Homeward adventures

After what feels like months of living my life in a whir of travelling, money spending and exhaustion, this weekend was a chance to finally stay at home and do some mental regrouping.  I needed it!  I had been planning to paddle the Garry and collect my new toy, but my wise housemate suggested that perhaps it was time to stop, just for a little while at least.

After the fun on the Garry a few weeks ago, I decided the right tool for the job was needed, unfortunately, however, I got a little over excited with eBay and ended up with a very small boat in Bristol.  Ooops!  What’s done is done and the boat is now in Blairgowrie  awaiting the next stage of its journey.  The question remains, can even get in it?

Tiny boat! 

Although I was staying at home to ‘relax’ this weekend, that didn’t mean I was just going to sit in my house and drink tea, especially not as Friday brought the best weather for ages, coinciding with a climbing evening.  I toddled off to Roseness and found Don on his own so at least between the two of us, he could lead and I could belay and second.

 Looking from the crag to Copinsay

Don leads

  Don leading the VS route

I hadn’t climbed in so long that at first I could barely remember what to do! However, with a bit of gentle reminding, I was fine.  The midges were biting hard in the shade under the crag so belaying wasn’t too much fun! We climbed 3 good routes, the last one being really tough at the top with a peedie overhang to negotiate.  Despite being totally out of practise, I managed to get up and to collect all the gear too.

This week is Stromness Shopping Week (like a gala week) so on Saturday we were asked to play an exhibition polo game in the Stromness Basin.  Using our beautiful homemade goals and several hundred metres of rope, we managed to create some kind of ‘pitch’.  The sidelines were to be imagined!

Preparing for the match 

The regular players had not played for several months, some had not played in years and others had never played at all.  It was a good mix but a great bunch.

Hairyaker on the ball

Dodgy shooting from Northern Kayaker

Evil Kevin

I got shoved in and for some reason could not handroll, my legs just seemed too straight in the boat.  I had flung my paddle away and for some reason I thought the others were miles away so I bailed.  I was not happy.

The other laugh at my handrolling!

 Swimming!

We had a massive audience for the game(s) and were told later that there had been quite a lot of interest from people watching.  Since we normally play in a pool, people don’t often get to see what it’s really all about!

We kept playing until we were all knackered and after about a couple of hours, decided to call it a day.  Everyone had a had a whale of a time and we suddenly realised that maybe this was a place where we could play outdoors more often.  We finished the day with a free pint in the sponsor’s pub, can’t argue with that!

Next week, Phyllis, the Tall One, the Dirty Hibee and I go to Shetland for the symposium and a lot of fun round the islands.  It’s going to be AWESOME!!

Thanks to Batman and Dool for the polo photos