Bad climbing, good climbing, new adventures!

I have so much to say, so i need to remember all of it, and i only havea few hours before i am catching a bus to Manali!
On arrival to Delhi, we went to a restaurant for dinner and i got what i thought wouldnt be a spicy meal for a change- chinese style ginger chicken- it was the spiciest food ive eaten for ages! but it was chicken so i ate it! Danny then broke it to me that i would be on truck duty that night with Paul. Truck duty is basically sleeping in BiRT overnight when BiRT is not next to our camp, so if anyone trys to get into the truck (its quite easy to) then we will scare them off. Well id managed to avoid this duty until now, but it was the worst place to have truck duty. BiRT is parked in the train station car park. I felt quite vulnerable going to BiRT at 9 in the evening then being surrounded by the usual locals watching you open your locker and climb into the truck. It was also very noisy, as no one slept around there- they were all loading and unloading items from trains etc. So i managed to sleep a bit, but at 4.30am when it was light we headed back to the hotel to get a few extra hours sleep! I didnt feel too bad later after a bit of sleep. A group of us then decided to search for a local climbing area that was about a 10 min tuk tuk ride away. When we arrived, we had to pay to get in, and it was soo dirty. there was glass and rubbish everywhere. there were lots of easy slab climbs but as we arrived at midday, they were all in the sun. i did a very easy trad lead with Jeremy in the sun, but i could only hold a hand-hold for about 2 seconds before it started to burn! and my feet werent any better! so we resigned to trying the only routes in the shade which were overhanging and really hard- 7a and above. i couldnt get off the ground! the day was saved by finding bottles of frozen Limca (like lemon fanta) and Sprite. Ihave developed an addiction to Limca! i am a bit worried i might not have any teeth left at the end of the trip!
In the evening, i got dinner on my own which was nice, then we watched TV at the hotel.
Wednesday we got up at 4.00am to get a bus to a climbing area that takes about 3 hours to get to. the bus didnt turn up for a further hour and the agent was really difficult, asking for more money, even though Danny had pre-organised it, and we almos walked away. Jeremy (whos an American marine) got angry but took charge and sorted it all out! After getting a bit lost, we arrived feeling unpsyched until we walked up the steps to find some really nice looking rock. I led a route with Marita which was really good, followed by a couple more. i backed off a lead after a lot of attempts to get over an awkward move with no gear to protect it. by the time we finished the route it was 12.30 and 46 degrees! it was very unpleasant! i was drinking a litre of water after each route. we went back to a place that seemed to be some kind of school camp, and found they had a hose for washing blankets and clothes so we jumped in that and felt much better. it then started to rain, so we waited it out and started climbing again in the afternoon when it was a bit cooler. We did a route in the pouring rain, but the rock was dry again 10 minutes later!
after a sucessful daywe drove back. i was starving as i didnt bring any lunch so just ate some bread and bananas as breakfast.
Thursday we went back to the same place so it was another short night sleep, but agqin some really nice climbing. i felt much better about everything after a good days climbing! we also played volleyball with the locals at the camp, which was a very good game, even though we lost! and they gave us tea. the weather was slightly cooler than the day before with a bit of a storm in the afternoon.
Today, Gareth and I are leaving thew group and going to Manali early. Its in the mountains and a nice chilled out place apparently with some hiking and possibly some climbing.Its also only 6 hours bus ride from Chattru- the next climbing destination on the trip- at over 3000m altitude and multipitch trad aswell as bouldering. We will see what to do when in Manali. We booked a bus ticket with the hotel yesterday morning- but with no proof of ticket, lets hope we get on the bus! It arrives at 4pm, so i have a couple of hours to pack everything (including fleece and down jacket!!) and buy food. I am not sure its the best thing to do leaving the group when the new people are arriving and Alberto is leaving, but i have made the decision and im here to climb rather than stay in the city. there will be plenty more parties and time to get to know the newbies. It will be really nice to be organising things independently, becasue until now i have relied completely on Danny and the trip.
Sorry for such an essay! The next blog will be from the mountains!!

Bad climbing, good climbing, new adventures!

Delhi, India