The Matterhorn of the South

I made my way to Wanaka after the Nuns Veil trip. With a large pack, small pack, banana box full of food as well as a cooler bag full, hitching just wasn't an option, so I caught a bus. I was the only passenger from Cromwell onwards, so I sat up front with the driver. We had an excellent debate/discussion on mostly climate change but also tangents. We both genuinely enjoyed it, told each other as much on parting, and I was again reminded of how open and warm some of these Kiwi's can be.

I met up with Skye and Luke in Wanaka, friends from the Rockies back home. The weather was average, but I hardly needed that reason to justify a few rest days. I was starting to feel worn out from the amount I'd been doing with minimal rest days, so decided on doing as little as possible for the few days until Jimmy arrived. In contrast to Unwin, which is a relatively isolated place, I now felt like I was on holiday. For three days the BBQ saw an extraordinary amount of food get cooked on it, and I of course caught up on some NZ craft beer and coffee cake and paper time. Veritably, this was all in the name of carb-loading for our respective upcoming trips.

Jimmy arrived in Wanaka via Christchurch around 14:30 on Tuesday and hit the ground running - we had a short weather window to get in and climb Mt Aspiring. We'd both had this beautiful mountain, often referred to as the 'Matterhorn of the South', on our minds for some time. After quickly arranging his stuff, we were on our way within half an hour of his arrival, in the car of some lovely Swiss girls with whom I'd arranged a lift. After 7 odd hours of walking, we got to French Ridge hut some time after 23:00 and crashed out.

We were back out the door the next morning, continuing up French Ridge to gain the Bonar Glacier via the Quarterdeck. We met Luke and Skye over morning tea; they were coming down off Mt French. We had a good laugh about Jimmy being dressed as only a mountaineer from Orange would - in ruggers, fluoro plastic hand-me-down boots and old thermal cut down to short sleeves - and parted ways. As we crossed the Bonar we noticed an abnormal amount of helicopter activity around, and soon observed that it was concentrated around the SW ridge of Aspiring. We knew that two guys from Melbourne had set out to climb the route this day, and we hoped nothing untoward had happened. Our hopes, however, were not helped when we saw one helicopter leaving the bottom of the route with an object dangling from a cable below it. As we later found out, one of them had fallen off the route to his death. I cannot begin to imagine the pain his family and friends would have been feeling at his loss this Christmas. It was an admirable effort made by his partner, who climbed the rest of the route to the summit, around 200m, by himself, sought out a guided group who had come up he NW ridge in order to call in the emergency services, then descended the mountain with them.

After an afternoon's rest at the busy Colin Todd Hut, with intermittent thoughts and discussions about a death so close by, we rose at 03:00 to climb as planned. Our chosen route was the NW ridge, which we gained via 'The Kangaroo Patch'. Don't tell any New Zealanders, but I think it actually looks like a Kiwi! It was all good snow until the ridge, which was mostly rock. Not too loose, and just gentle enough that we soloed up through the dawn.

As we progressed up and along the ridge, we noticed that the top of the mountain was being buffeted by winds coming in from the north. It was an incredible display as they arced over the ridge. As we ascended into them, they proved to be only lightly affronting, their worst effect being reducing the visibility to around 20m. Lucky then that we were climbing a ridge to a most prominent point - no vis needed!

We summited around 08:20, though naturally our summit photos could have been taken anywhere with a grey background. In the 5 minutes we were on top, the clouds parted twice, momentarily, to afford a stretching vista and assure us we actually were on top. We passed two guided groups on our descent - 'great view up there!' - and made our way down in a measured manner, performing 3 rappels down the steeper section of ridge immediately above 'The Kangaroo'. Safely back at the hut, some 10 hours after setting out that morning, we hoed into some lunch and had as short as rest as we'd allow ourselves.

