Chapter 30: For your entertainment.

Finally, I am able to provide foottage. For once, it is not raining and we could work on the tan. The following line is a V9. A really stiff one. If you are wondering why my spotter is in his undies, well, don't go having twisted thoughts. Jon has been working the line for a long time. Walking up to the line he said that if he'd send, he would jump in the drink. Can you guess what happened?

Have a good one.

Chapter 29: Friends and laugh.

The sun is back for a while now so we take advantage of it as much as possible. My body hurts lot's. More climbers from all around the world are getting here every day. Now a day, I climb my three Frenchies from Fontainbleau. At time, we do more laughing then climbing.

I would love to bring you the video of the week but the link prevent me from doing so. Sorry all, it is out of my hands. I will make it up to you.

Last night, Josh and Julien stopped at my place. They are back earlier then expexted from Namibia. They should be spending the remaining of their trip chilling in Cape town.

For those watching the news, yes, things are getting a bit shaky in Johannesbourg and Cape town. So far, Clanwilliam is violence free. I am all right and monitoring the situation closely.

Chapter 28: Half way through.

I’ve been down here a month already, wow, time flies by. It is raining again, just like yesterday. So far, I had as many days of sunshine as I had of rain. Despite the weather, I remain positive and make the best of it. Yesterday, I walked up to the boulders, crawled in a cave and waited for windows. Becoming very efficient in the art of drying holds, I was able to work magic, send my project and start working another line. I would love to provide footage but nobody was crazy enough to go up with me. Instead, this is what I have for you:



This video was shot a few days ago in Arch Valley with the mercury hoovering around the 30 mark with rainforest like humidity.

I spend rest days preparing for Europe. The original plan was to do a Buy-sell deal on a small family wagon but the option prove to be more expensive then expected. The new plan is to lease a used VW campervan. I will provide numbers when all is settled. The hard part now is to get the lady in charge of the business to answer her emails. It can be so hard to give away money. I don’t understand the concept, really.


The soldier's head. A cool rock formation.

Chapter 27: Rain, proposal, send and friends.

Ok, it’s been a while since I made a post. Sorry but not much was happening except for rain. But as the sun returned, life became much more interesting. What should I start with? Climbing in the rain, the wedding proposal, the sending or friends from home dropping in town.

Well, I assume all want me to clear the proposal business. All started as a normal grocery shopping day at the Super Spar (the grocery store). Since I am not much of a cook, I truly appreciate the hot meal buffet where you pick what you want and pay according to the weight of your appetite. So I show up to the ordering counter where the same attendant great me with her usual smile. As she finish rapping up my dinner, she turned around and asked:

Girl: Where are you from?
Pepe: From Canada.
Girl: Do you have a girl friend?
Pepe: Aaaaa no...
Girl: Do you have a wife?
Pepe: Aaaaa NO...
Girl: Well, I can be your wife if you want to.
Pepe: (With eyes wide open in complete shock) aaaaaaaaaaa....
What do you answer to that? All I was able to blab out was "sorry, all I want to do is climb". What I got back from her was ‘the look’. Of course, she did not understand.


Bushman's painting

In South Africa, the winter months of June to August brings rain. Many days in a row at time. We did not see the sun for 6 days. I rested for the first 4 but on the morning of the fifth, I just could not take it anymore. A quick stop a the local campground to round up the only climber present and on are way we were. It was just like climbing in England where you still go out despite the mist, fog and blowing wind. I tried to take pictures but not much was good. What do you expect when you can’t see 5 feet in front of you.

Anyway, the sun is back and I climbed the last three days. Two of the projects on the list got crossed. Rest is required today but tomorrow, I am heading to Arch Valley.

Finally, Josh and Julien, two friends from Calgary and Quebec city, dropped in today. It was good to see friends from home. They are on their way to Namibia where they will spend 2 and a half weeks. Have a good one guys.

Making the best of climbing in the rain: Waiting for your chance and taking it.

