Kalymnos

Last week I was on holiday in Kalymnos with two friends from work and another friend of theirs.  It was fundamentally a climbing holiday, and as such was really enjoyable.  The rock was amazing, comprising predominantly limestone, but with a variety of different types.  These included really sharp crimps on very technical walls, tufas, solution pockets, cracks and crystaline deposits all of which offered very different climbing experiences.  Most of the routes were really well bolted, and this gave confidence to push hard in the climbing.  There seemed to be very little wear or polish on the routes which is probably due to a lot of the development on the island being in the last ten years.  As a climbing venue it is probably the best that I've ever been to, and certainly somewhere that I'd like to go back to.  There's over 2500 bolted routes on the island and in the week we were there I did 53.

The scenery was spectacular with most of the climbing that we were doing being on the precipitous west coast.  The cliffs formed an escarpment rising about 500m from the sea, and whilst all the climbs we were doing were single pitch routes up to 30m long, it was great to be in the hills and have views up and down the coast. Where we were climbing we could look down over the blues of the Mediterranean Sea and see the fishing boats slowly make their way across the bays.  It really was idyllic. The weather was also friendly with it generally being warm and sunny, but not too hot.  There were a couple of cool days at the start of the week but these simply made us appreciate the warmth more when it did come.  Dioni swam more than the rest of us, but on the last day all of us lads stripped off to our underwear and went for a swim on the way home.  The water was cool to enter but really pleasant to swim in.  You'd not catch me saying that about the North Sea in mid-October!

It was fun being there with Nick, Dioni and Oli.  We all go on well, climbed well together, supported and challenged each other, and learnt from each other.  Everything was laid back, with there being no particular stresses or aggravations caused.  It was nice to get to know Oli for the first time, and I look forward to climbing with him again in the future.

The accommodation in our two studio flats was basic but comfortable, although a little more hot water would have been nice.  However at 10 Euros each per night it was good value.  We had plenty of really good food, a lot of it from the friendly mini-market directly opposite our accommodation, and drank a fair number of nice colds beers in the evening after a good days climbing.  There weren't any wild nights out, predominantly as we were all exhausted and virtually falling asleep by 10:00 each evening!

So why am I writing this?  It's not really to talk about the holiday as although it was fun, really good fun, it felt as though there was something missing.  This is the first time that I've been on holiday without Niki for years.  It felt really strange, and not in a nice way.  Whilst there were good times shared with the others, it really did feel as though I was missing someone special to share it with.  Achieving a challenging climb was enjoyable but without Niki to share it with it somehow didn't feel so satisfying.  Discovering authentic Greek island cookery was really tasty, but without Niki to share it with it felt rather bland at times.  I guess that this is something that I'll just have to get used to.  It's a different way of living.  Suddenly instead of having a soul mate who really understands you and you really understand them, you're interacting with people you don't know so well and where there are a lot more social conventions and expectations that must be followed.  The worn fingers, bruised shims, scratched arms and cut hands could be covered with plasters, climbing tape and Climb-On and are now, just a few days later, well on their way to recovery.  Unfortunately I haven't found any such treatment for the perpetually present and sometimes intensely piercing pain inside.