My Birthday with cake!

So my birthday was on Saturday, and we had a party on the truck, as it was a drive day. we played music and sang along from about 9 in the morning (the journey started at 5am), then all the guys decided to look through the truck fancy dress box and found womens clothes to put on (apparently this is a HotRock tradition Danny and Pete told us and which their dresses were!) it was entertaining when we stopped at a service station for some Chai! when we arrived at Badami, we went though the town, and everyone was covered in orange or pink powder- to do with local elections i think. a local through some orange powder through the window of BiRT so we got covered in orange. Dave got covered in pink in the town later and is still pink after swimming and quite a few showers! We then found a hotel close to our bush camp that has a swimming pool!! So we enjoyed a relaxed afternoon, ordering nice food and using their showers to wash our hair! i need to go back for another shower!in the evening, i found that a few of the group had found a bakery in town that actually sold birthday cakes! that was a good surprise! mum had sent me a singing candle which made it feel quite like a birthday! all in all- a good day!
The climbing- i have found some great sports routes, and have started leading again, even though im not always gertting to the top, it feels like definate progress. the routes are really nice, vertical o slightly overhanging with lots of jugs and crimps.i top roped some brilliant 6bs and 6cs but got very pumped! i also did a 2 pitch trad route close to our camp site. there is no guide book for most of the trad, so i dont know if any one has done it before. startin a route that you dont know what is like is quite unnerving. it felt a bit sketchy especially with big blocks in a crack that i wasnt sure how secure or stable they were!i think it was probably only servere or HS but it felt scarier!
the town here is very hectic, especially the market. it is a bit of a nightmare to buy food, but im getting used to what food is available. Im on cook duty with Suuz today and yesterday, and we found chicken in town-the first meat we have had in quite a while! it was a bit gross though becasue they had cut it all up, including th head and eyes, liver, heart etc! so Suuz had to go though it taking out the bones and other bits we didnt want!it was very tasty though!
Hopefully we have 4 days left here becasue we voted not to go to Mumbai for a day later on in the trip, giving us 2 extra days somewhere. Goa is next on the list- probaby go on Monday. it will be nice to have some time off climbing- let my fingers and muscles recover, and relax on a beach.
oh and Flavius has gone to Goa today to see a specialist about his knee (apparently its a torn ligament), then he will probably go home from there. but HotRock gives him the time he misses to claim on the trip at another time, so we are hoping he will come back for Thailand!

My Birthday with cake!

Badami, India