Day 112 - Experienced Eye

pose # 1

Well, the climbing gods weren't smiling on us today.  In fact, I think they were weeping...

The weather forecast looked good at 8am this morning...the Peak District would be cloudy, but dry until mid afternoon, when there may be scattered showers. 

Sure enough, during the long drive north, the weather stayed grey, but more or less dry, and damp at worst.   It stayed that way for the first 95 miles of our 98 mile journey anyway.

At mile 96 it started to spit with rain...
97 miles done, and I had to speed up the intermittent wipe...
98 miles...pissing it down!

We decided to take a walk along the crag on the off chance it wasn't too bad, but the rain just got heavier and heavier, and it was immediately clear we wouldn't be climbing outdoors today.

However, we did get to look at the crag with 9 months more experienced eyes than last time we were here, and found it tantalisingly attractive, and we collectively vowed to return at the earliest opportunity.

I noticed a curious phenomena today...

Jezz (he of the finger) is an extremely good photographer.  With my newly informed photographers eyes (my eyes are going to get tired of all this new stuff), I found an appreciation for his photographs that I otherwise would not have been aware of...most impressive!

Anyway, the point is, Jezz has a thing about posed photo's, and talks about capturing the moment...and his fairly extensive portfolio of portraits reflects this realistic style.  

But he can not help himself posing whenever a camera is pointed at him. 

Here is an example:

pose # 2

And once again with the finger:

pose # 1 (variation)

But I digress...

Our day out in the Peak thus consisted of 2 hours on the motorway, a drive through Sheffield City Centre (long story to do with motorway services...), a 20 minute soaking ramble along Burbage North, then a long drive home. 

In order to save the day, we popped in to our favourite bouldering centre in Loughborough on the way home, and bouldered for a few hours...and now everything hurts!

So the day wasn't entirely wasted, by any means!

B-)