USA Under Way/Living the Life

Hidden Valley Camp Ground Joshua Tree.

So the first leg of our tip has come to a close. What a start it has been.

Warning - I will probably use words and phrases like “Awesome”, “So Good”, “Fantastic”, and  “Beautiful”, a sickening amount in this post. I make no apology for this. And not to rub it in but we are living the life!

We arrived in San Fran to beautiful weather and to be picked up by my mum’s cousin Libby who we were going to stay with while we got the van sorted.

 

The View from Libby's place across to San Fran

Staying with Libby was awesome it totally got our trip off on the right footing, plus it was lovely to spend some time with Libby who I had known for so long but never really got to spend a lot of time with in the past.  We also caught up with Tanya, Libby’s’ daughter, her husband Andy and meet their one year old son Milo.

Andy, Milo, Tanya, Libby, Me and Paul.
Photo: Cath

Our main mission in San Fran was to buy a van that we would spend the next 10 months or so living in. After not too much searching we came across an old (89) Dodge Ram fully kitted. The owner of the van was the incredible Love Twentytwo. Yes, that is his real name and he is the longest running write in presidential candidate in the USA. Which means his name doesn’t appear on the ballot paper but you can write it in and tick it.  Love, who was now in his 70’s, was returning to Rhode Island to retire.

Love Twentytwo and us buying the Love Boat!

So after getting the van checked out and a little help from Love’s friend Paul with the administrative tasks of buying a van in California, we had bought ourselves a van which we christened “The Love Boat” after Love and the fact that it drives a bit like a boat.

After buying the van we decided to get it serviced which took a little longer than expected and we were again very grateful to be staying with Libby and not paying for accommodation.

The Love Boat ready to sail!

Finally however everything was sorted, much to our great excitement, and we hit the road bound for Joshua Tree.

The drive to Joshua Tree was cruisy, with only a couple of very minor hic ups. That was till we tried to find a free campsite marked on our road atlas which became epic. It resulted in us getting lost for a few hours in the back blocks of nowhere, with Breaking Bad and Deliverance in the back of our minds! ……… eek. Finally, around midnight, we found a lovely spot and collapsed into bed.

Cath Comfy in the Love Boat

The next morning we awoke to a glorious morning in a small state park all to ourselves, having coffee in the sun enjoying the view.

We continued on to JTree where we were lucky enough to get a site in Hidden Valley campground the main climbing camp.

Cath Ready to do battle with
Bird of Fire 5.10a

Wow, JTree is even more amazing then we were told. It is so beautiful, and the climbing is amazing!

We did a couple of easier climbs the first day and realised that the grades here were no give away in the slightest, in fact I almost couldn’t get up a 5.10a (18).

Both Cath and I love the climbing here however and we are getting our granite skills on!

The next day we bumped into our friends Kyle and Leslie from Canada who we met last Feb/March 2013 in the Grampians. Coincidentally Kyle’s parents’ cousin happens to be very good friends with my parents.

Kyle and Leslie are staying in the cutest little camper, called a Trillian built back in the 70’s in Canada.

Van Life - Cath, Leslie and Chris out side our van
and Kyle and Leslie's Trillian Van

Through them we have meet a host of other Canadians, Chris and Pam, Steve and Steve, Sunny and Mike as well as a couple from the U.S. Craig and Ruth, plus 2 west cost Canadians Paddy and Simi. This meant there has been an awesome scene around the fire at night and a lot of fun around the campground - including a night mission through a chasm in complete darkness.

Team Canada - Cath, Ruth, Steve, Craig, Steve, Kyle and Leslie.

Chill'n on the Sun deck at camp with Chris and Pam and Kyle and Leslie.\
Photo: Cath

While in JTree we have had unseasonably warm weather, so much so we have been seeking the shade to climb in. But as all things do it came to an end and what an end, with spectacularly with heavy rains. The team all planned a rest day and to go bowling at the local alley, with a few drinks thrown in for good measure.

Unfortunately just before we were to meet at the bowling alley the van stopped starting and the saga began.

