Climbing and Looking for Somewhere to Live

After our weekends climbing at Three Cliffs Bay, we decided to climb at the next place up the coast. We found a space that was free and realised we could have parked there for both Three Cliffs and Tor Bay. This is where we spent the next two nights and in-between climbed at Tor Bay.

We climbed a couple of routes on Little Tor and then made our way out and around the Great Tor, where we planned to climb at Odin’s Wall. We gave this a miss, and had lunch as we watched the tide close in again. This time though, instead of walking out, we decided to climb out up the Great Tor.

This is the Gower’s longest route at 71m. It’s graded severe in the book and I think the start is definitely in that grade. An obvious crack, with some positive hands and polished feet start the climb in a good way. The gear was bomber! I seconded as I have all this time, and had a large bag on my back which made me a little untidy going up. But I really enjoyed the route.

At one stage you step out on the arete, opening up the exposure, and looking down watching the tide crashing in as it swallows the rocks below. It’s a good fun route with some easier sections. The walk off was pretty polished and grassy! I always hate shit walk offs, although once on the top it was another amazing view.

I remember looking at this route when we were here years ago, and thinking I would like to have a go. At the time I’m not sure if I’d even done a multi pitch climb? But it’s stuck in my memory, so it’s nice to have it ticked.

One thing I can’t deny is how amazing all the views are! Everytime we get to a new place we can’t help but drink in the views! It’s an amazingly beautiful place!

Unfortunately the next couple of days the weather decided to ruin our plans, so we headed into Swansea for a look around. A plus for me was a comic shop!! I love having a look around a local shop!

We stayed the night at dunvant RFC, it was basic but comfortable. At £12 for the night it was perfect for us. We sorted the van and had a drink in the club house that night. Everyone we met was super friendly, and the choir that was drinking that night got together and sung Jess a happy birthday, which was really good and a nice surprise!

The next day we sat at a crossroads, with the rain continuing do we go home, somewhere else, or stick it out. We decided to stick and drive to the end of the Gower at Rhossili. We walked to the Worms head as the weather eased. We looked through all the rock pools and reached the head, but stopped when I saw something bobbing in the water.

It turns out this Isle is a bird and seal colony, so we stopped to watch a few seals bobbing up and down in the water. There was a few lying around on the shore too. It’s amazing to watch these animals in their natural habitat.

Considering that we had been on the cusp of leaving it seemed that we made a good decision to stay.

We decided to park in the same spot as we had the first two nights. As I’ve said before, there aren’t many places to wild camp on the Peninsula. The next day looked good and we headed over to Rhossili again, this time to sample some climbs. We started on the upper cliffs and climbed an interesting grade 5 route.

Luckily this shared a bolt with a 6a route. We top ropped this, and it felt good to be testing myself on something a little harder, but with the top rope safety net. It’s funny that 6a isn’t even that hard, but with the effort of this as I got to the ground I could feel my hernia pushing and a pain in my abdomen and groin. It’s mad that this tiny little tear is basically stopping me living my life how I want.

We headed down to the beach after this, as the tide was out. Its great to see that there has been a bit of development in sport climbing here in the lower grades, this will no doubt draw more climbers and tourism to the area.

The wierd thing is that each of the climbs start wet, due to the limited tide window. As well as this the first parts are full of barnicles. It’s different to anything I’ve climbed before.

Unfortunately, a common occurrence with these staycations is the rain. It stopped play again. We rushed off the beach and up to the van. This time we decided that we would head home rather than sit another day waiting out the weather.