Plans afoot

November in Kalymnos continues the same as each year, cool and quiet - just perfect. Babis Bar is almost empty, and the main man has provided freshly caught and cooked fish on a regular basis - one of the highlights of the winter! Only two weeks left is the sad news, but there a places to go and travelling anywhere after mid-December is very expensive so we have decided to bail out a bit earlier than we would prefer.

Left: late November on Dolphin Bay - sweet

No rest though, we reckon 10 days in the UK to visit, launder and pack the car (the one I bought 2 months ago, drove two miles and stuck straight in the garage) then hopefully it is away to Ariège for a few months in the mountains. We were sad to leave the place back in July, and we will be sad to leave Kalymnos too - the fate of the nomad I guess! We aim to pop back to Kaly in March to sample the Spring here, which isn't too far away - so no sad faces allowed.

The Ariège guide should be out in a week, plenty of folks are looking forward to that judging by the pre-orders. At the moment there is just about a month's work left on the Blanca guide - but then what?

Greek Style

Coming up to seven weeks away, the season has turned and the tourists have all gone home. A brisk northerly wind blew for a couple of days and all the summer heat and humidity were whisked away - a breath of fresh air for real. November and eating on the terrace morning and night - a novelty that never wears off!
It has been a bit of an odd season climbing wise, with no visitors to get fit for (or to drag me up routes) and already having completed over 500 different climbs here, there hasn't been heaps of motivation so we have taken to exploring some out of the way places. Found a few more Crag X cliffs to add to "The List".

Photo: Exploring the Sea Breeze Canyon

I have been submitting to Alamy photo-library, an interesting experience. If any single shot in a submission isn't up to scratch, they reject the whole lot AND ban you for 28 days - kinda focusses your mind on the job in hand! 

Just One More.....

That's the Ariège guide put to bed - or near as damn; it goes to the printers tomorrow. It has been a real pleasure to work on the guide and a great part of the world to live in. So nice in fact that we are booked in to Chez Arran from mid-December - which should be a stark contrast to Kalymnos.
Of course the tail end of the book was the usual haul, checking and rechecking, then checking once more time. After looking at the same pages for a year it gets tiresome - but it is done now.
Time for a rest and a bit of climbing and to think about the Costa Blanca book, which sold out at the start of the year and is in real demand at the moment with the winter season right around the corner.
Maybe the rest will have to wait!