Chapter 26: Nerver thought that I would say...

It is getting cold. Never thought that I would say such thing in South Africa. After the 35 degrees that we had, 15 degrees feels like the North Pole.
Around here, winter brings rain. It’s been raining for the last two days and it should be the same tomorrow.

Not much to say. Been working projects. Some are falling, others resist. It can be a frustrating I tell you. Being so close and still failing. They will all submit under strength.

Anyway, this is a view of the landscape. Beautiful.


Here, every house are guarded by territorial animal. I’ve seen dogs, goose, cats, duck and pigs. Some old guy thought that his house would be safe with this one.

Chapter 25: Driving South African Style

I will admit, I was not expecting it to be that bad. After all, I've been faced with many extreme forms of driving in my life. At an early aged, I learned to anticipate and react to Montreal driver's way of merging into adjacent lanes. Then, while driving through Toronto a few times, it became clear that these guys developed amazing skills for rubber necking which can only be countered by driving faster. Recently, I've been perfecting my driving skills in Calgary. Somehow, Calgarians love car pile-ups, specially on beautiful sunny days.

Clanwilliam's main street.

Explaining why South African drivers are so dangerous is very complex. Some has to do with their erratic, unpredictable, imaginative, compulsive, unforgiving and impatient driving behavior. It is also about what they drive. Some cars have seen more abuse then old Russian farming equipment. It certainly has to do with what they transport inside, in the back or top of the car/truck: Dunkies, cows, pigs, ducks all together with as much people as possible. Seat belts? What are you talking about...

Here, passing lanes don't exist. Really, why would one need some when you can use the shoulder or force incoming traffic on there’s. As you probably guessed, speed limits are only suggestions, so are lines on the roads - when they bother putting some.
Walking down Clanwilliam's main street, I realized really fast that cars have the way ahead on pedestrians, not the other way around. I am also not certain if the population of the town completely understands the meaning of a stop sign.

Finally, if you end up having to drive on South African dirt roads, be aware that they are commonly used by locals as training grounds for the Paris-Dakar rally race. But it could be worse, really. Like in New Zealand where they have herds of sheep taking over high ways. Here, we only have baboons. They are mean but mobile, at least.

Chapter 24: Settling in.

I still haven’t resolved the fast internet connection issue. You are reading those lines cause I write it on my laptop, save it to memory stick and spend an arm and a leg publishing the post at the local internet café. Since they only run on 56K modems, you can forget any pictures or videos for a while. I would have to sell a kidney to afford it.

For those who don’t know, Rockland is located 15-30 minutes drive from Clanwilliam, approximately 2 hours north of Cape Town. The town is very small, 5000 peoples at best. With a main street spanning 200 meters, one can only hope to find the bare minimum. At least, they have a small coffee shop. I reside very comfortably in a guest house a few block from the ‘strip’.

The climbing here is amazing. It resemble Joe’s valley: Short steep bouldering. This is the land of the one move wonder. Very finger intensive, kind of like bouldering at the Vsion in Canmore. Boulders are everywhere you look. 99.9% of it is crap except for a few isolated areas. If you can find those, you get amazed by the colors, shapes, textures, angles and caves.

75% of the lines are not registered in any guidebooks or topos. If they are, lines usually have no name and are rated all over the map. But they are so good. The beauty of it all will bring the obsessive compulsive personality out of any boulderer. Your desire to climb it is so strong that you go out there almost every day. Not even the 30 degree temperature can tame the need. So far, I’ve been here for 9 days and I only took 3 days off. Everything hurt, especially my core. All I can say is if you are planning a road trip around here, make sure you pack extra abs muscles and a second set of crimp strength.

Yap, it’s been hot, very hot. 30 to 35 degrees every day since I got here. Go figure, according to various weather website, we should be bouldering at a very condition perfect 10 to 15 degrees. It is suppose to rain tonight. Time for another cup of tea before heading out. We’ll try to squeeze one last session before the storm.