It was around 16:00 when we walked back out the door for the 5 hour trudge back across the Bonar - just another lazy 500m of ascent! - and back down to French Ridge hut. It was a beautiful time of day to be out walking and we were both feeling surprisingly energetic after climbing through the morning. We even entertained the thought of continuing all the way down past French Ridge Hut to Aspiring Hut, down in the valley. But no, this would mean about 3000m of descent in one day, which would be torture to our knees. By the time we got to French Ridge Hut we were well fatigued, but for myself it was a very pleasant form of tiredness, a feeling of utter contentment at having had such a great day and being able to finally sleep.

The morning greeted us as forecast - with rain. We were glad we'd pushed on to where we were, as the Bonar would likely be in whiteout conditions in such weather. It was down to the last push - back down and out of the valley. It was tempting to laze around the comfort of the hut indefinitely, but we steeled our wills and walked out the door into the wet. It certainly wasn't pleasant but, as always with Jimmy, we made good conversation and the metres passed us by. The last stretch back to the car park was pretty awful at the time, but who remembers the bad parts?

Back in Wanaka we very quickly became engaged in discussions with Luke and Skye on what to climb next. It took a little effort to put it out of my mind and concentrate on relaxing properly after our Aspiring trip. Overnight, I made the decision to cut my trip short by a week and go home early, a decision which fit in well with the others, and one which I was glad to make. It spelled the end to a nearly two month long trip, a trip in which I'd been far more active than I'd anticipated. I'd enjoyed the company of all the characters I'd been in the hills with over the length of the trip, but being out and about with Jimmy again was fantastic, we are on such similar wavelengths, and being in such company makes a trip a completely different experience. The Aspiring trip was the icing on the cake, a culmination of all the climbing I had been doing providing me with the fitness and confidence required to climb the NW Ridge in both good time and good style, walk in walk out. A fitting note to end on.

Crossing The Divide

It was on everybody's lips. The weather was unseasonably warm. The week of continuous sunshine we'd had whilst up the Tasman was all but unheard of. We were lucky in that there were some good freezes to start with, but they were soon to disappear with rising temperatures. People were saying that this season, in terms of snow melt and route condition, was a month advanced, that it is to be a la nina summer. This all meant that snow and ice climbs would be a grim prospect, if climbable at all, and that rock climbs were the far more sensible order of the day.

This was not really what I wanted to hear. As an Australian, with plenty of rock climbing back home and little snow and ice to speak of, I was here to climb the white stuff. But if you want to have a good time, you have to go with conditions, which I was of course fine with, because I do love rock climbing regardless of what else I may be missing out on.

I teamed up with James and Sleake to walk in and climb the classic West Ridge of Malte Brun, a route on reputedly good rock. We didn't make it very far - whilst descending the moraine wall on to the Tasman Glacier James slipped and twisted his ankle. It brought an end to his trip. We were lucky it had happened where it had, rather than somewhere amidst the Tasman moraine. I must admit a part of me was glad I didn't have to walk up the Tasman moraine with such a heavy pack.

Sleake and I set out soon afterward from MCV for a crossing of the main divide into the Copland Valley. I'd had this trip, a walk out to the West Coast via the Copland, on my mind for some time, and had decided to combine it with an ascent of Mt Sefton along the way. Mt Sefton is an incredibly prominent peak perched above MCV, and as such my eye had been drawn to in many a time from many a place over the preceding weeks. It's East Face is wild and difficult to access; our plan was to climb its West Ridge, accessed from the Copland Valley via Scott Creek.

Rather than cross via the Copland Shelter and Pass, we ascended an avalanche gut soon after hitting Hooker Lake, thereby avoiding what was meant to be one of the worse moraine walls around. A sidle under some bluffs to avoid some ice cliffs put us in a fine and dandy couloir which got us promptly onto the ridge coming down from Madonna Peak, which we soon traversed around from to cross the divide via Fitzgerald Pass, about a k south of the Copland Pass. It all worked a treat, and we got to Douglas Rock Hut, a beautiful old hut which is high on my list of favourite visited, a little under 12 hours after setting out.

