Old man river's log
I did a log before, but failed to update it for a while. So I thought I would restart.
I went through a phase of not lift
Climbing, 2.5 hours and 3 hours' walking. I was good at climbing; I seem to be way better at v4s than earlier in the year. The highlight was a jumpy overhangy thing.
I am broken now.
Sunday, 8 days ago
Saw the Smashing Pumpkins and Skunk Anansie. Skunk were awesome. I walked to the gig, which was about 16 miles. And I jumped about a lot at the gig, so loads of exercise.
Photo from the walk:
Monday
Ckimbing, I was terrible
Tuesday
1 km swim
Wednesday
Climbing, average session. I got an overhangy V4 which I made look so hard loads of folk fist pumped me afterwards. The end was a dyno campus to thing to a sloper.
Friday
Loads of hill walking
Saturday
Caving, helping on beginner's trip. Good fun, a relaxing bimble. Around 4 hours. We did a bit of a walk afterwards.
Sunday
Caving. A little trip, but slightly more sporting than Saturday. One beginner gave up at a free climb, so didn't make it to the 400m crawl. Good fun; there is only one narrow bit. Most of it is hands and knees.
Monday
Ckimbing. Gravity was low,; it was fun.
Thursday
Climbing, 2 hours. Ok session; I did well on the v4s.
Saturday
We aimed to survey the cavevwe found, but couldn't find the surveying equipment at the hut. So we did a walk looking for digging prospects; we found a couple of new caves.
Sunday
We had aimed to do a big trip involving SRT (Single Rope Technique, used for vertical caving). But Joe got food poisoning, so we did a walk instead. It was really fun, we went to a reservoir and free dived a sump.
Monday
Climbing, 2 hours. I was pretty good again.
In the pictures above, you can see Joe (about to go under the mini sump in the first )
Tuesday
Climbing, 2 hours. Really good fun, I went to Castle. It was my first time there in years; it's a great gym (huge). I was climbing well.
Thursday
Climbing, 2.5 hours. A really fun session, I got quite a few v4s. Some were a proper effort; I was shaking like a leaf on the last send of the day. I had one hand on a tiny crimp, and one foot on a tiny chip, and somehow held on to a more comfortable position.
Saturday
Climbing, brilliant fun. I again got many v4s. The most fun one was actually just a v2, but the jump made it nice. I did it many times in the session.
Wednesday
I went climbing. It was really good fun. Gravity compensated for Monday; on Monday it was way higher than 9.8 m/s^2; today it was way lower.
I got loads of v4s, including 2 flashes; and a v5. It was my first v5 for a few months
Tuesday
Sauna and swimming
Monday
I climbed, sort of. Gravity was unusually high, so it wasn't my greatest effort.
Saturday
I aimed to go caving, but Joe was ill so I had a random weekend instead. I went climbing for 3 hours, it was fun. I was in form.
Sunday
Babs, her sister and I went to the beach. They chilled on the beach while I ran around like a hyperactive squirrel on speed. My longest swim was about 40 minutes; it was cold but nowhere near hypothermic.
Monday
Climbing, 2 hours. I was good, gravity was low.
what is the ocean temp right now over there? Guessing it's about at it's warmest given the end of Summer?
I've been in the ocean the past few weeks - 1st week of Spring = basically the coldest it gets. It's 18C here right now in Sydney, a little warmer than average for Sept. OK ish, but not warm enough (for me) to want to do much more than get wet and wallow around for a few mins
I think it's around 20c, so the hottest it gets. (Sea temperature tends to lag air temperature by about 3 months, so September is indeed as warm as it gets.)
I went caving on Saturday. It was good; we did an exchange trip at Lost Johns. We rugged and descended one route; another team rigged and descended the other.
We met up in the middle, then we went up and de rigged their side, and they went up our side. Fun trip; the rope work was pretty straightforward.
On Sunday, only three of us wanted to cave. So I led a trip down Notts 2, a very pretty cave. Then the drive back took 7 hours, as the traffic was bad.
I only took one photo, the view from Leck Fell to Morecambe Bay.
I spent a week in Sardinia, getting a couple of caves in. It was brilliant, I recommend it
Nude from a volleyball games. I still seem to be skinny.
Spoiler
I spent the weekend scuba diving in Cornwall. We got 3 dives on Saturday, but then it became lumpy and we were blown out.
