Climbing by the sea....

Not quite as simple as it sounds when one is based in North Devon....some of the cliffs are a little 'adventurous' (for that read loose!!) whilst others have pretty horrible approaches...add that to the tidal part and that I am only leading around severe at the moment...


Claire and I looked at a couple of venues; however we did get one nice Diff route down on the reverse slab of Brownspear Point. The approach was by a lovely low tide boulder hop which takes you round into a secluded bay that is not possible to get to from above. The route was a lovely diff - with good but spaced gear and some lovely padding. From the bottom it looked like you could abseil off some blocks above the cliff...however when I got there there was a steep loose grass/rubble slope up to the blocks which looked awful loose....

Discretion being the better part and all that, I lowered off a perfect nut 6 and Claire could have a run up and down the slab. It would have been nice to do some routes on Lundy, however with the bird bans in place and me not feeling 100% it would have been dicey - ditto for routes on the N. Devon coast....would be nice to go back soon though...

Sunset from the campsite

Sutherland.....and the garden..

Sutherland is ours!!! We fell in love with the cottage we rented when we moved down to Ashton from Penrith and agreed a price to buy it. It has taken a while...however we now own Sutherland (as we've chosen to call the cottage). What else could we call it with Suilvan, Arkle and Foinavon all here (the latter two are our little Marmot Mammoths)..?

Having brought the place we can now do a few things to it - and one of those is the back garden. We've got a compostor and some enclosed raised beds to grow veg as well. It's unlikely we'll be self-sufficient or be able to retire in a life of untramelled luxury from growing and selling things....however it is nice to produce our own stuff.

This isn't exactly the correct time to grow most things - however we have got some Spinach, Carrots and some spud bags...a test to see what we can do before really gearing up for it next year. Along with this, we have the compostor going already - hopefully it'll produce some lovely home compost for next spring. A woodstore should arrive soon as well  - getting us ready for winter..

Spuds....with some of our herbs..

The compostor...

Maybe this spinach will make me climb better!!

One summer - mystery illness

Got this bug about 6 weeks away, from the Head of Dept at the school I was working at at the time....still not entirely sure what it is, however it has left me in periodic coughing fits at times that make  running and cycling very difficult.

I certainly improved during my time away on Lundy and in Devon, probably relaxing and the sea air. When we got back, I was able to go for a run with Claire with no problem and thought all was well.....unfortunately it wasn't. I managed a gentle run in heavy rain last week which is good - and I've certainly got better than I was before we left for Devon, however I'm still not right.

Cycling is especially a challenge as I cough so much I nearly fall off - clearly not great. On the plus side, walking seems ok (although we'll see more next week) and climbing is also good - we've just come back from a wall session and I can feel things starting to click a bit now which is good - although I could really do with some endurance and power....

Some more from Suilvan...

well, I've been back at home (Sutherland they've called it after the humans brought it) for a couple of weeks - although I've been promised that the humans are going to take me away again on Wed for a few days.

Before that I took the humans down to Devon - to the same place I stayed at last year. It was a bit quieter  than the year before - there weren't as many vans to talk to. It did get busier towards the weekend, however there seemed to more caravans than vans which was a shame, even so, it was nice to have some time away from home.

It was strange though - as the little ones and I were left for 3 days in Ilfracombe, the humans went to a place called Lundy, apparently I was not allowed to go...am not impressed....

One summer - Tryfan Bach

Tryfan Bach is a great little cliff just off the main A5. It's a 180' slab with plenty of holds and most of the routes having loads of gear as well - although a couple are a little blank. I did a lot of early leading   there in the mid 90's and have taken others (including Liz) there to do some leading as well. Getting back into climbing - and moving to Oldham which is a lot closer to N. Wales than Cumbria ever was!! - it seemed like a good idea for a revisit.

We 've actually been about 3 times and done most of the main routes on the slab. As it is purely for wussies (with nothing harder than VS there) the atmosphere is usually pretty relaxed. Claire, being Claire, ran up the harder lines and then had a bit of a wobble on the Moderate Arete which I did as the last climb of that day!! - oh well.  We tend to try and get there reasonably early and leave about mid-afternoon, as the crag starts to get mega busy at that point. Most of the routes have a little polish, but there is nothing too bad and it's a great place to go.

Looking to the hills of the mainland from Anglessey

One summer...

start of a series where I'll blog about what the two of us have got up to over the summer of 2013.


Bouldering at Wimberry

Claire has climbed before - however that was a fair few years ago - and I have barely climbed in 5 years  - so we are both rusty. Having done a few climbs at Windgather Rocks ( a lovely grit outcrop in the W peaks which specialises in easy routes) we thought a session getting us both used to the vagaries of smearing and using pebbles would be good - it was.

We found a lovely slab by a stream and had a prolonged play on it - even at my peak of climbing ability, I was far worse on grit than any other type of rock. Part of this is due to my aversion to jamming whilst I am also used to the positive holds and long pitches of the Lakes and the Dolomites - so the session was very good for me as well...

Lots of updates...

sorry for the lack of posts - things are busy here with teaching and running around as well....

However.....

we left Suilvan in Anglessey; where we had a lovely weekend of climbing and walking by the sea - followed by some routes on Tryfan Bach (Little Tryfan); a great place for people getting back into climbing/newish to climbing as Claire and I are. I found the place to be good and it was good to be able to lead some easyish and safe routes. It was a glorious day, just lovely to be out and about again in N. Wales - as can be seen from the photo's

Looking across to the mainland from Anglessey