Home, away from home

It’s all done now, time to just immerse myself in the experiences that life has, is and will be creating for me. It took me a while to come around on the idea of applying for British citizenship because it’s not just about being able to stay in a place where I’ve created a life for myself but the full immersion of being a citizen. I am still proud of where I was brought up. Malaysia has given me the street savvy-ness I needed to survive in most civilised places in the world and the diversity in the country taught me respect.

Even though I’ve been in the U.K. for 18 years, I’ve seen and experienced very little of it. This trip away is the perfect way to see new places and experience a little bit more of the country I now called home. As usual, the theme is climbing to begin with and the main objective for me is to visit places that I haven’t been. This, coupled with camping for nearly two weeks made it one of the best experiences ever.

Cheddar Gorge, the name of the place came before the cheese 🧀 remember that! The climbing was good but just a tad more polished than I would like it to be. The feeling of slipping off holds and falling was difficult to overcome since the Dolomites’ fall. Didn’t thought that incident would have such an impact on me and now I know. Time to think about how to deal with this.

When we weren’t climbing, we were walking around the gorge and it was also the one day that it rained for the whole trip. The guys experienced for the first time, make shift poncho using bin bag. It was the only thing I could think of from my younger days playing outdoors and lucky there was a house nearby.

On the way to Cornwall, we stopped by Haytor in Dartmoor where James showed us the placement of gear for trad climbing. That was the bait that pulled me into wanting to learn and do more trad. Both Haytor and Carn Barra, Cornwall were amazing for trad climbing. It gave me plenty of ideas on what I would like to set as my next challenge skillset and maybe how to achieve it when I’m back next spring.

Cornwall coastline is beautiful and impressive as we walked from our camping site in Treverven to Land’s End (8 miles). The walks that we did have been the saving grace for my knees and I’m glad of the hundreds of hours I spent on getting my walking gait right.

The next destination in Cornwall is Padstow, home of one of the best pasties that I’ve ever had and of course, from the world pasty champion bakery. The Camel Trail was amazing for cycling and we detoured from it to get to higher grounds as well. Thanks to Lawrence with his tips on cycling uphill, I managed somehow and felt very good after. With that long cycle under my belt, the next day when we stopped by Haldon Forest on the way to Swanage, I chose to walk instead of joining Lawrence for mountain biking.

Swanage was the last destination for climbing since we haven’t been there before but first, a day off. The campsite was a gem, not on Google map and one of those that we spotted on the way to the campsite we had in mind that was full. Day off was a few miles walk to Wareham Carnival and chill out by the river, slowing the days down even more.

Winspit crags are about a mile walk away from the car park, secluded and a very nice place for a climb and swim. I would definitely like to come back to Swanage for more climbing, both sport and trad.

The last place we stayed in is Gumber Bothy bunk barn in Slindon on the South Down, in the middle of nowhere with no parking on site and the walk to the campsite is a mile and a half. I really appreciate the organisations we have such as the National Trust and International Dark Sky Reserves, providing the serene perfect location to enjoy nature. The last walk we did was some 15 miles walk starting from the campsite to Arundel following the Monarch’s Way.

There was a sense of dread on the way back to London. The congestions, noisiness, bright lights and heaps of people are just some of the reasons for the dread.