Merry Christmas to all My Readers

Twenty one years (starting with Costa Blanca Rock 1990) - approaching twenty guidebooks (must do a count one day) around 80,000 books sold over the years. Cheers and a Very Merry Christmas to anyone who has ever bought one of my books, and all those who have said positive things down the years too.
I aim to get three books out this year, which will be a record if it happens, lets see what we can do.

In the Bleak Mid-Winter

Left: Arhi parking - where is everybody?

21st of December - tomorrow is the winter solstice, and the shortest day. The forecast for this week was pretty unsettled, and we made the usual mistake of looking it it through English eyes. In the event it has been a little breezy and there has been some showers, though always at night - the days have been warm and sunny with a pleasant breeze, like good summer days back home, though without the humidity. It sounds particularly unpleasant back there; several weeks of sleet, freezing rain and a lot of greyness - yeuk!

The are a tiny number of climbers here, possibly less than a dozen at a guess, though it may well busy-up over Christmas. The settled weather means that the cliffs are as dry as I have ever seen them in December - which is great. My route tally for the trip is in the low 200s and I am approach a little target I set myself of 500 individual ticks on Kalymnos.

We had a Swiss couple stopping next door for 10 days and they were stunned at how quiet the place was and how good the climbing was too. Turns out they are great fans of RockFax and the guidebooks which was nice. The were interested in the publishing schedule including the new Costa Blanca guide and especially the one to Ariege - an area they had never heard of - not for long though!

Right: Kantouni beach - heavy rain forecast!

Kaly Musings

Photo: Patmos 30 miles away and the granite island of Ikaria 30 further. Looks like a lot of rock out there!

We have been here 10 weeks now and I have clocked 196 routes so far, which averages three a day for the whole trip. The weather has been the best I can remember - not that my memory is that good, but the cliffs seem drier than the last two Decembers, and I think we have had three or four damp days. When we arrived back in October the place was the busiest I have ever seen it (a victim of its own success) - it was really rather unpleasant, I think we may come a little later next year to avoid the rabble.

Currently I am on about 480 'unique ticks' (approaching 30% of the total) on the place and 99% of them have been great. Only three or four have been verging on 'poor' though these were mostly new routes that will doubtless clean up.

I suspect that there are other Kalys out there on the horizon, but off course a destination needs a certain number of routes (maybe 250+) to make it worth a visit by itinerant climbers - and 250 routes is a lot of hard work! Of course development here continues apace - the photo on the right shows one of Claud Idou's recent crags - looks like five lines of about 16 clips each - should keep us busy next trip!

Hazy Days

Two days until December and the good weather just keeps on coming. It feels to me like the warmest, driest, most settled autumn yet but Sherri tells me the diaries reckon it is pretty much as normal - so much for my memory!
Graham and Dan have a few more days left (a great trip with over a 100 routes 6c-7b), somehow I don't think they are looking forward to winter in the UK that much, especially with the forecast for frost and snow.
We have booked a homeward flight too - though not for about another seven weeks - there is no need rush these things!

Almost a week later and Team Parkes were escorted off the island early this morning (just to make sure they actually leave) and then there were two - 1st time for almost two months - peace descends!

The North Wind Doth Blow.....

There has been a brisk north wind for quite a while now, it rattles the shutters and stirs up the white-horses, but keeps the humidity down too, which is great. We have mostly been climbing 'around the bay' which is much more sheltered and also catches all the sun that is going, which is a bonus. These aren't the soaring crags of Panorama or Spartacus but as ever they have a great series of climbs often on very sharp rock - cos most of them they never get done!
Helen only has one one day left of her holiday, hope the wind drops so she can escape - back to that 'other' island and a very different world.
The forecast looks rather good, I don't think we will be shooting off home any time soon.

Kaly and Sheffield - guess which is which.

November Blue

It is winter, but not as we know it; over a month now since it rained which is a bit odd but very pleasant, especially knowing how UK Novembers usually go.
The Binks/Binney team have been and gone, a great time was had by all. They have been replaced by Team Parkes who are well into "Island Life" and bagging a host of classic routes.
We have settled into the winter routine, climbing, walking, chilling and a bit of work. There is steady progress on Peak Limestone, Costa Blanca and Ariege, it looks like a busy 12 months ahead. We had better make the most of our 'down-time' on Kalymnnos whilst we can!

Everyone's a Winner

It is a month since we arrived, October has come and gone, and finally the place has started to empty out big-style; the good times are just around the corner. It was a beautiful crisp day on Poets yesterday, the crag is nearly always rammed as it is so close the “climbers’ end” of Massouri. The fact that there were less than half a dozen teams there all day is a sign. I did eight routes bringing the tally for the month up to exactly 100 - not too shoddy really. The fact that Colin has almost caught me up in two weeks doesn’t bother me - much!
In the evening I heard that Cote d’Azur rock had won the Outdoor Writer and Photographers’ Guild “Guidebook of the Year” competition, which was great. That is four times I have won it in nine years, I guess that must be some kind of record. Of course Alan James is the one to blame - without his vision I would probably still be producing small scale, low volume guides to remote areas and even more worrying, still be teaching.