Category Archives: Climbing before Western Australia

This is the last email and covers my five years of fun exploring the amazing playground that the Red Centre has to offer. In previous emails I focused on one area and pulled together snippets of my climbing exploits in each. For this email I am covering a heap of places and I was aContinue reading “Part 11 – Alice Springs – rock, rock and more rock!”

With all the great trad climbing right on my doorstep in the UK and Ireland there was little that appealed to me in making the trip across the channel into Europe. I must admit the idea of climbing somewhere like the high peaks of the Dolomites and possible the Alps did draw my attention butContinue reading “Part 10 – Italy – something different”

During my stint in the Lakes, Finton came to visit and we hatched a plan to have a bit of a climbing trip to Ireland.  I don’t recall all the thinking behind it other than it seemed like a good idea.  So one day I picked Finton and Tim up from the railway station, afterContinue reading “Part 9 – Ireland – back in time”

I feel a little bit excited about this one, while every place I went to had its own charm and appeal I’d regard the South West of the UK as being up there and as a close runner up to Swanage.  I’ll skip round a few places in both Cornwall and Devon that make upContinue reading “Part 8 – The South West – rock architecture”

This will be the shortest section of my climbing emails, and focuses mainly on a little known area nestled on the border of Wales and England.  The River Wye (or Afon Gwy in Welsh) is the fifth-longest river in the UK.  It flows for over 200km from Plynlimon in mid Wales down the to theContinue reading “Part 7 – The Wye Valley – take rope”

Scotland offers an amazing wilderness playground on an island that at times felt way to populated.  Unfortunately it was a long way from most of the places I lived and as such I didn’t get to it much.  Most of my time in Scotland was while on my deadly treadly in my youth.  I haveContinue reading “Part 6 – Scotland – the long road”

In this part we venture further north to the Lake District.  The area was made famous in the early 1800’s by the Lake Poets, a group of English poets who all lived in the Lakes.  This group of literary people were considered part of the Romantic (Literary) Movement, which is fitting for the landscape theyContinue reading “Part 5 – The Lake District – a place to live”

In truth I should have made this part 3 instead of Swanage.  The reason being that this is where I really cut my leading teeth; North Wales was where it started, the Roaches was my first lead and the Peaks is where I did most of my early learning.  The reason for going out ofContinue reading “Part 4 – The Peak District – learning the ropes”

Along the south coast of the UK lies Durlston National Park Nature Reserve, a place of beauty and tranquillity. The land drops sharply into the ocean being guarded by a sheer limestone cliff, which forms a crag that has been described as feeling relatively untouched and in its natural state. As you read on youContinue reading “Part 3 – Swanage – the bold and the beautiful”

It was pointed out to me that I was a bit remiss in not including a map so you could see where in the UK I was referring too.  So from now on I will progressively add to the map below.  For Part 1 the island of Anglesea sits north west of where I haveContinue reading “Part 2 – First lead – The Roaches”