After filling up with fuel we couldn’t get the Love Boat’s engine to kick over and after a few feeble attempts by me to get it started we called AAA (having just joined). Shortly after one of their guys came out and determined that there was no power getting through from the battery to the motor (basically). Unfortunately he had to head off to a large accident down town. However he calls a mate “Leroy” who would come and replace a part that would hopefully get us going.

To say Leroy was a bit special would be an understatement, but after what seamed a very very long time Leroy finish working on the van. Surprise surprise he  couldn’t get the LB going, so he said he would go see his mechanic friend to see what could be done.

Again after some time, it was now about 7pm and we were supposed to be bowling about 3pm, we decided Leroy was not coming back, so we called AAA again.

At this point Team Canada arrived (Yea!) and tumbled into our van full of good cheer and humour. And although they couldn’t help with the van they did keep us company and Steve M graciously bought us dinner, which was greatly appreciated and devoured quickly!

Eventually AAA sent us a tow truck and we were towed to a garage that was supposed to be open the next morning, Saturday.

Being a little nervous about spending the night in the Love Boat out front of the garage and not wanting to fork out for a dodgy hotel Chris and Pam offered to stay with us in their truck, which was greatly appreciated.

Our van with Chris and Pam's where we spent the night on
the Hwy, waiting for a garage that never opened

After sitting up chatting for a while with Chris and Pam we actually ended up sleeping quite well, believing the van would be fixed in the morning. HA!

We awoke to a beautiful morning, but to our surprise no one showed up at the garage, sigh!!!!

Consequently, after a little while we called AAA again (3^rd time for one breakdown) and got them to tow us to a garage that was actually open on a Saturday.

Finally someone who could help YEA!!! Although they could not fix the problem completely they got us going and recommended a place that would fix it properly on Monday.

We are super thankful for all the wonderful friends that offered support and help it really made a difference to this little epic.

Shortly after our epic everybody began to head on to new destinations. We also started to feel restless and plan our exit from the beautiful Joshua Tree and further into the desert…..

Team Canada Bouldering Leslie, Chris and Kyle.
Photo: Cath

JTree Climbing Highlight’s

We have been getting an amazing guided tour from Kyle and Leslie, who have both spent many winters here.

Both of us are getting spanked on the granite here at JTree but the climbing is amazing and we are both climbing well and enjoying the trad here. We have discovered that the grade of the climbs more often than not doesn’t include the difficulty of a boulder problem start if there is one. This can significantly bump the grade up on any climb.

Due to the fact that the weather has been so unseasonably warm and beautiful we have had to focus on climbing in the shade so far, it’s been such a hardship! ;)

Significant climbs

Craig Reger on Hot Rocks

Left Ski track 5.11a (22) – This beast took me four shots to get through the crux and then I went to the top. This is still the hardest route I have done here in JTree. This route used to be onsight soloed to be in the “Boys Club” back in the day.

Rubicon 5.10c (20)– wow! Amazing finger crack so much fun to climb!!

Clean and Jerk 5.10c (20)– felt like thunder crack at Arapiles such awesome varied climbing!

Me high up on White Rastafarian.
Photo: Cath

Coarse and Buggy 511.b (23) – I managed to onsight this technical stemming corner and I was super happy with this. Peter Croft has soloed this!!…eek!

Hot rocks 5.11c (24) – This took me 3 shots and is such a sick finger crack. Although I now have small holes in my fingers from the 1 and 2 digit finger locks.

White Rastafarian V3 high-ball. This problem is super fun with some cool moves way off the deck

Cath

Bird of Fire 5.10a (18) – Amazing climbing with a steep jamming finish, and a really good fight!

Popular Mechanic 5.10a (18) – An excellent corner that Cath cruised up!

Taxman 5.10a (18) – a thin finger crack with a burly start.

Illusion Dweller 5.10b (19) – A soaring diagonal crack line. Cath fought all the way up this to be thwarted by the last couple of moves. It was a super impressive effort and exciting to belay and watch.

 

Steve and Kyle in the Space Pod

A road runner that nested near our camp looking for more sticks! These birds where great to watch.

