Ahhhhhhh Sunshine and warmth!!
Normal service has been resumed and Kalymnos is basking in sunshine again. Has been ever since Easter Sunday. Climbers have begun looking for the shade and some hardy souls are even swimming!
It's been really great to see some old friends here from Scotland and renew some old acquaintances with people I've met here before. I'd always intended to be here for most of April to catch up with the Glasgow wall posse, but seeing a few old Aberdeen friends here too has been a very pleasant surprise.
Entertainment Kalymnos style today was provided by a half decent cup of coffee at Soul on the main drag after a quick and free dental check to see if my broken crown and remaining route was ok. Then we watched a coast guard vessel being lifted into dry dock after a crash during a chase. This drew a fair crowd... but we had a far more important appointment, my first non UK hair cut! As my hair thins with age its vitally important that the hairdresser knows how to hide the empty spaces as much as possible with the remaining locks, so I was a little nervous when I sat down and tried to convey what was needed in my pigeon Greek. 10 euros later and I'm relived to say that all is well and I survived in tact. :)
Coffee at Soul bar.
Crowds at the harbour.
Hair!!!
The new plan for the elbow had begun to show good signs, real progress had been made with the mind following suit and I was beginning to feel more confident on the rock again as the elbow felt like it was getting better and I begin to get a touch fitter too.
The Theraband has been very useful and I'm certain the sunshine has helped keep things warm and moving a little more freely, along with the exercises and stretching.
I enjoyed 4 nice easy gentle days climbing in a row, the elbow has been supported, while the urge to climb harder had been fairly easily resisted until a couple of days ago at Secret Garden. I still 'felt' the tendonitus so I was aware that it's far from fixed and up to now, this had helped me to reign in my urge to get on harder things and ruin the good work we'd done so far!
As for the climbing, I had a good day at Ghost (Seaside) Kitchen with Ben Hicks, and another with Themi when I climbed the excellent Resista again. This is a wonderful route and remains one of the nicest soft 6c's on the island. While it's intimidating in appearance, the holds and the moves are utterly brilliant. I managed to on sight the 7a to the left of it with no problems and felt much happier in myself to see that I didn't break but managed to hang in there and make the moves fairly easily, even though I didn't actually find the best pockets to pull on but just founds things I could use and cranked.
Ben and I had another good day at Ivory Tower and we both enjoyed the excellent Aypa. We did Happiness too, for me the second time I'd been up the fine lower wall on those lovely cauliflower edges to be stopped by the ridiculous final moves to clip the lower off on the lip of the roof! Not one I'll choose to do a third time, unless the extension needs a tick :)
Ben Hicks on Happiness at Ivory Tower. 6c
Then we had a rest day, sort of........... and went up to Symplegades to do a couple of routes, just to keep things moving. After a good Theraband warm up and a nice easy romp up the first pitch, Climbers Nest Extension went ok and was very good indeed, as was Kamari up the steep pocketed wall away to the right and I felt really pleased to climb both of these well with little complaint from the elbow. Two routes was enough and once back at the store some stretching in the afternoon sunshine and some good chat with passers by followed by dinner out with friends made a very fine day indeed.
Then came Secret Garden. It was Ben's first visit here so we joined Lloyd and Christina for the day. After warming up, and queing up, we climbed the excellent and easy Frapogalo, followed by the equally fine Melodrama, and then I decided to try Trick Katy.... The final steep and crimpy moves to the jugs made the elbow sing a little so I stopped and didn't climb any more. A nice easy day with Themi, Steve and Selina at Noufarou followed, Themi climbed 3 routes in borrowed shoes while Steve and I did a rather tricky 6b+ which made my elbow feel even more tender.
Lloyd starting Tricky Katy 7a+
Themi climbing Jive at Noufarou.
Mr Golley checking routes for the Kalymnos Climbing App.
I really should have seen the warning signs.... The final straw though was getting off route at Iannis while trying Bepikoko and accidentally trying some hard moves (La Manna, apparently..) on the wrong route after getting confused by new bolts to the left and totally missing the ones I actually wanted. This has made the elbow feel pretty sore and deflated my hopes that we were heading in the right direction. As I type now it feel like it's burning and I get sore twinges every now and then. Hey ho. Rest tomorrow and see how it feels after that, I guess its back to the slabs again and maybe apply a little more patience!! Bugger!!!
I'll be leaving again soon. I may have been a little premature as I thought the injury was progressing nicely when I booked the flights..... It was a hard decision anyway as life here is good and I feel very lucky to have found Themi, and pretty much everything else a man needs here, but I have to sort out the van and decide whether to journey on, if so where to go and where the weather might be best for some more climbing, or whether to just slowly head back to the UK, see the family and make plans to sell the van and bring all my worldly goods here somehow? Time will tell.