The next morning we left the Copland track and started making our way up Scott Creek. It was far more involved than either of us had anticipated, and involved lots of rock hopping, scrambling, water crossing, crossing over deposited snow build ups as well as under them in channels worn by the passage of water, and a bit of jungle bashing/slab climbing to get past an initial waterfall. None of these obstacles stopped us, but as we came across another one, for which we would have to get the rope out to pass, we sat down and had a natter. It was midday, and we'd only ascended 400 vertical metres. We had another 1000m to get to the bivy site. Many factors influenced our ensuing decision to turn around, but the bottom line was that we did not want to get caught out in Scott Creek on the Sunday when they were forecasting rain - west coast rain. We did not rate our chances of climbing Sefton in a morning from the bivy (about 1300m of ascent) then descending 2700m back down through Scott Creek to Welcome Flat Hut all on the Saturday.

Once the decision was made, and we were back down past most of the obstacles encountered on Scott Creek, we noticeably lightened up. It happens frequently when climbing, when you realise that you are back down out of all (or most) of the dangers, and you switch your mind off from being so serious and focused on every thing going on, and you look to the future, what you'll be feasting on back at the hut, what you'll be doing next week back in civilization, what you'll be doing when you're back home.

I proceeded to walk out to the West Coast, via some welcome thermal hot pools at Welcome Flat. Despite not reaching Sefton, it had been an incredible trip, just the Copland in itself was an amazing walk through a landscape completely different to that on the east of the divide, the mountains being much more rocky and precipitous. My impressions of Scott Creek cannot be done justice by words, but the one word which I feel comes closest to describing it is 'wild'. It was one of the most wild places I have ever been.

At Fox Glacier I returned to the same cafe in which I had first seen a breakfast of pancakes with bacon, banana and maple syrup, when our guide had ordered it on my first trip to NZ a few years previous. They still had it on the menu, and it was great, such a good combination! I took it fairly easy, making my way up to Hokitika, and eventually hitched my way back around to MCV via Wanaka.

I unpacked upon returning to Unwin Lodge in the evening, and immediately repacked for another outing the next day. Steve, Chris, Andrew and I accessed our climb in style, by boat across Tasman Lake. We made our way up Gorilla Stream to a bivy site just before the route turned to snow.

The Nuns Veil was the peak on our agenda, a nice looking thing which stands out above its immediate neighbours on the eastern side of the Tasman. We were up at the earliest time yet this trip, 01:00, but we had a boat to catch in the arvo, after a reasonable climb and a 2000m descent back down Gorilla Stream. It was a good freeze, and the mornings ascent passed by quickly. It steepened up a little near a bergschrund below the summit, and it was a little windy and thus cold in the pre-dawn, but the sun rose just as we were approaching the top, and life was good! We took in the incredible views of the peaks along the main divide, dominated by the huge bulk that is Aoraki/Mt Cook, then descended back to the bivy for an early lunch. The descent wasn't too bad, but the 8kms or so back up the Tasman to the boat pick-up was verging on soul destroying. It was about a 14 hour day, and back at Unwin I reveled in complete exhaustion.

A week up the Upper Tasman

The weather may not have been great for the hills, but it was good enough to make a few outings from Unwin. Mt Edgar Thompson far exceeded my expectations; the ~1700m of elevation gain passed easily enough, but my knees felt half worn through after descending the same again. An overnight trip up the Hoophorn Ridge saw us bivvying in the valley below it rather than up on the Annette Plateau as planned. It was a pleasant bivvy, disturbed only by a couple of watchful Kea's. The ridge the next day was quite loose but provided some fun scrambling up to the plateau, where we were met with some ugly weather and thus hotfooted it down to Mueller Hut, then back to Unwin after some soup.

After a rest day, I joined a trip being run by the Wellington section of the New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC). Rob, Lisa, Andrew, Alex and I flew up to Tasman Saddle Hut hot on the heels of an excellent forecast for the coming week. Despite my preference of avoiding flights, for various reasons, I was quickly reminded that helicopters are just about the darned coolest things getting about.

