cycling, beaches and moon hill

The newbies have arrived- all 12 of them. it was a surprise when they all turned up a day before we expected them. their first night was Hannahs last night, sao we all went to a western restaurant, then a roof top bar for the rest of the night. it was a great place to get to know everyone, and the night ended going back to the hostel via macdonalds! not that i wanted any! i had a rest day the following day, then went6 climbing with the new guys the following day. they are all very relaxed and a bit crazy- a perfect climbing combination! they are also mostly climbing 5s and easy routes which makes a nice change from climbing with the others who all climb harder than me. im not the worst climber now but one of the better ones! it also helps take the pressure off needing to lead immediately becasue its not a big deal if i do back off the odd 5!
we had a rest day yesterday and cycled down to the river to an area that had a beach. me and cat swam in the river but the boys thought it looked a bit suspect- they may have had a point but i havent grown any extra arms yet so it couldnt have been that bad! we also watched a 2 Japanese tourists take out a bamboo raft and almost fall in quite a lot! they tried to paddle backwards so all the water was going into the bamboo sinking the raft!
today i persuaded the guys to hire bikes and cycle to moon hill. we all regretted this when we had to walk up millions of steps to get to the climbing, climbed some really hard routes then had to go all the way down the steps and cycle back again! all that and a party tonight!! i got on a 7a on toprope there and actually got on ok on it. it got frustrating when i kept swinging right out when i fell off (it was quite overhanging, and we forgot to put any quickdraws in when putting the toprope on) then had to try and swing back to the rock and grab the really bad holds to get back on again!
tonight is an official HotRock party at the bar we have been going to a lot- Bar 98. i think some of the guys may be dressing up in dresses as is traditional hotrock style! only a couple o0f days until we will be bush camping so making thew most of it!!

cycling, beaches and moon hill

Yangshuo, China