I am spending the greater part of my summer holiday in South
Africa. Last week we had an overnight flight to Johannesburg. We drove down to
Marloth park at the southern border of Kruger National park where we rented a
house for a couple of days. Sitting on the porch that very evening of Ubuntu
Bush house we were visited by a bunch a zebra’s,
Banana bats were flying around and Bush babies were staring at us from the
trees. What a great first evening.
We visited Kruger National park for two full days. That is literally
two full days. The alarm clock was set at 5 am to be able to be in the park at
sunrise, drive around and spot animals till sunset. I saw lions, rhino’s, elephants and lots of other mammals and plenty of
beautiful birds. However, we spent 10 days in Kruger 3 years ago so it was not
as exiting as it was last time. Been there, seen it, done it.
After a long drive back to Jo’burg,
an overnight stay in a hotel next to the airport runway, a flight to Cape town
and another long drive we finally arrived in Rocklands. We have booked Weavers
cottage at the Alpha Excelsior farm for 25 days so plenty of time to hit the
rocks.
The first day was nice and sunny and we went to Champsite. I
did some easy boulders to get used to the rock and warm up. I managed to do two
very nice more difficult boulders. The first one “Super
Schanntall” 7a+, looks a bit like Caroline,
good practice for the real thing. The second boulder “Love
actually” 7a was really
nice with a sloopy topout and beautiful moves very bleau-like. I also tried “Where do you go form here?”
but it was very hard to get my butt off the ground.
The second day was a lot colder, lots of clouds and no sun.
I sampled some boulders in the Pakhuys area. I was able to do “Buff
the banana”, a 7a that felt relatively easy.
It was quite busy at sector Close Plateau but after a couple of minutes a big
group who had been trying “Poison Dwarf” left so I put my pad under the boulder and together
with a guy from Ecuador gave it a try. After testing all the moves, and working
in the boulder for half an hour I received some good tips and managed to do it.
My first 7b in Rocklands.
It is really great to be here. There are so many nice
boulders that I want to try. 25 days in Rocklands seems like a lot but with so
much I would like to try it will be way too short. Today is a rest day, my skin
needs to recuperate and it is pouring rain anyway. Time for a nice lunch at the
Hen house.
