Howdy everyone! So for the last week we have been climbing on Cat Ba island, with deep water soloing in Ha Long Bay. (Deep water soloing is where you climb as high as you can or dare and fall or jump off into water). Halong Bay is a magical place where limestone karsts shoot up from the green water, which makes climbing there even more beautiful!
The first day we went DWS (deep water soloing) with Slo Poney, a climbing tour service owned and operated by westerners. It was a big group of us that went out on two basket boats (literally giant baskets with little motors) and did some fun climbing on beautiful stone over amazing blue waters. The climbing was easy, so it was more a matter of how high you wanted to climb rather than how high you could get. In our case, we're both big chickens! Towards the end of the day we saw a mega huge jelly fish!!!
The next day we meet up with a guy we meet briefly in Laos named Dave and his girlfriend Moriel, who were going on a private boat with a guide to DWS for four days and three nights. They invited us to come along so we said yes! Our guides name was Victor and he was a hoot to hang with. A fifty three year-old, heavy smoker, rail thin climber. The boat was smaller than any other boat out there, but very comfortable for four people. We went directly to climb at the same walls that we had climbed the day before. It was a little chilly and we were launching from kayaks instead of basket boats. Victor would direct us on the best climbs there and keep saying "Go higher! Go higher!" It was his mantra that we soon learned to ignore. We had a delicious dinner of fish and clams and other wonders from the sea before sleeping in the bay.
When night was solid around us we discovered that the water was alive with phosphorescence! Each time we spat or agitated the water it lit up with vibrant green lights!!! Beyond anything any of us had seen in our lives. We slept ok aside from a shivering/fever fit from Dimity and hearing rats run and fight in the walls of the ship all night.
Day two on the boat we woke up to hearing poor Dave puking in the toilet. Not the most magical way to start the day, but the day was beautiful, so we decided to sport climb at Moody beach. The climbs were great fun on amazingly sharp rock. I lead everything on the island and Dimity lead all except one very hard overhanging climb. Moriel is very new to climbing, but she got on almost everything and did very well. Dave was throwing up all day and had a fever. Towards the end of the day Dimity was feeling very sick too, so by the time dinner came around Moriel and I did all of the eating. We had another fun night of phosphorescence and rat fights.
Day three we woke up and everyone was feeling a little bit better, so we traveled out to the far side of the bay and did the best DWS ever!!!! We went to Polish Pillar and did some other fun stuff in the area. The climbs were hard and not too long on amazing stalactites on an overhang. We tired ourselves out before heading back to Cat Ba island. We decided that we needed a night in a real bed to kick the sick away. We stayed in the owner of Cat Ba ventures, a man name Tung's hotel where his wife cooked us a great home cooked meal. We slept deeply and happy to not hear any rats or weirdness like that.
Day four of the adventure we went with Victor to Butterfly Valley to do some awesome sport climbing. Dave was feeling back to almost 100% so he and I lead almost everything. The climbing there is some of the best that I have ever been on. Amazing tufas and stalactites make for some very interesting climbing. We finished the day working on a 5.12d or a 5.13a depending on who you are.
Aside from the climbing, we have had many 5 dollar massages, interesting conversations with our new friends, and 5 dollar meals. But somehow we have managed to spend 200 dollars on who knows what!? Dimity's obsessive compulsive expense tracking is clearly not accounting for everything!
Three more days on Cat Ba, then back to Hanoi!
No comments:
Post a Comment