Swanage Climbing or 'I know what you did last Sept 17 & 18th'
Friday Trying to find a decent weather window for climbing amongst the nastiness of the tail end of hurricane Katia. Down south looked like the best bet. So headed for Swanage.
We got down on Friday afternoon at Tom's to find the Matt, Daymo, Deej and Gaz had already got some climbs in at Dancing Ledge. Early feedback was suggesting that the backwall was dam hard for the grade. Andy M, yet to arrive in his Cmax, was battling against 'ferocious' 25mph headwinds, saying he'd not seen owt like it at we ought to prepare for the worst, how true...
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Anyway that was for tomorrow, after a brew, Hel & I headed up to the Square & Compass, others to follow later. yes OK i know the way in the dark like the back of my hand, and I may have suggested it would only take 25mins. By about the 4th pint of Copper Ale they had still not arrived. 50/1 they don't make it and have either fallen off the cliff or been taken prisoner by the Purbeck Taliban. Eventually they arrived still minus Andy M & team BAMA. Yes we agree it's a bit like American Werewolf, blah, blah......Pints and Pasties appear, turns out they scared the sh**t out a some poor lad on a bike and tortured him for directions.
Kangaroo Moon were playing http://www.kangaroomoon.com/ dam good stuff. Some pints and a complaint to the bar staff from Len on the meat/veg ratio of his pasty later, we headed back down the Priests Way......... 25mins bang on ish!
Well, I thought it was all going quite well...enter team BAMA, stealth mode.
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| We're gonna play here today |
Saturday After a few dodgy looks next morning from one of the neighbours, the chaps went to pay and received good humoured verbal warning. There were some minor confusions with the registration plates of the cars, and yes it was conceivable that there were more of us than had actually paid....that's multiple personality disorder for you.
After a cracking breakfast via the full facilities of Matt' (Skinners) van, we packed and headed for Dancing Ledge. The weather holds off for most of the day.
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| Daymo keen for some DWS |
The 5+ routes 'The War of the Wardens' and 'John Craven's Willy Warmer' are well polished and getting dam hard for the grade, so we move onto the 6b & c's hoping for some better rock. Good job we have a Deej with us 'The Honey Monster' and 'Rambling Moses Weetabix and the Secona Park Seven' and even Disco's Out, Murder's In 6c+ get an airing. The rocks a lot better but it's still dam hard work. Team BAMA get to grabs with some sea fishing and then onto the Mexican wave for some pumpy jugging, think they had a go at 'Circus Beach 7b+' http://27crags.com/crags/dancing-ledge/topos/mexican-wave-area before scaring the fish again with a dip in the swimming pool.
Back to Tom's and bring on the curry.....nice one Deej
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| Deej pulling a slow one |
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| Matt, lookin casual |
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| Yow cawt a wale mate |
Saturday Night There was consideration given to taking the kit & curry down to the ledge, but a few beers later it sounded like hard work. Some many beers later there must have been something in the curry. Team BAMA end up going a bit native. I arrive back from the loo to a scene from the tail end of Apocalypse Now. Matt (Skinner) ends up doing what he does best. In the slightly amended words of Mr Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction.
The Wolf: That gives us exactly... till the morning to get the f**k out of Swanage. Which, if you do what I say when I say it, should be plenty. Now, you've got a corpse on the floor, minus a head, and it's going in the pot. Take me to it............. 10 minutes later the jobs done, the mans a legend. If this doesn't make sense, don't worry neither did Saturday night.
The rain falls steadily until morning, washing away the sins of the night before, the wind tentatively edges towards the critical speed of 25mph.
and Sunday morning Not so fresh as a daisy...and everything seems normal, breakfasts gets on the go, Daymo says lets ave scrambled, Len says yes but continues cooking fried. I like fried he says, for the 5th time???? What do we recon then, the weathers a bit on and off, need somewhere sheltered. Gotta be Portland then. East Side!
We loose Andy M & BAMA en route, they decide to head home. We end up at Godnor Far North, we mange to get in a few routes, 'Jacob's Ladder' 5+, 'The Truth is Out There' 6b, 'Wedding Daze' 6b & 'Tombstone' 3+, this is lovely rock, a bit of everything. There are no words left but Len still has more to say, Daymo offers to pay one of us to belay Len next, but we're all very busy.
Ducking the worst of the odd showers we head back to the cars and go for munchies by the lighthouse, Helen gets a bit scared of the sheds. Time to go home..........
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| BAMA worrying the fishisis |
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