For more Photos please visit: http://adamds.smugmug.com/

And Cath has more photo's here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cathdevaus/

UK and Old Friends

Me on not to be take away at Stanage with Bob spotting.
Photo: Cath

About 10 years ago I went to the UK to live for 2 years as many Aussies do, on a working holiday visa. During that time I met an amazing group of people who I shared many, many crazy and amazing adventures with, both around town and out climbing. These people became more than just casual 

One of Mariano and Felicity's welcome notes
when we arrived in London  

traveling/climbing friends.

A few of these people I have seen since and some I even traveled with after the UK. But all I had not seen for many years.

For part of our trip Cath and I planned to spend three weeks catching up with as many of my old friends as possible. Understandably I was little nervous. Have I changed, have they changed, will we still get on, all the usual irrational nutty fears that plague most peoples minds before visiting people you haven’t seen for a long time.

What I found was, that it was like I had only been gone for a few months. As we caught up with various people around the UK it was instantly like old times if not a little greyer, with better wine and more kids! 

Thanks to all our friends for making our time in the UK so amazing, hopefully it wont be so long between visits next time!

Here is a little photo essay of our time in the UK

Bob, Mia and me watching Ludo tease the other dogs while out for a walk on the peak.

Bob doing what he does best cranking on Grit

Al at home getting ready for a chimney as Cath belays
at Almscliff, Hard to believe I missed these days!

It wasn't long before Al got me into a chimney as well
Photo by: Cath

Soloing Great Wester HVS at Almscliff, really missed days out soloing on Grit!
Photo by: Cath

We had a lovely guided tour of York
from Al, Clare and Idris 

Marty and his twin girls Kayla and Shenae, you know there will be double trouble if they take after their father!  ;)

Marty and I walking out to Saint Michael's Mount off the Cornwall Coast
Photo by: Cath

Godrevy Lighthouse off the Cornish Coast

Dartmoor in all its glory

Dave and his secret 8a training regime

Dave and Hannah preparing for the perfect
 conditions on Dartmoor

The Tate Modern

False Idol worship at the Tate Modern. Will we all die for our sins?

For more photo visit adamds.smugmug.com

And for more of Cath's photos visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/cathdevaus

Turkey Part 2

Yeni arkadaşlar (new friends) and a return of the Mojo

Sarkit at Geyikbariri

After leaving Kalymnos, which was one of the best sport climbing areas I have visited, and climbing very well there, Turkey was a bit of a shock to the system!

I expected the climbing to be just as good and my form to be the same or better than in Kalymnos, even though I had had some time off?

Not sure why I expected this, just one of those things that you sometimes get in your head about climbing – surely your ticks should just steadily get harder, right?

During our break from climbing I quickly rediscovered that I can not do a lot of tourist sight seeing before I burn out and get a bit agitated. So when we finally got to the climbing area after a false start at Olympos (where we were rained out) I was very keen to get back into the rhythm of the climbing life.

Geyikbayiri

Was our destination, however the mojo didn’t return, in fact I probably lost it even more.

When we first arrived it was very cold and we got a bit lost, picking some poorer sectors to climb at, which really didn’t help things.

 So after getting a bit grumpy and thinking we should just leave, we managed to meet some truly awesome people who were very welcoming. From then on, my mojo started building again.

After meeting these new friends we started enjoying the area and the climbing more and we began to find more and more fun routes to climb and our whole climbing experience was turned around.

We also enjoyed some excellent adventures together, going to a hammam in Antalya, exploring the weekend market down the road from the climbing area, returning to Olympos and having an excellent day climbing there.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas day was a fantastic experience going climbing with a now good friend Theo, and then returning to an amazing meal that everyone had put in so much effort to create.

Through meeting these lovely people it reminded me that even though the rock is not perfect (although still good) and you may not be ticking your hardest grades, there is still fun to be had. The experience of travelling in a beautiful place, meeting and sharing experiences with wonderful new friends, is at the heart of why climbing holidays are so special, and that I need to make the most of it. So really I just needed to relearn what we have all heard many times before; don’t focus on the grades or if the rock is perfect, but rather enjoy where you are and the experiences you have with the many amazing people you meet along the way and you are bound to have a good time no matter where you are.

