Rocklands VI - short and sweet

Yes short post this one as we are working on getting a new car sorted for a few weeks. The Beetle, bless it, has done well but after hitting a very large pothole the other day its been making some really strange noises. If it gives up the ghost whilst we are out somewhere it will obviously not be good and then we may have to wait for days before a mechanic can get out here from Cape Town to take a look at it. With this in mind we decided to pre-empt any blow up event by getting a new car for two weeks or so. This will allow us to get the Beetle off the road for a while before I need to use it to get back to Cape Town at the end of my time here. Makes sense i think.

So aside from car admin on the climbing front its been a good week so far. I fired out No Late Tenders at the start of the week. I thought this was 7c+ not 8a in the end but its such good climbing the grade is not that relevant. I also flashed a cool 7b at the same place called Panic Room. Wednesday we went to some new boulders at the De Pakhuis farm that are set on a rocky plateau. There is some very good sixth grade stuff here but also two superstar problems, an 8a called Black Velvet, and a 7b roof called Minki. I got to work on Minki and got that done in a few tries. It is superb, you climb a tufa feature out of a roof and end up inverted at some points with your head the lowest point of your body. Quite hard for 7b i think.

Black Velvet is a classic new school problem. Very steep rock, you pull on from sitting using jugs, move up to slot, match and fire to biggest of all jugs holding the monster swing. I got quite close but I'm not that great at these big steep dyno probs..i think others more skilled in this field could crush very quickly and i think that's why most say its pretty soft for 8a. Anyway ill have another go at some point because its just so cool looking and holding that swing must be awesome, but its not really my style.

Then yesterday we went back to roadside area. I sent Caroline - wow epic! Really pleased as this was a hard one for me and I just love the movement. Got a vid too so that's great. Then after a calmed down I was going to start trying Nutsa properly but some American guys dragged me up the hill to a hidden cave that I hadn't seen before. Here there are two problems both coming in from the left of the cave moving along the lip. Black Spider (soft 7c), i sent in a few goes, continues following the lip of the cave to the far right side before it climbs a thin wall to top out. Really cool prob and quite pumpy. We then started to work the meaty problem there, this is Green Mamba, it originally got 8b i think but feels more like soft 8a+ i think. You basically do half of Black Spider but then head straight up the middle wall of the cave on steep ground. The crux (about 7c/+ on its own) involves you getting your right heel up next to your hands, sitting on it and then slapping into a horrible little two finger pocket sidepull. Once you have this you rock up high on the heel and slap wildly for a very small edge for your left hand. Get this, bone down, and leap for jugs at the top. Very good, sort of like a steeper and more powerful Brad Pitt boulder prob with a roof section into it. Its hard for me but does feel possible so ill be back for another go on Nutsa and this one next week I think.