Old man river's log
I did a log before, but failed to update it for a while. So I thought I would restart.
I went through a phase of not lift
Wednesday
Climbing. The gym was really crowded, I didn't really get going until it started to thin out about after around 90 minutes. I was good from them.
Thursday
Work offered discounted gym membership, so I joined my local David Lloyd. I swam 750 metres. I then couldn't get into the sauna, as apparently my membership level was insufficient. My main reason for joining was the sauna, so, son, I am disappoint.
Friday
Climbing. Cracking session, sent hard stuff (by my low standards).
Saturday
I was supposed to dive Brighton, but the weather didn't cooperate. So I dived a quarry instead; it was chilly.
Sunday
12 mile walk, 500 metres swim, then I broke into the sauna.
My weight in mid January snuck up to 147 pounds. So I've been on a cut since then, and currently seem to be 143. I may carry on to 140 before eating like a sane person again.
Monday
Climbing. Everything felt hard, although I eventually found my way up most of the things I tried. So I guess it was ultimately reasonably successful.
Tuesday
Rest day
Wednesday
Climbing. A reasonable, but not outstanding session. This gym has a v5 that feels plausible; I got near the top but didn't have time to finish. (You start upside down in a cave. but a couple of big moves bring you onto a vertical wall.
Thursday
12 mile walk
Friday
Swim and sauna before breakfast. I did an ice bath, which oddly enough was chilly.
Saturday
Rest day, so 12 mile walk.
Sunday
Climbing. It was good; I was on form. I was visiting relatives in Norwich. The climbing gym there has moved; the new location is sweet.
Monday
Climbing.
Ok, not outstanding. I got a few v4s. I started slowly and improved.
Tuesday
Swam 1 km and had a sauna.
Wednesday
Climbing, the highest gravity day I've had in a while.
Thursday
I was broken.
Friday
Climbing. Cracking session, I got a v5. It was avcrimoy slab; very much in my style.
I did a walk. I had a vague plan (leave my house, go along the Thames Path until it got dark, find the nearest station and get home.)
One slightly annoying feature of the plan is that my house is nowhere near the Thames. So I decided to do the London Loop walk to Kingston to kick things off. My house isn't on the London Loop walk either, but it is only about a mile from the Ewell section; Kingston is about 9 miles away.
The plan went well. I got to Staines; OS Maps reckons it was 41.2 km. So with the walk to the station, it was a marathon day.
I tried a cavern diving course over the weekend. It turned out I was terrible a line laying, so I've turned step day course into three days. I need a bit of practice before booking the last day.
I went for a swim and sauna after the two dives on Sunday.
I went climbing today. We were trying jumpy stuff,; I got some.
I had a rest day yesterday; work got busy.
I went climbing today. It was good; I got a couple of projects. My jumping has got way better recently. I taught a youngster how to do one. (She was trying to use arm strength. Instead, you crouch down and stand up explosively on the right leg; and let go of the start hold with both hands. If you time it right, you get your right hand on the next hold with very little momentum so it is easy to hold on to.)
I actually had rest days on Thursday and Friday. This was all part of a master plan, as I did a big caving trip today. 12 hours underground; 13 hours cardio total as the cave is a trek from the car park.
We went to the Geyron formation in draenan. It is sufficiently remote that very few people per year go there.
My memory of the route may not be accurate, but was:
Climb down the entrance series, which turns into a damp squeeze. Then it becomes some traverses, which would be hairy but there is a hand line making them chill. Then there is a scary crawl along a muddy top with a sheer drop and no hand holds. There is then some walking passage which eventually turns into an easy crawl. This turns back into walking passage, there is a climb with a hand line and some more crawls, which eventually lead to the Snowball formation.
Some easy walking takes you to a 300m flat out crawl. At on point, I needed to plop an arm through, turn to my side and the I could squeeze on. It's s a bit of a relief when this becomes walking passage through massive chambers. There is then some more squeezing to Medusa's Children; the prettiest bits of cave I have ever seen. Then a bit of walking takes you to the Geyron. After photos, we turned around and did it in reverse. I may plop some photos on here when I get them; a friend took them.
Here is me at Medusa's children.
I went climbing yesterday. I was still feeling the impact of Saturday; I was terrible. (I think British caves are around 6 Celsius inside. Saturday was sufficiently hard work that I sweated buckets for around 7 hours of the 12).
Wednesday
Swam 1km
Thursday
Climbed, 2 hours. I got a v5; it was probably mis-graded (it felt like a V4 to me,).
Friday
Swam 1.5 km. I have been so ice baths after the sauna; my tolerance seems to have increased.
Saturday
A short walk, maybe 9 miles. I went with a rather charming Italian lady, so I didn't want to do an ultra-long one and break her.
