Rocklands 2011

Driving out of Cape Town airport was an exciting experience, some local people had warn us on the plane about the dangerous one can encounter on the roads here in South Africa. But in the end we managed to drive out to Rocklands without any problems what so ever. It wasn’t even that hard to drive a stick using your left hand even if it has been a long time since I’ve did it and I've come to the conclusion that after being in traffic in Mumbai nothing really scares me that much anymore.

About 40 kilometers before Clanwilliam we started to see some boulders along the road, and it was hard for me to watch the road as we glazed on the rock with Andy.

When we finally got to our destination here at De Pakhuys it didn’t take us long to drive to the nearby crag. In this case the nearest one was the Plateau. I started the trip with some easy stuff and had a go on Minky (7b), which is a really nice problem and in the nearby days I will go back and send it, was way too tired from the trip to send it, yeah I know it’s an excuse but for me it’s a good one.

Andy started his trip quite well and did Black Velvet (8a) on his third go, if he would have used his beta straight away, I reckon he would have flashed it. One of his goals on this trip was to flash a 8a problem and even if he didn’t flash Black Velvet it only took two days to fulfill one of his goals, as on the second day he flashed Barracuda (8a). I got the ascent on video, there isn’t any video magic on this one, as I’m not going to ask him to climb a problem twice on this trip, I will rather watch him send as much stuff as possible.

So we spend the second day at the 8-day rain sector, and I think we went around about half of the stuff. I have to say as a sandstone virgin that I absolutely love it. My own climbing wasn’t that good on the second day, got some pain in my back and almost called quits for the day, but just had to try Vlad the Impeller (7c), it’s a really nice problem with really nice crimps, and I will be returning to it as I only have two moves left to do.

Next to Vlad was Paul Robinsons The Big Short (8a), originally graded 8b+, which Andy quickly repeated in about five tries. It is amazing to see him climb and I have a feeling that he will be sending some really hard stuff at the end of the trip.

Tomorrow we will be heading out to check out the sector called Fields of Joy, our host Thys who owns the cottage is arranging our permits to the other sectors and until we get them we will be spending our time on sectors he owns. I count him as one of the luckiest men I’ve ever met, he lives in one of the most amazing places I have ever visited, surrounded by quality bouldering and stunning scenery.

For me South Africa brings back memories from my time spent in Australia. With the chilly winter evening and even chillier morning as the house doesn’t have any heating and the cold air sneaks in during the nights. But I am enjoying it, unfortunately some of my fellow travellers feel the cold more than I do, and have been getting cold during the nights. Another thing that reminds me of my old home has been the night sky here in Africa, the stars are so bright and seeing the Milky Way for the first time in four years has made me smile.

I will be trying to update my blog as often as I can, but my main goal on this trip is to boulder a lot, so don’t be expecting amazing video clips, photography or well written blog posts as I will be hugging as many problems my skin can take.