What I do know is that it will be hard to leave.
Normal service has been resumed and Kalymnos is basking in sunshine again. Has been ever since Easter Sunday. Climbers have begun looking for the shade and some hardy souls are even swimming!
It's been really great to see some old friends here from Scotland and renew some old acquaintances with people I've met here before. I'd always intended to be here for most of April to catch up with the Glasgow wall posse, but seeing a few old Aberdeen friends here too has been a very pleasant surprise.
Entertainment Kalymnos style today was provided by a half decent cup of coffee at Soul on the main drag after a quick and free dental check to see if my broken crown and remaining route was ok. Then we watched a coast guard vessel being lifted into dry dock after a crash during a chase. This drew a fair crowd... but we had a far more important appointment, my first non UK hair cut! As my hair thins with age its vitally important that the hairdresser knows how to hide the empty spaces as much as possible with the remaining locks, so I was a little nervous when I sat down and tried to convey what was needed in my pigeon Greek. 10 euros later and I'm relived to say that all is well and I survived in tact. :)
The new plan for the elbow had begun to show good signs, real progress had been made with the mind following suit and I was beginning to feel more confident on the rock again as the elbow felt like it was getting better and I begin to get a touch fitter too.
The Theraband has been very useful and I'm certain the sunshine has helped keep things warm and moving a little more freely, along with the exercises and stretching.
I enjoyed 4 nice easy gentle days climbing in a row, the elbow has been supported, while the urge to climb harder had been fairly easily resisted until a couple of days ago at Secret Garden. I still 'felt' the tendonitus so I was aware that it's far from fixed and up to now, this had helped me to reign in my urge to get on harder things and ruin the good work we'd done so far!
As for the climbing, I had a good day at Ghost (Seaside) Kitchen with Ben Hicks, and another with Themi when I climbed the excellent Resista again. This is a wonderful route and remains one of the nicest soft 6c's on the island. While it's intimidating in appearance, the holds and the moves are utterly brilliant. I managed to on sight the 7a to the left of it with no problems and felt much happier in myself to see that I didn't break but managed to hang in there and make the moves fairly easily, even though I didn't actually find the best pockets to pull on but just founds things I could use and cranked.
Ben and I had another good day at Ivory Tower and we both enjoyed the excellent Aypa. We did Happiness too, for me the second time I'd been up the fine lower wall on those lovely cauliflower edges to be stopped by the ridiculous final moves to clip the lower off on the lip of the roof! Not one I'll choose to do a third time, unless the extension needs a tick :)
Then we had a rest day, sort of........... and went up to Symplegades to do a couple of routes, just to keep things moving. After a good Theraband warm up and a nice easy romp up the first pitch, Climbers Nest Extension went ok and was very good indeed, as was Kamari up the steep pocketed wall away to the right and I felt really pleased to climb both of these well with little complaint from the elbow. Two routes was enough and once back at the store some stretching in the afternoon sunshine and some good chat with passers by followed by dinner out with friends made a very fine day indeed.
Then came Secret Garden. It was Ben's first visit here so we joined Lloyd and Christina for the day. After warming up, and queing up, we climbed the excellent and easy Frapogalo, followed by the equally fine Melodrama, and then I decided to try Trick Katy.... The final steep and crimpy moves to the jugs made the elbow sing a little so I stopped and didn't climb any more. A nice easy day with Themi, Steve and Selina at Noufarou followed, Themi climbed 3 routes in borrowed shoes while Steve and I did a rather tricky 6b+ which made my elbow feel even more tender.
I really should have seen the warning signs.... The final straw though was getting off route at Iannis while trying Bepikoko and accidentally trying some hard moves (La Manna, apparently..) on the wrong route after getting confused by new bolts to the left and totally missing the ones I actually wanted. This has made the elbow feel pretty sore and deflated my hopes that we were heading in the right direction. As I type now it feel like it's burning and I get sore twinges every now and then. Hey ho. Rest tomorrow and see how it feels after that, I guess its back to the slabs again and maybe apply a little more patience!! Bugger!!!
I'll be leaving again soon. I may have been a little premature as I thought the injury was progressing nicely when I booked the flights..... It was a hard decision anyway as life here is good and I feel very lucky to have found Themi, and pretty much everything else a man needs here, but I have to sort out the van and decide whether to journey on, if so where to go and where the weather might be best for some more climbing, or whether to just slowly head back to the UK, see the family and make plans to sell the van and bring all my worldly goods here somehow? Time will tell.
What I do know is that it will be hard to leave.
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