of rather than aggravate the injury. She's been a real trooper though and has stayed quite positive. It's helped that a fellow climber (Val) whom we met in Bishop has been here with a similar finger injury and has had to take it east as well. Both of them climb near the same grades and I don't doubt that they would be crimping their way to glory if not for those pesky finger injuries.

Human Energy

Cassie on Human Energy 7a v6

Cassie on Tea Arch 7b (v7/8)

Luckily so far I've been able to avoid getting injured and have slowly recovered my strength. Shortly after getting back from our South African tour I put a few more days into a roof/compression climb called Poison Dwarf. I had put multiple days into it before we left but just didn't have the strenth to send. With our break and a bit more work it finally went down. It's my second 7b (v7/8) of Rocklands and all told I think I put 5 days into that climb. It has probably the single hardest move I've ever done on it where you have to fall into a compression move, it's an incredibly difficult move. I fell from the topout jugs and then sent the next go (anyone reading about my climbing knows I always fall off the topout jugs). After finishing Poison Dwarf I tried another climb called Born Into Struggle which I had put a day of effort into and surprisingly it went on my third try of the day. That felt pretty quick considering it's rated 7b+ (v8/9) and is right up there with the hardest climb I've done to date. With some hope that my strength is fully back I spent some time climbing with Georg and tried a few 7c and 7c+ climbs. Nothing has been completed yet, but we still have about 2 weeks left here. We'll definitely do one more post to fully complete our Rocklands trip blogging. Also, we've done enough video I expect to be able to put a short film together for Africa and Rocklands.

Matt on Poison Dwarf 7b (v7/8)

Reading this I realize how little I have to talk about with over 3 weeks of climbing, so it might be assumed that we haven't been climbing much, but rest assured we've done a ton of climbing and have had an excellent time.

To Simay 6c+ (v5)

Georg trying for a Hole in One 7c+ (v10)

Val finishing up Trackside arete 6c+

South Africa Travels

After two weeks more climbing Cassie's finger was still hurting her, that coupled with a prediction of rain for almost 4 days in a row caused us to hightail it out of Rocklands to do some tourism.

Driving the Garden Route

We decided to drive what is known as the Garden Route. It starts near Cape Town and travels along the coast east until Port Elizabeth. Our first night we stayed in Hermanus which is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to watch whales from the shore. Alas we saw no whales probably because they are only just starting to arrive in the area. Closer to September would probably have been best. We moved east to Knysna and stayed at a wonderful victorian b&b/backpackers lodge, where we met a couple from Holland who we spent some time talking with. They told us of their travels to Addo Elephant Park and showed us some pictures and we were very excited to go. The following afternoon we were in the park. The park has a interesting setup in which you are allowed to drive around on the roads and watch the wildlife, but are not allowed to get out of your vehicle except in certain designated areas. We started driving through and just as we were told we immediately started seeing Elephants.

Elephant watching us

Mother and Baby

And I'm not talking like we saw them through binoculars and they looked cool, I mean they were right up next to the car, in many cases only a few feet from us. They were huge impressive beautiful animals and we spent many an hour just sitting there watching them eat and walk around. Truly magnificent experience. We saw plenty of other wildlife as well, though not all the "big 5" that are so sought after. The park did have lions and leopards and rhinos, but not very many. We're considering doing a safari to make sure we get to see the rest of the big ones. That being said for $20 each per day we certainly got out moneys worth. The second day we went back into the park and spent a full day exploring it.

Kudu

Cape Buffalo

Vervet Monkeys

We saw a lot more animals than the previous day and were thrilled with our time there, though as it was drawing to a close we were saying to each other "i hope that wasn't the last elephant we get to see". Well, you know how sometimes you wish for something maybe just a little too hard? and when you get it it's a lot more than what you bargained for? As we were driving out to exit the park we saw one more elephant eating and pulled up about 50ft from it to watch him eat. He was just munching along paying us no mind when he slowly pulled away from the tree. When these behemoths move they are very slow and you have a lot of time to see what's happening so as he started walking towards us both of us held our breath because he seemed to be looking right at us. He started waving his trunk around and flapping his ears and kept coming toward us. Now, let me say that all the elephants in the park are huge, but this one in particular was massive and when he decided to stand right in front of our miniature tiny insignificant little rental car with our even smaller insignificant bodies inside of it we indeed felt very small. He looked directly at each of us with his huge eyes and used his trunk to check out the bumper. Sometimes I hear people use the expression "about shit myself with fear" but I tell you I was so tense that couldn't have happened. I think we both didn't breathe for at two solid minutes as he sat there watching us and seemed to be considering if it would be a good idea to total the car by simply stepping on it. Eventually he just got tired of us and walked off to another car giving us the chance to pull away. We were both very happy to have had that last encounter and decided that being humbled in front of such a majestic animal was probably the best experience of all the ones we had in the park. We'll always remember his presence in front of us and listening to his breath. Truly magic.

In the grasslands

After that we headed back west and checked out Cango cave near Ootdsthorn. We've seen a lot of caves so and didn't have great expectations of it even with many of our south african friends telling us how amazing it was. We were stunned when we went into the first room. It was huge and amazing. Absolutely wonderful cave and the best we've even seen. Truly stupendous place.

Cango Cave

Cave Closeup

Driving to Oudtshoorn

Tomorrow we head back to Rocklands to start climbing again. Cassie's finger has improved some, but is still sore so we'll see if she can climb much. Truly a frustrating injury when you're on a climbing trip. She's had the bulk of the injuries on the trip and it's tough to have fun when everyone else around you is climbing and you're not. We'll try to stay positive and keep hoping for a full recovery soon.

Oh, btw I sent a super cool roof climb just before we left called "Minki" it's a 7b which works out to v7/8. So, the strength is gradually returning. Many climbs we are excited to go back and try. Time to return to Rocklands!!!

Minki 7b v7/8