We were in the hut long enough to throw our stuff on a bunk before we headed back out the door. The weather was just too good to be true, and I quickly dispelled any thoughts of me needing any more rest days after my Unwin outings. We headed over to Aylmer, climbed its short south face, then traversed over Hochstetter Dome.

The next day we were up at 05:00 - what was to be on this trip quite a luxurious time to rise. First up was the East Face of Mt Green, from Divers Col. Conditions were great, though my calves were burning from all the front-pointing. Green was both an aesthetically pleasing peak to climb, and also a nice climb/line in itself, with some lovely ridge climbing to gain Divers Col in the first place. Andrew and I headed back to the hut after Green, while the others went on to climb Mt Walter, a straightforward climb also from Divers Col. The going joke by evening was that this would be the trip of two climbs a day!

The following morning was a much more regular get-up time of 02:30. We were setting off for Mt Elie De Beaumont via the Anna Glacier route. The Anna Glacier has a tendency to break up quite early on in the season and thus become impassable, but luckily for us a party had forged a way through the day before us.We found ourselves in the huge, shearing bergschrund while it was still dark, standing on a floor of broken collapsed snow and ice which had been refrozen where it was. It was not immediately clear which path to take, but it ended up involving climbing a pitch up and another across the lower face of Walter. Back on the glacier it was an easy enough ascent to the summit, which was not lingered on for long thanks to some ~55km/hr winds blowing across it. Back at the schrund well before 11:00, small snow slides were already coming down the face of Walter, and we followed our route-setters example and rapped into the guts of the schrund. Conditions were still cold and the ground reassuringly firm underfoot. It meant that, while still needing to move quickly to get back to safer ground, we could appreciate the place we were in. I felt privileged to be granted safe travel through such a special, dynamic, uninhabitable place. We enjoyed a lazy lunch in the sun, and were back at the hut by 13:30.

The weather the following day, Wednesday, was again fantastic, but I had an enforced rest day while the others made the most of the day. It was nice having a rest day that was sunny, and I typically punctuated my day of reading and cleaning with plenty of eating. It was another early rise on Thursday as Rob, Alex and I set off for the Couloir Route on Mt Annan. It was in better condition than anticipated, and made for a really enjoyable climb. The ridge to Annan was quite loose, so after summiting we down climbed the couloir rather than continue down the ridge. We were back at the hut by 09:00, a perfect time for a second breakfast of pancakes, bacon, banana and golden syrup.

Time we had, and the following morning we set out once again, early, this time for a peak in the Murchison - we'd just about climbed the immediate area out of all sensible options! The conditions, though, were terrible, thanks to rising freezing levels, and after slogging through the snow as far as Tasman Saddle, we decided it wasn't worth pusing on given how soft the snow was. We returned to the hut, slept in to a decent hour, then flew out later in the day. It was a great trip, not only thanks to the incredibly good weather, but also due to it being such an excellent group of people.

Land of the Long White Cloud

My trip to NZ commenced in Christchurch, which was a veritable ghost town on my first day of strolling it. Was is the recent earthquakes? They had certainly caused a lot of damage - buildings and whole street sections were cordoned off left right and centre, either under repair or demolition.

I had some organising to do, but it didn't take up too much of my time. Thus I set about enacting one of my favourite activities: finding the best places to eat, have good coffee, beer wifi et al. I had planned to be on the strictest budget possible this trip, but I quickly found that there are some things in life that I just can't skimp on.

New Zealand has an excellent craft beer scene, and admittedly I had already promised myself before the trip that good beer would not be subject to my cost cutting. The beer highlight of Chch was The Twisted Hop, a brew/pub in the centre of town. It is a prime example of the kind of establishment I would love to see more of. They have a simple, good menu of comforting beer food. They support other craft breweries by having many bottles from various breweries available, as well as a guest tap. The highlight though, is of course their own beer. They have about 5 English-style cask conditioned ales on hand pump, and a few other styles, such as a pilsner that showcases NZ Sauvin hops. Also great was Pommeroy's, a pub about 20 minutes walk from the centre, which has 12 odd taps and a couple of hand pumps all dispensing various NZ craft beer.

