Aegean Paradise #12

This could be a wistful self-portrait blip, as I glance back to the island of Telendos for the last time this trip after the camera shutter closes. I have called this blip-series "Aegean Paradise", and that is just what it is. I will miss the sound of the sea to wake up to through the open balcony doors and the friendly banter with local shopkeepers and restaurant workers, walking through the streets late in the October evenings not needing to consider wearing a jacket and walking down from the crag in the dark after a full day on the rock. That said, it has been a bumpy ride: The Mediterranean high pressure may have set back in now, but we've had more than our fair share of thunderstorms!

But I know that I can come back here, if I want to. I just need to choose when.

You might notice - or at least the climbers amongst you may do - that I've made no mention of grades, projects, tick lists, etc... Well, I have kept a tick list. And I'm happy with what it contains, even though my main aim was to climb F7c, and I didn't quite get there. It's not that I didn't get the chance- I projected it for a day, and worked out the sequence. It was an extension to a route that I climbed earlier in the trip, which went at F7b+. I thought it was a good idea, but in hindsight maybe I was wrong. I had hoped that, having sent the first part of the route, the extension would fall more easily. What ended up as the case was that in the past two days, I couldn't be bothered to swarm up the F7b+ start one more time. So yesterday I climbed at a different sector, and today - although I got as far as the base of the climb - I settled for a nice, long F6c+ before heading off the crag to start the journey to the airport.

Maybe I didn't want it as much as I thought. Sometimes it's hard to know what you want.

Now I am packed, and about to leave Tina's Studios for the last time, this time. The next few days will come with a lot of travelling. First to a good friend's wedding in Devon, and then to visit my parents in Cambridge. Choosing the train, I don't expect that it'll be too tiring. And I'm glad that I am flying home to two things that I can look forward to.

So this isn't a whistful blip, it's a hopeful one.