Some quick news/nuts and bolts

Cath on The Trooper 7a at Olympos

Me on Geyikbayiri Games 7b+
Photo by Tim Howard

After realizing I needed to relax and just enjoy the experience rather than be focused on hard climbing, I ironically managed two of my hardest graded routes of this trip so far White Spirit 7c+, in 5 shots at Sarkit and Working Class Hero 7c/+ second shot, which I did on a day trip back to Olympos with Tim, Theo, Berry and Jess (but I think this one is very soft for the grade). 

Cath managed to get her form back after hurting her ribs in Kalymnos, ticking off a few 7a+’s

Enjoying food with friends while traveling is one of the best thing to do.
Photo by Tim Howard

Thanks for a wonderful time Tim, Theo, Melk, Alex, Per, Jess, Berry, Eylem, Ektor, Mathijs, Martijn plus all the other wonderful people on this trip so far especially Cath.

Looking forward to all the new friends and places to come.

Cath and I buying local produce at the market
Photo by Tim Howard

Cath, Tim and Theo at the Market

Me on Working class hero the easiest 7c+ I have ever done, but still super fun
Photo by Tim Howard

If you would like to see some more photos adamds.smugmug.com

And Tim has loads of amazing photos, Check them out here: www.timhowardproductions.com

Touristing Around Turkey - Part 1

The Galata Tower on New Years Eve

Bodrum

The Day we left Kalymnos was a sad day as we had had so much fun on this little Greek island, but it was time to move on. We took the ferry form Kalymnos to Kos and then another on to Bodrum which was all fairly straight forward.

Bodrum Port and Castle

Bodrum is a bit of a weird town. It is totally set up for summer partying and therefore in winter was almost deserted. In fact a local gardener came to chat to us while we enjoyed the view, and asked what on earth we were doing there in winter! We spent only one night here and had an afternoon and morning exploring which was nice but enough.

We did have a very weird experience with one of the hotel staff members who blatantly had a very big go at his employers to us while we tried to have breakfast – warning us how “sneaky and bad” Turkish people were and that he was basically in slavery.

From Bodrum we took a 3hr bus trip to Selcuk to see the ruins at Ephesus. The buses in Turkey are generally amazing, with free wifi and attendants serving drinks and snacks! Very plush.

Selcuk/Ephesus

The Library at Ephesus before the
crowds arrived

In Selcuk we stayed in a lovely hostel called Homeros which was warm and welcoming and served lovely food by friendly staff.

The next morning we went to see the ruins at Ephesus. These are some of the best-preserved roman ruins in the world and are amazing to see. Consequently they were very busy, even though it was off-season. I could not imagine it in the height of peak season.

In Selcuk we also visited St John’s Basilica where St John is supposedly buried and the local mosque, which was beautiful.

Cath taking photos at St John's Basilic

Pumukkale

The Cotton Castle or Travertine Pools

From Selcuk we took a 4 hour bus ride to Pumukkale to visit the ancient city of Hierapolis with its white travertine pools. The Romans used the pools and natural hot springs as baths and built a city around them. This was truly spectacular. Their beauty is very hard to put it to words so I have included some pictures. These were one of the best “tourist attractions” we visited in Turkey

Enjoying the supposed healing
properties of the Travertine Pools

After Pumukkale we had a not so fun epic bus trip to Olympos, the travel agent we booked our bus through lied about the length of the trip and the number of buses we need to get to actually get to Olympos plus there were hidden charges for the other busses. Fortunately this was the only real bad experience we had in Turkey and by the scheme of things wasn’t actually that bad.

Olympos

Roman ruins in the jungle by the beach 

Finally we arrived in Olympos to stay at a friendly but a bit run down and very quiet tree house hostel.

We had hoped to do some climbing and visit the eternal flame of Olympos, which the area is famous for. Unfortunately It rained heavily all day, accompanied by some big thunderstorms.