Other highlights included some arvo cragging in the Port Hills, and some chilli mushrooms for breakfast one morning from the Beat Street Cafe. I then broke one of my cost cutting measure - hitching everywhere - by getting a bus to Wanaka. I'm glad I did, for various reasons, not least of which was the fact I had to carry around half my body weight in luggage!

It was nice to be back in Wanaka. It is hard to imagine a more beautiful setting for a town, perched on a lake as it is and surrounded by mountains, with a view to the snow peaks of Aspiring NP. I only stayed there one night though before heading up the West Matukituki Valley - the weather forecast was fantastic and I was keen to do some tramping. My planned itinerary was to cross to the Dart Valley via Cascade Saddle, and walk out to Glenorchy (and of course return to Wanaka via Fergburger in Queenstown) but there was just too much snow around the tops. Good for climbing - bad for walking. Instead I spent four wonderful days wandering the West Matukituki and then the East Matukituki in perfect weather.

I had a couple of rest days back in Wanaka, which naturally included a few brews, and even a visit to the local craft brewery, Wanaka Beerworks. They stick to three, not-so-adventurous styles, but they do them very well. I then headed back into Aspiring NO as the next weather window was coming about.

I was keen to climb Mt Aspiring, but couldn't find any partners, so climbed the SE ridge of Mt Barff, as had been recommended to me, instead. The name belies how pretty a mountain it actually is, and the route itself was 'just what the doctor ordered'. When walking by oneself up the valley, it's possible to think many thoughts, many doubtful, but when I was up there and the sun rose to shine on me on my way up, my very soul felt warmed by it.

After Barff-ing (haha, how lame...) I eventually made my way to Mount Cook Village (MCV). It is a small, out of the way place, especially compared to Wanaka, but is at the doorstep of the most extensive range of 'hills' here, and is also (or therefore) a place where many travelling climbers come to meet partners. Unfortunately the weather has been fairly average, causing plenty of hut time (where thinking of how to concoct the next meal from a limited supply of ingredients is the main agenda), but a couple of us did get out cragging on some great 'greywhacke', which I'm keen to revisit some time, and we fitted in a good day walk/climb the other day up a nearby ridge. In the meantime, we're just waiting for all those long white clouds to go away.

Liam was here

Yup. I did make it back to Australia. I managed to take two Air China pillows with me (great for 'luxurious' camping), and succeeded in bringing some Chinese tea and some wooden items back into the country. They were probably all safe enough to get through customs, but I always prefer to employ the 'decoy' method when going through.

Once I was back in Aus, I was more or less down to two options. One: go about finding work in Sydney, and thus not know when I may next have an extended period of time free. Two: continue my 'binge' (of unemployment and climbing) and head to New Zealand for a couple of months. Money would be the issue: NZ is a considerably more expensive country to bum around in than, say, China. Once I deemed that my funds would just allow for a (cheap as bro) trip, all it took was for a catch up with Jimmy to flick the switch in my mind to firmly YES (catching up with Jimmy can be very empowering, or dangerous, in that way - we seem to bounce ideas off each other in a way that makes anything seem possible).

And so, exactly one week after arriving back in Sydney, I booked return flights to Christchurch, NZ, departing about three weeks later.

The time that I did spend back in Aus, about a month, felt considerably busy, especially given my unemployed status.

Initially there was an enormous satisfaction in enjoying things like good sourdough bread, cheese, wine, good, craft beer, black pudding, pasta, etc etc, after a couple of months in China. That list could well go on.

I really do enjoy cooking, and so I was surprised at how long it took me to find the motivation to do some. Really, it was another installment of Kim & Lyndal's Epic BBQ that got me going. I got carried away by preparing/cooking three different things, but my Dulce do Leche cheese cake was the only thing I was reasonably happy with.

Eddie and Jo's wedding was the reason I came back when I did, and a lovely evening it was. I hate to focus so much on one theme, food, but the food at the wedding was fantastic! Usually 'function' food served out in quantity is merely acceptable; but this stuff was exceptional. Sumo wrestling at the Buck's party was also a hoot.

