Long time without update...Living now on a different rythm, time is definitely slower in India ! First arrived in the huge Mumbai(Bombay) where you first encounter its crazy and overcrowded traffic. Bus, rickshaws, cows, trucks going as fast as possible and horning all the time. Clearly happy not to have a car. In the street what is impressive in Mumbai is the diversity of people. Being one of the richest city in India you can see at the same time rich people with cutting edge Iphones, beggars, kids full of dust, disabled people... Quite tiring when you're not used to so much activity. A few days were more than enough and I headed directly to Hampi after a quite uncomfortable night bus.
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| Mumbai streets |
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| Mumbai again |
Hampi is first of all a known touristic places for its temples and laid back cheap guest houses in a beautiful places among millions of pink/orange granit boulders. After 5 month of traveling all the time I decided to stay a couple of weeks overthere climbing on the boulders and enjoying the area. Even if very touristic it is also very peaceful and a perfect place to meet other climbers. And there are many climbers mainly located in the Goan's Corner a huge guesthouse dedicated to well being of foreign boulderers. I stayed a couple of nights and decided to move in a more family size guest house.
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| Hanuman temple, hungry monkey |
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| You want some boulders ? |
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| Old bridge |
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| Lazy tourist fed monkeys |
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| Vitala temple |
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| Vitala again |
The climbing in Hampi is of high quality. Mainly crimpy and very strenuous on the fingers. Of course there are some nice slopers problems and aretes but the style here is crimps. Having a big history of fingers injuries I decided to go slowly here and beside of that I still managed to hurt a couple of them. Grrr.
The climbing potential in Hampi is just huge. Sectors are being developped everywhere and on top of that the rock doesn't need to be cleaned like in Annot. We went as well to an area called Jungli a few km form Hampi where you can find very nice boulders on a huge plateau in a quiet place far from the touristic animation of Hampi. A single guesthouse, Whispering Rocks, has some huts for rent and a delicious food, highly recommended. If you need some info/topo don't hestitate to contact me.
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| Jungli boulder |
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| Roberto in the "Torture Traverse" |
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| Nick warms up |
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| Dyno !! |
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| Alex in Kundalini Rising |
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| Chef du COV stretches |
After this I went to Badami to meet some french friends where we stayed a couple of days and went back to Hampi to make them discover the beauties of the area !
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| Sandwich boulder |
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| Let's go !! |
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| Karembour, nice pool like |
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| Hampi river |
I'll add a new message for Badami a very nice noisy and Indian city where I'm coming back for an entire week to climb one of the best sandstone ever.
