In early November seven CMC members paid another visit to the sport climbing
Mecca that is Kalymnos. The logistics were somewhat complicated by the fact that
Greek tourism traditionally all shuts down at the end of October. This made arranging
transport somewhat interesting as the flight out to Kos was the last of the season
and we had to make other arrangements via Athens for the return home. The almost
impossible task of trying to find out the ferry times from Kos to Kalymnos added to
the adventure. The advantage though is that it can be (slightly) quieter on the crags
at this time of year. Nevertheless, the main climbing base of Masouri was buzzing
with climbers from all over Europe and beyond, and the chances of bumping into
someone we knew turned out to be quite high. Barbara had found a great AirBNB
chalet for us to stay in, just outside of the main Masouri drag. The solar heated hot
water was in demand however with the tank always seeming to have run out when it
came to my turn for a shower. Masouri now has a good range of climbing shops (not
cheap) and restaurants (fairly cheap) and the food was generally excellent.
The climbing as usual was also excellent, though we were hunting for the shade on
more than one day. Despite the rock being all limestone there is a huge variety of
types and aspects from slabs to massive overhanging crags. I had been on the
previous CMC Kalymnos trip in 2015 but there are so many crags there, with new
ones being developed all the time, that we ended up going to a different crag every
day, all but one being new to me. The highlight for me was the boat trip to Little Eden
crag at Vathy where the entertainment was watching the rival restaurant owners
arguing over which climbers they were going to take (the understanding being that
you ate at their restaurant on return). I think we ended up in the poorer party with a
rickety old boat that required fixing before we could even leave the harbour.
Our travel logistics issues concluded for Seamus and I with a hair-raising taxi ride
from Athens airport where the driver seemed to be some sort of drug money courier
and initially started taking us to the wrong address. When we realised and told him
where we actually needed to go, his driving became even faster and more reckless
and we were certainly glad to finally arrive at our overnight stop where the others
thought we must have been abducted. Returning to Manchester in the drizzle the
following day made us realise why we’d gone in the first place.
Present: Paul Drew, Barbara Murray, Claire Meehan, Matthew Alexander, Libby
Glazebrook, Seamus Wrigley, Stew Leitch.