We got a nice hike on Sunday, a fairly chilled 10 miles or so. I got back to mine early-ish on Monday, so intended to climb. But there was someone under a train at my destination, which scuppered that plan. I ended up walking 6 miles to get home.
I went climbing today. I was pretty good, twas fun. It was a 2.75 hour session.
I've been active, but crap at logging.
I went climbing today. It was fun. I got two v5s, technically making it my best ever session. At least one of them was feather bagged, though - an overhang on tiny crimps that was actually pretty chilled. V4 at most.
Lifted, and walked 8 miles. I did OHP, squat and deadlift, nothing very heavy (1.1* bodyweight for squat and 1.5* fir deadlift, all for 3 sets of 5.)
I got a very short climbing session in (just over1 hour). It's barely enough time to get warm, so I didn't manage anything hard. I had a train to catch, hence the short session.
Congratulations mang, well played.
I went caving over the weekend.
Saturday was quite a little of rope work; the biggest pitch was 70m. I got stuck in a rift between two of the pitches, other than that it was a great trip.
Sunday was a little trip, but with much faffing so I got home at 10 p m..
I went climbing today, with a distinct lack of energy.
Yesterday, I finally finished my cavern diving course. It rocked.
The sump was 750 metres from the car park, up a steep hill. Carrying my tanks up and down felt like exercise... I took two trip to start, and three to come back.
I did dry caving on Sunday, a rather nice sporting 6 hour trip with lots of rope work.
Long time without logging...
I went caving a week ago on Saturday. It was a good, hard session. We were underground for 8 hours.
We surveyed my cave on Sunday, and actually finished the survey. So we are close to being able to name it.
The alarums and excursions included me losing my car keys. I had my house keys, wallet, mobile phone and clean clothes in the car. I plopped the car app onto a friend's phone, which solved the not having useful stuff issue.
A friend gave me a lift back on Monday. I went swimming in Tuesday. I got the train back to Wales on Wednesday after work, and after a couple of hours found a cab willing to take to the back end of nowhere to reunite me with my car .
I worked from home at the caving hut on Thursday, so I walked up the local hill looking for caves over my lunch hour. I failed to find any caves, but the view was nice.
I drove back to London on Thursday evening, and went for a climb on Friday. The middle finger on my right hand hurt like hell. I tried to ignore it, and fell off loads of easy climbs due to mild pain. The pain improved the more I climbed, so my cunning plan worked. I eventually sent a v5. Yeah buddy! 2.5 hour session, and loads of walking.
I had a rest day on Saturday, and got 12 miles' walk in.
I contemplated a rest day today, and ended up walking 10 miles then climbing for 2.5 hours, so I wasn't entirely successful in that endeavour.
England had a very cold snap recently, getting to as low as -12.5 centigrade in Norfolk. I decided to cope with this by running away.
I went to Watamu in Kenya for some scuba diving. We were helping to restore the corals.
A typical day was:
7 a.m breakfast
7.30 walk to scuba shop, about 15 minutes down the beach.
8 to 12.30-ish two scuba dives, typically shallow and lasting from an hour to 80 minutes each.
Walk back to the accommodation (A Rocha, a conservation charity) after rinsing the kit.
1 p.m, although we were normally late, lunch.
2 p.m. to 4 p.m I had kite surfing lessons. I think I have a new hobby, it was really fun.
4 p.m. to 6 p.m. snorkeling and free diving, or yoga.
7 p.m. or later was dinner.
It was a nice level of activity, a bit more may have been ideal but it was relaxing.
Pictures to follow when I get back, which will be Saturday.
I have been active, my logging is crap.
I did another cave diving course. It was cracking fun; I recommend it. The course was TDI intro to cave; I did it in a mine in Derbyshire.
I went climbing in Monday, I was average.
I went climbing today, I was actually pretty good until I did something unpleasant to my shoulder .
My logging is a bit crap. I have been doing stuff.
Saturday
A rare outdoor climbing session, on the Southern sandstone at Tunbridge Wells on top rope. Good fun, I should do this more.
Sunday
I came down with something.
Monday
I recovered.
Indoor bouldering. Really good fun, we practiced jumping moves. I got my fist ever lache dyno (where you swing on the first move to get enough momentum to jump).