Sunday
Climbing. I got another v5. It's like buses; you wait for one and then loads turn up. This was quite a techical overhang
Monday
Climbing. Jumping practice; it rocked.
Tuesday
Rest day, 8 miles walk and a short swim. I walked to the swimming gym, and lost track of time. I had the choice between a short sauna and a 1 km swim (my usual) or a 30 minute sauna and shorter swim. I chose the latter; 450 metres only
Wednesday
Climbing. Decent. No new v5s, but I got most of the v4s at the gym. This included one I failed to start last time; it turned out the start was the crux.
Saturday
Climbing, 2 hours. Good fun; I got loads of v4s and only failed on one
Sunday
Climbing. Only 1.5 hours, my shortest session this year. Again, good fun and I was in reasonable form .
I saw loads of copulating frogs on a walk after the climb. This couple was unsuccessfully trying to climb a flint rock
Monday
Climbing, 2 hours. Jumping practice, I was pretty poor, but it was fun.
Tuesday
Climbing. This was (I think) my 6th day out of 7; I expected to be terrible. I wasn't; I got loads of projects. Really good fun,; 3.25 hour session. I also got about 25,000 steps in. I am tired now.
Wednesday
Rest day, so 10 miles' walk.
Thursday
Another rest day, so 1km swim (19.5 minutes; I am old and slow),; and lots of walking.
I went climbing yesterday. It was very fun; my slab efforts were good.
I got a complex v5 eventually: match left foot on starting hand hold. This lets you lean far over to the right time get right hand on a terrible crimp. Then my left fingertips against the corner is just enough pressure to stop a barn door when I match feet. I can then use another terrible crimp as an intermediate to a good crimp I can match on. My left foot goes an a tiny, slippery foothold which gives me enough purchase to pull up and get a heel hook with the right on another terrible hold. I rock over, then the last couple of moves aren't too bad.
spent a week scuba diving in Kenya, at Watamu. It was brilliant. A friend (who has a PhD in marine biology) runs the marine bit of a local charity, so we tried to help restore the local coral reef.
The reef is in reasonable nick, but it does periodically has bleaching events. (Some corals are only able to survive in a narrow temperature band, so climate changes occasionally causes patches to die.) Another challenge is excess sea weed on the reefs, which may be caused by pollution.
We did two dives a day, typically an hour each. Tasks included picking up samples (live coral broken off the main reef); glueing samples to plugs; putting the plugs in nursery tables; moving mature plugs from the nursery to the main reef; attaching the plugs to the main reef and weeding.
There was very little plastic pollution. There is a bounty for collecting it, which is very helpful. However, the local recycling plant was funded by USAID, so has shut down and laid off all its staff.
Here are a few photos.
One of the local restaurants/pubs was next to the sea, on stilts. My hobby became swimming under the stilts at on side and alarming people at the other side (who were chilling, looking out over sunset) by surfacing just in front of them. An upshot of that is a rare nude of me at the restaurant.
Spoiler
Monday last week
Climbing. Gravity was high, I sucked donkey's balls.
Wednesday
Climbing, a slight improvement.
Thursday Rest day; 10 miles walk and 1 mile swim
Saturday Caving, lots of surveying and digging. 8.5 hours.
Sunday Caving, 4.5 hours. Chill trip with only a couple of moments of terror.
Today
Climbing, I was stronk
super jelly of your scuba diving, which I did in my youth and have always wanted to get back into but haven't.
and also of doing it in Kenya. Where I have always wanted to go. have you spent much time there/in east Africa?
It was my first time in East Africa. I've not been to Africa much (Egypt a few times, which feels more like the Middle East; and South Africa once). It was really good fun; I may go again next year.
Wednesday
Climbing, decent session.
Thursday
Swimming, 1km
Friday
Gentle caving. The scariest but was walking down the centre of a stream (outside) to find an obscure, little cave I realised I had lost my car keys. They were in the water, 5 minutes upstream.
Saturday
Caving. Good fun; a slightly bigger trip (around 7 hours) to a vet little visited passage.
Sunday
Caving, a gentle bumble. I led some beginners, and didn't even get lost.
Monday
No-one wanted to cave. All the youngsters said they were broken. As a doctor, I told a them all they were fine and the best way of fixing aches was to cave more. They didn't believe me.
So I went climbing in the evening when I got back to London. 3.5 how session. I was rubbish.
Me on a climb.
It had my house keys too. I'd have been royally screwed if I'd lost them.
Tuesday
I intended to go swimming, but a friend fancied a walk, so I did an 8 mile walk instead.
Wednesday
Climbing. I went to the pub first, and hadn't planned to climb. But I got bored, so got an hour session in. It was good, I got all the projects I failed on on Monday.
Also 9 miles' walk.
