Another 2374 miles...

On the beach with Telendos behind.

At the end of my last post I mentioned that we only had two days left on Kalymnos and that these would be spent climbing. Well on Tuesday that didn’t happen. We woke early so that we could breakfast, before heading up to the crag in the morning shade, but I wasn’t motivated for climbing in the slightest, and this was the same on the following day, Wednesday.

Instead of climbing we spent the days pottering around Masouri; having lunch at the Glaros Bar, before heading down to the beach to while away the afternoon besides the sea. Whilst in the Glaros Bar on the first of these two days, I came across an article, in one of the bar's many climbing magazines, on sport climbing, sport climbing on Kalymnos as a matter of fact, and the misconceptions many British climbers have on this discipline of rock climbing.

One of these misconceptions is the grading of the routes; they aren’t graded for the onsight, but instead, for the redpoint attempt. Almost immediately it made sense; this was why I was getting shut down on routes graded at F6b. It wasn’t because I lacked stamina, which is the conclusion I had drawn, but because I was approached the whole climbing experience wrong and was always going for the onsight, when I should have been taking my time, finding hidden holds whilst hanging on the rope, so that when it came to the lead I had the moves wired and could conserve my strength for when it was really needed.

Masouri celebrating the end of the summer season.

However, it's a bit late for all of that now; I'm back in Carlisle, the rain is lashing against the windows, and the washer has nearly finished it's first load.

More pictures of the holiday can be seen here.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain