I have now officially sat through my first tropical storm! Last night the heavens opened and unleashed a torrent of water from the sky of the likes I have never seen. Water poured from the sky while lightning flashed and thunder roared. The water poured in torrential rivers down through Andaman's while Chris and I sat on my porch watching in awe, all sound drowned out by the pounding of the rain on the tin roof. This morning I went climbing on the beach (Onsighted a nice 6b called 'Cowabungalow' and flashed 'Lal Bab', a bouldery 7a+) and on the way down the road had been carved away and collapsed where the rivers of water had passed through and it has destroyed the main junction of the beach and the road as well as taking about a metre of sand away from underneath the Tonsai Overhang, making all the routes harder to start, some I cant even reach the start hold haha. It is nice and sunny (albeit humid) today again, but it has been raining a bit nearly every afternoon or evening for a little while now so the general consensus between the climbers and the locals is that the wet season is starting early, which isn't all that great, but you can still climb all the steep stuff so it's not the end of the world.
When I got home to my bungalow I saw a young Jungle Monitor browsing through the leaf litter around my bungalow so I snapped a couple of pics of him for uncomfortably close quaters haha, they are like our Goanna's at home but grey/black and grow much bigger, the one I saw was only about a metre long though, just a juvenile.
09.03.09
Today I had the best day of climbing I have had since getting here and I am absolutely chuffed! In the morning I went to the beach and climbed with Bjorn-Eric. We warmed up then I climbed 'Reminiscence' 7a+ on my 2nd shot after falling at the very top on the flash, then I flashed 'Mai Mee Fahn' 7a+. Then in the afternoon I went back to Marley Wall and sent 'Exodus' 7c on what was my 5th shot. I am super happy with sending my first 7c of the trip, I sent it relatively quickly but I had to try pretty hard and fight it a bit so I feel like I earned it haha. What made it even better was that John & Lily both sent it in the same same session, the send train stopped at 3 stations in a row yet again! It is always so good to send things in a group, the psyche just seems endless!
So it seems that the locals think that the rainy season has come early, and I would tend to agree with them. It has rained quite heavily every afternoon or evening for nearly two weeks. It doesnt stop us from climbing as the crags are so steep in general, it only stopped us a little after the massive storm the other night. Generally it just cools the place down in the evening which makes it a bit nicer to sleep at night which is a bonus :-)
A juvenile Jungle Monitor outside our bungalows
Beautiful sunset storm clouds seen through the trees from our bungalows at Andamans
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