We did get to explore some more roman ruins between storms in the jungle near the beach, which was fun. We were the only ones there and it felt like we had just discovered some lost ruins in the jungle.

The Eternal Flames at Olympos,
Natural gas pours out of the ground and spontaneously ignites

But then came the hike up to the eternal flame, which they say is best at night. It chucked it down on us and lightning flashed all around us while the thunder roared! It all very exciting, but mostly very wet. We did manage to see the flames for about 2 minutes before we ran back down the hill to the safety of the waiting car and dryness.

As it was predicted to rain again the next day in Olympos we decide to head to Geyikbayiri where we planed to climb for the next 3 weeks.

See Turkey Part 2 for the climbing update, coming soon

While we were in Geyikbayiri we went to Antalya for a Hammam (Turkish Bath) with Tim, Per and Isabella. This was very entertaining experience and good way to relax the muscle after all the climbing we had been doing. This was followed by a good feed in a very small restaurant that was incredibly tasty and cheep.

Before we headed to Istanbul we had lovely night in Antalya at warm hotel and played backgammon at a trendy little bar.

Istanbul

The New Mosque in Istanbul

We decided to take a one hour flight to Istanbul, instead of the over night bus, which turned out to be a good decision as it cost about the same due to the fact they could not be bothered to charge us for our excess luggage!!

Our first hostel in Istanbul, just near Taksim square is best described as an experience in sleep deprivation!

The staff were very friendly, but the place had a bit of a weird vibe over all. Our room was VERY SMALL and the only window in it was on to service shaft area! The communal shower felt like it had been built in a cupboard.

Our first night we discovered why this hostel was so cheap further to the reasons above as we went to bed the booming noise of the night club next door came pounding through the walls which must have had no sound proofing at all. We are up till 4 am and my as well have been on the dance floor the noise was so loud.

Riot police and water Canon
getting ready

Earlier that night we experienced riots in and around where are hostel was located. While we walked back to our hostel from a bit of exploring along Allstiklal Cadessi we noticed lots of riot police. Thinking this is a bit weird we kept heading on eventually popping into a pub for a drink. Shortly afterwards, as we sat out the front watching the world go buy, enjoying a drink, and starting to wonder about the yells and shouts getting closer and closer, we were quickly asked to come inside and cover our nose and mouths.

There is always a $ to be made!
Selling gas masks at the riot

This was soon followed by rioters running past and the faint hint of tear gas in the air.

We spent the next little while in the pub till we were given the all clear and headed out to quickly grab some dinner and head back to the hostel, a couple of minutes away.

After we got back to the hostel we spent the next hour or so watching rioters running up and down the street having a wonderful time taunting the police and then running off. It was all very entertaining for them and us.

Gallipoli

The new dawn service venue near ANZAC Cove

The next day after very little sleep we headed to Gallipoli very early.

This was a very unexpected and moving experience and hard to put into words.

Our excellent tour guide Bülent ‘Bill’ Yilmaz Korkmaz gave us so much more of the background and history than we could have picked up ourselves and really brought to life what it would have been like during the battles here.

One of the main things that struck me was just how close the opposing trenches were. Often much less than 10m apart!

I know people often say it is a moving experience to visit these places, but it truly was. I would recommend it to anyone.

Lone Pine Memorial for the ANZAC troops

Back to Istanbul

The Spice Bazzar

After another sleepless night we moved to the Cheers hostel (where they do all know your name!) for a little bit of luxury, at least cheapish luxury. This hostel was wonderful.

Inside the Hagia Sophia

We spent the next few days exploring a lot of the amazing mosques, Topkapı Palace, Basilica Cistern, the Grand and Spice Bazaar, which was lovely, but tiring.

Preyer inside the Blue Mosque

On new years eve we headed down to the waterfront to watch the fire works, it was a freezing night, but we did manage to get an amazing spot to watch the fireworks across the river, right up to a couple of minute before midnight when suddenly a tour bout came speeding down the river, horns blazing and pulled up right in front of us and blocked most of our view! Oh well it was still a fun night!

Next stop sunny England and visiting loads of old friends, Can’t wait!

If you would like to see more photos from Turkey they are here