Within a week of my return, as Adam and I had discussed whilst in Croatia, we got together to put down a brew. We cooked up, more or less, an American style pale ale. Some Chinook hops went in for bittering, but all the rest were Cascade flower hops (grown in Aus - it is not possible to import hops in their flower form). We bottled it just before I left for NZ, and I can't wait to get back and try some. Christmas will be prime time.

Despite hypochondriac-esque fears of injury, I did get out rock climbing a couple of times. I spent the October long weekend down at Point Perpendicular with some old as well as new, well met friends. I really love Pt Perp. The climbing is in such a spectacular position, that even if the climbs were horrible it could still be worth it. They're not, though, there are a plethora of fantastic routes. Perhaps one of the drawbacks is the local cuisine - 'Chinese' at a local bowlo was a rude reminder as to what is going on in large parts of Australia.

One week I tee'd up some climbing at the Warrumbungles. I love that place! Hey, wait a minute.... Well, who cares if I've just repeated myself, I love the Bungles as well as Pt Perp, and many other places to boot! Monday morning saw me on a cityrail train to Lithgow. From there I hitched with a fascinating couple in their 70's. Who'd expect to be talking all about le tour on a hitch between Lithgow and Bathurst! From Bathurst I hitched with an expat Pole to Orange, where I dropped by my fave, Bills, for an awesome espresso. Not so awesome was the price, $3.50. Honestly, I am so sick of paying the same price for an espresso as a milky coffee. I got a ride to Dubbo in a B-double; 'twas a new experience travelling in one of them.

In Dubbo I met up with Heath, and we drove straight out to the Bungles for the walk up the yellow brick road to Balor Hut. What followed were three days (2.5 really) of great weather and fantastic climbing. Day one we climbed Flight of the Phoenix (300m 18) on Bluff Mountain, one of the classics of the area, if not Australia. The rock, largely, was surprisingly good (the Bungles has a well earnt reputation for loose rock and route-finding difficulties). The traverse out the 'wing' was magic.

Day two we jumped on Lieben (200m 17), another classic of the area. Put up by Bryden Allen and Ted Batty in 1962, it was for a time the hardest graded climb in Australia. The route ascends the west face of Crater Bluff, which is one of the most intimidating faces I have seen, and despite it being a grade lower than Flight, the thought of it always gave me more heebie jeebies than Flight. In climbing it, I did find the crux pitch as difficult as anything encountered on Flight. It was another great climb, and not quite as intimidating in practice as it looks from the ground.

Our final day, after much deliberation, we set out for Out and Beyond on Belougery Spire, typically did not find it, but did find Caucusus Corner (325m 17) - so started up it. We climbed four pitches up to the half way ledge. I was taken by surprise - they were fantastic, as enjoyable as anything on Flight or Lieben. From the ledge I commenced a traverse out; the exposure was exhilarating, fingers and toes keeping me on the rock above the void, protection just sufficient. It was, however, off-route, and I eventually climbed back in towards the ledge. We made a call to bail after that, and good thing we did as it started pelting down an hour later!

The trip to the Bungles all but concluded what had been an excellent month back in Aus. I was even at times questioning whether I really wanted to be leaving at all, but when else in life do we get a chance to do these things? I look forward to returning home, but it will be different this time, I will be faced with the realities of work and all that is involved with life in Sydney.

China part II: Yangshuo

I had read about the climbing around Yangshuo in a couple of mags, and I had this in my mind when I decided to spend 7 odd weeks in China. Once the decision was made to stop travelling and go climbing, I was very eager to get to Yangshuo and settle in.

Those that have been to Yangshuo before (and are still at a stage in life where they go out) will almost certainly have heard of Monkey Jane's. This is where I chose to stay, in a single room for about AU$35 a week. Their rooftop bar is what they are known for, and my first three nights were spent their, imbibing typically weak Chinese lager and mingling. Is this a sign of things to come, I wondered? Will every night be spent at Monkey Jane's, playing beer pong, meeting everyone that passes through and those that stay? Fortunately for my health, this was not the case, but several nights were spent there throughout my stay, and they were always, always good fun.

