The heat and humidity has arrived like an oppressive military government and in it's wake I have discovered the joys of sitting in the shade and not moving. Climbing at a reasonable standard is still possible in the most shady gullys during the morning hours but any cliffs that only get afternoon shade are just too hot for me to touch. The mosquitos population has exploded like some out-of-control von neumann nightmare and it's almost impossible to sleep till after midnight. All this and the temperature is still only about 33-34 celcius. Thankfully cooler weather is on the way and I have made a firm decision not to be in Arapiles beyond the end of December, hopefully I will be climbing in Tasmania for February and March.
In the wake of Merlins accident, the police decided they needed to impound all the gear we were using for an "investigation". Several days later after an interview with an officer to get the facts of the incident down and release of the gear when they had finished with it, I was left with the impression that the Horsham police are quite affable folk and keen to do their job but at the same time rather amateur about it.
Merlins fall has affected me more psychologically than I thought it would too. Since then I have had to battle with a lot more fear than normal on hard climbs when I am above the gear. Also I appear to be getting weak and feeble! Every grade I climb seems to be harder than it was in the first few weeks I was here and I tried the next step up the ladder on the sport wall above camp (french 8a) but the holds are just a bit too small for me to move between and all I accomplished was scraping flesh off my fingers.
I think I'm losing weight because I almost have a six pack :)
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