Wow, what a week. It feels like a lifetime since last weekend, in a good way. Not that I’m not REALLY looking forward to leaving work today, but it’s been a good week packed full of interesting conversations, new opportunities, ironing, washing floors and sleeping like a log in my now almost totally dark bedroom. I’ve settled in to my new place - it’s sorta starting to feel like mine and it’s comfortable.

I also found out that I have the entire top story to myself, which in a meaningless sort of way is quite nice. King of the hill

So, what’s new you ask?

I’ve organised a trip to Wellingtons Dome<whoohoo>.

I’m getting to see an old friend tomorrow and then I’ve got a small freelance job to make up for some of the millions I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks with the move.

In my post last week I spoke of my “Teach a man to fish” project: I’ve now made contact with Vernon who sounds very keen on the project, and who I believe will be getting back to me soon with possible venues to set up the project - this is a very exciting development for me and I’m very anxious to see the end result.

I was fortunate to see this slide show on climb.co.za - I have no idea how large the entire stream is, but it’s well worth it, promise. View it in full screen mode if possible, and make sure to have your headset / speakers turned on (tip: buy them chocolates and whisper dirty little things to them, usually does the trick ) A must for anyone into photography and / or climbing. Or just beautiful stuff. Or something

Rock Climbing Slideshow by Dirk Smith from Dirk Smith on Vimeo.

And then for some more inspiration, something quite different. To quote the source site, TED: “Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one. An astonishing story.”

Astonishing indeed.

And to top things off, I’ve been having a relaxed afternoon at work following an intense medieval LAN battle with my co-workers. My washing is done, I just need to pick it up, then pick a spot with suitably hot chicks to have a cocktail at before heading home. Who knows what the rest of the night holds?!

Ursula doing the "Preying mantice ninja move" (not an officially recognized climbing move, but it proved effective in the end)

Someone also decided to removed some hangers, which I replaced on the day. A few bolts needed tightening too.

Francois in touch with his inner baboon. The surprised look is a result of realising what the sticky stuff he felt earlier actually was

Other semi-related news:
The Boven Rock Rally is coming up next month and Gustav has afforded me the opportunity to be a part of the organisation pending some work to be done by this coming weekend – hopefully a big announcement on SANCL.org next week!!!

Summer is coming and the time to go to Wellingtons Dome is running out as the summertime temps will be unbearable.  If that does not materialise, I’ve got some unfinished business at Swinburne, and I’m still keen to check out Harrismith – dug up that guide book earlier this week: there’s a 3 pitch grade 14 with my name on it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, things are pretty much status quo. After SEVERAL day’s cleaning, the place is starting to resemble a state called clean. Some more grass to be cut, and ooh, while I’m on the topic let me phone the shop for a B.F.T. – the “T” is for torch……and the B is a capital, bold “B” at 15 000 000 candle power. Who needs a gun when you can singe retinas at 50m?

<phone call>

hmmmm, so much for service. As the specific BFT is discontinued, they won’t ship the stock between branches, so I’ll have to take a 200km drive to the branch that still has stock and back if I really, really want it. Thanks Outdoor Warehouse for service that makes the government departments look reasonable.

Right.

That’s it, I’m done.

Climbed Wellingtons Dome again – wanted to do both “Sexy Lady” and “Older, slower, wiser”, but took too long on “Sexy Lady”. Lead it all the way though. Next time…..

This Monday is slightly blue, pale at least, no particular reason. Saw this on “Texts from last night” & it made me feel better :
“(208): I woke up this morning to the buzzer on my oven going off… I cooked fish sticks at 425 degrees for 5 hours last night. my house smells awesome”

I hooked up with Nico, who has been there before and has some multi pitch climbing experience. We stayed in the Game Breeding Centre / Mokopane (Potgietersrus) Zoological gardens self catering unit, which has a couple of rooms each with two beds. Some share a bathroom, I got the one with en-suite facilities. Very neat & clean, well worth the money.

(different links above – hard to track down the place….probably best to mail Anita for a booking)

After collecting the keys from the exceptionally friendly staff, we headed of directly to the Dome. Since it was an official meet for both the JHB & Magalies sections MCSA, the gate was open and a couple of groups already climbing, so we headed directly to the Dome, instead of collecting keys & a car guard from Jaap ( the land owner ) as usual. The car guard is not strictly neccessary, but a nice-to-have compliments of Jaap.

Let me say this: As you drive closer, this thing just gets bigger & bigger. Quite intimidating by the time you get to the parking area. At it’s highest, the climbable rock face (we’re talking about only the protruding rock, not the bits covered in ground) are 150m+. Our route started about 50m from the level where my car was parked.

To give some perspective: On the photo with the red circles, the right hand circle indicates a group of 3 climbers. The left hand circle indicates single person on a route, possibly on the route we did.

Walking up was fun – some bundu-bashing as there are no well trodden paths. At the base of our route, we waited for about an hour for the group ahead of us to all get up and sufficiently ahead for us to start following.

I found the route itself extremely easy. It’s so called “friction climbing”, where the whole route is on-balance, so you really just need to make sure your footing is good – no big upper body strength or endurance required. Quite surprisingly, the height did not affect me at all, and I found the whole route very relaxing.

At the top, one could simply get lost in the view. Absolute quiet (except fir the other climbers, who were thankfully fairly quiet ) and only a light breeze. Bliss.

Going down, we took an alternative abseil to avoid the other climbers coming up, and ended up doing more bundu-bashing, as well as a second unplanned abseil where the gully got too steep. All good fun.

Party at Jaap’s
Jaap has a reputation for being a party animal, and he did not dissappoint. Due to some theft issues at the campsite on his property, he had everyone camp on his grass around his house. A huge lapa provided some shelter, and soon two big fires we’re going. We did not stay too long, but I had a lovely time chatting to Jaap, as well as the meet leader Jaco and the other climbers. Back at the room, Nico crashed (he claims to have had a very late night… ;-P ) but I stayed up for a night cap with some other guests, who turned out to be just as much fun. The shower before bedtime was magic.

Day 2: The Sarcophagus
On Sunday we opted for 2 shorter routes on a smaller outcrop (visible in the back on the photo “7 – top, East” ). We took the wrong approach route and ended up climbing up the wrong side, using trees as protection. The abseil down was a bit of an epic, with a loose boulder giving us a few scares and some exposed downclimbing. Got to the bottom fine, climbed one route & repeated the abseil, this time in one go as we could link the 2 60m ropes ( total height +- 50m).

And that’s about it. Drove home, a bit depressed to be working on Monday again. But, I’ll be back…..soon….I mailed my booking for next Friday a few minutes ago ;-P

Shit happened anyway, and the partner I planned on going with won’t be there, but I’m still going, and super psyched too. I know some people from saying “hi” and my work with the GSCL (and the new & improved SANCL) so I’m sure I’ll have a super time. Can’t wait……

Some shitty (sorry, low res ;-P ) taster pics (from SaClimb.co.za)- I’ll make sure to bring back tons….