I met Con, a climber from Melbourne, early on. We had similar trains of thought as well as climbing abilities, and I did most of my climbing with him. Olmo (Spain) and Marty (Polsk!) were soon to fall in with us, and we made a good bunch that enjoyed drinking with each other as much as we did climbing. It was really easy to meet other climbers, I guess because most of them were there specifically on a climbing holiday, and we all ended up talking, climbing and hanging out together.

After not having climbed for several months, it took me a couple of weeks to regain some specific strength and really feel good on the rock. All the climbing was on limestone, sport, though trad lines do exist, and was typically steep often with fingery holds. I had to make sure I took sufficient rest days - doing something so strenuous continually is a recipe for injury. My rest days were typically preceded by a Western meal and a big night out. Ah, to be a creature of habit....

One hindrance to climbing was the heat. We just could not climb in the sun, and had to pick our crags accordingly. Often a half day's climbing, until the cliff came into the sun, was enough to wear one out. A couple of crags were close enough to the Yulong River to go and jump in between climbs, dodging all the Chinese tourists going down it on bamboo rafts. We mostly got around by bike, you could hire one for the day for just under AU$1. It was a great freedom to be able to ride oneself out to the crag, and very convenient that so many of them were so close to town.

Apart from 'cragging' at the local cliffs, we made a day trip out to a cliff dubbed 'The Great Wall'. The climbing on this cliff is in the early stages of development. A 40m pitch accesses a ledge system, from which several more climbs go up the wall in several pitches. It was great to get on some decent, long, multi-pitches, and the position and surrounding scenery was fantastic. There are so many karst formations around, it is mind boggling to think about how many great cliffs are around. The issue then is access.

What made Yanghsuo though for me was the length of time I was there and the freedom it thus gave me. It was the first time in my life I have committed such a time to such a simple task, and never have I felt more able to do 'whatever the f#ck I want'. If all I wanted to do for half a day was read my book, I would do it, with no regrets about not getting some other little project done. I was only there to climb, and even then I had no specific goals, so I really felt free to do whatever I want. Then come all the other benefits of learning all the good places to eat etc when you stay an extended time in the one place. Yangshuo is very touristy, but I found it possible to ignore 'all that' somewhat, and live each day how I pleased. It was a completely different experience to travelling through other parts of China.

China. Where u at?

First things first - I am currently back in Australia. Most of you reading this were already made aware of the fact that I would not be able to update my blog whilst in China. This is due to their grand firewall, which also keeps out sites like facebook. Of course, most computer savvy people just install software which masks their IP and go about their business. I had neither a laptop on which to install this software, nor any particular motivation to go to great lengths to access these restricted sites. So I have left my blog entries until now. I am thinking I will divide it into two entries. Not particularly easy, considering not only the length of time I spent in China, but the contrast of the country to everywhere else I have previously been and thus my desire to note down dozens of personal observations. I do, though, much prefer this condensing of my trip, because quite frankly I just don't like working, and writing blog entries after a trip just seems to me too much like work.

In the beginning, there was Beijing, mega-city of my arrival. Man, that place is polluted. I am still boggled by how people live there, breathing all that dirty air in every day of the week. I was blessed, though, upon my return to Beijing, at the end of my trip. I left the obligatory viewing of The Great Wall until this time because I had been told it was muh nicer to visit in the Autumn. I'm glad I did - the day I headed out to see the wall the skies were blue and that stranger to Beijing, the sun, was out for all to see. I visited a more remote, unregulated (officially) section of the wall. It was worth the headache of catching various buses and dealing with touts to get there. I was shocked at how steep some sections of he wall were - it is no walk in the park. Seeing it roll on over hills and up and down ridges into the distance sparked a desire to shoulder a pack and go for a multi-day hike along its length, or at least part thereof.

Beijing otherwise did not really appeal to me. I surprised even myself by how underwhelmed I was by both Tian'anmen square and The Forbidden City. The city is so vast that walking around taking in all the sights and smells, which I love, was rarely feasable. I did enjoy the street food, and wandering through the networks of laneways.

From Beijing I headed to Xi'an in order to see the Terracotta Warriors. I had one of my more memorable food moments here. For breakfast before heading to see the warriors, I stopped at a popular looking food stall just down the road from my hostel. Two pairs of deft hands made me a fried dough and egg fold-up, with obligatory chilli paste, chopped greens and lettuce folded into it, all for about AU$0.30. It was the penultimate breakfast (I'm yet to decide on the ultimate). I chuckled to myself upon thinking about the lost souls paying exorbidant prices for poor imitations of Western breakfasts in the hostel.

Xi'an was just a big smoggy city with consumerism shining through most notably in the form of enormous shopping malls. Its city walls were intact, but they could've been built yesterday for all I knew; this seemed the way with most Chinese structures, it is very hard to tell their true age, and as a result I held little appreciation of them. One area of Xi'an I liked was the Muslim Quarter, which was a pleasure to all the senses to walk through and eat in of an evening. I ate at Muslim restaurants as frequently as I could whilst in China. There are several Muslim minority groups, not just the Uigurs which we hear of in Australia, and they generally make excellent hand pulled noodles, cook beef and mutton very well, and use a bunch of spices different to other varieties of Chinese cooking.

I took an overnight train from Xi'an to Sichuan province on the 'hard seat' class. The seats are not literally hard, though with my bony bum they might as well be after sitting on them for half an hour. What sets hard seat carriages apart from the sleeping classes is that they fill them up with standing class tickets. I found it nigh on impossible to get any sleep with a carriage full of writhing bodies, people playing their music at whichever volume they desired, and a constant stream of staff pushing trollies through the mass of bodies. I observed that more of these trollies contained toys, perfume and other odds and ends than they did useful, requisite items such as food and fluids. At least the Tibetan family on my shoulder slept wonderfully (I was more than happy to offer my shoulder, bony as it may be).

The food in Sichuan province was fantastic. I love spicy food. Admittedly it is very oily, and if you're into that hoo haa then you'd probably also say it's quite fatty. I've never really eaten tofu, but upon my first try of 'mapo doufu', I was hooked. I was lucky enough to meet some friendly students in my travels in Sichuan. 'Lexi' and 'Wayne' took me to their favourite hotpot place, where I lost about 3 litres of sweat consuming skewer after skewer of all variety of meat and veges, including goose heart and duck tongue, cooked in a hotpot of spicy spicy broth. Yang Fan invited me to his hometown, Dujiangyan, a sattelite of Chengdu. It suffered immense damage during the 2008 earthquake, though the only visible indicator is the amount of new buildings. Which, ah, isn't too different to anywhere else in China. We had an excellent array of Sichuan dishes that evening. My chinese hosts paid for these dinners. I was touched by their hospitaliy, and impressed by their sense of pride in entertaining a foreigner - it would have been offensive had I insisted in contributing to the bill.

I intended to enter Yunnan province via the mountains in the west of Sichuan, an autonomous Tibetan region which was actually part of Tibet until it was annexed into Sichuan some years ago. Unfortunately, upon reaching Kangding, I realised I was quite ill, and booked a bus back out of the mountains, in the direction of Yunnan, the next morning. All I can say about Kangding is how I amazed I was by the plethora of mushrooms being sold. Local lined the streets selling far more varieties of mushroom than I have ever seen in my life.

I made it to Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, via an off-the-tourist-trail city and some antibiotics, or at least I think they were. The language barrier prevented fluid communication, but hand gestures and 'infection' and 'antiobotics' entered into a phone translator went a long way. I did nothing in Kunming really other than wait for a sleeper train to Yangshuo. I had made the call to get to Yangshuo, where I would stay until the end of my trip to get some rock climbing done.