well apparently yes-we have had the report several times but this time it looks as though it may be
true-one mile or so outside barnstaple (thats a bike ride) on the braunton side-another
farm based building (very large so google earth will be getting some hits)
my reliable source is always quite cagey about such things but he seems to think the run
up to the 2012 olympics may be responsible for the massive construction-climbing in the
north devon area is fortunate to get another wall to its rapidly growing family of indoor play
places-just as soon as we learn more it will appear on this site
so what about the weather then.......this season-I am mostly thinking....moist-the last time
we were out was a few weeks back at houndtor-it seems that most of south east devon
had the same idea too-
it looks as though houndtor will be losing one of its most regular visitors, as chris will be moving
off “up north” to take up a parish in some small place that is quite near froggat edge-our regular
bouldering man of the cloth tells us that he is much nearer to the crag than he is at the moment-
we wish him all the best and to have a great time-he does however take with him a copy of ndcc
dartmoor bouldering dvd, just in case he forgets what granite looks like after getting used to
limestone-or is it gritstone?
it was a great day that with one exception-I tempted fate with “one last go then”-you should never
say that...I did and paid the price with a fairly hefty downward approach to the ground
after underestimating the middle of “sharks fin boulder” traverse-one right elbow contact with the
the rock and I had to control the language as the rev.chris was still in earshot-a lie down in a dark
room was quite a way off so I settled for coffee and munchies from the “hound of the basket
meals”-interesting drive home though with absoloutely no sensation in my fingers-
on a completely random link-
ROBOT WARS (or kind of......but not really)
after discussing the new iphone software over coffee (does it work...well yes it does) luis said that
he would be reviewing..wait for it....ROBOT LAWNMOWERS!
I offered my large overgrown patch of grass as the test track as...robots and high speed cutting
devices, come on-wouldn’t you?
a few days later, there we were up to our shins in severeal thousand pounds worth of toys and a
man called bob who was keen to show us how his one worked-roll the credits, this is top gear
for grass cutting devices-luis was hammond, bob was may and due to my ability to destroy things
I was clarkeson-
we had to mark out a boundary with a wire that turned out to be a lot more bovver than a hovver
as we bust loads of pegs but were soon able to begin the fun-bob demonstrated his mower with
a shot across the bows with a water cannon which made it run away to its docking “kennel”-that
was a hard act to follow and he soon left luis and I to do our own sensible tests as he had another
demo elsewhere-after more coffee and buns, and as I was clarkeson, it was decided that I would
test out the remote “stop...lifeform detected” sensor by the introduction of the slightly deaf family
cat-luis said that I shouldn’t... just in case- but science must always come first-
well as you can see from the photos, the lifeform detector failed to detect and ended up giving
kitty a reasonably close shave leaving behind a large circular area of buzz-cut cat shavings-
“oh s**t!” both luis and I remarked-
last on the list was the “chav special”-this thing looked like it needed a fat exhaust and a large
sound system-even when we fired it up the sound caused luis and I to take two steps back-it
tore around the garden destoying the grass untill the joy ride ended as all joy rides end..crashing
into a brick wall-the message read “out of border” on the comedy display at the back-”out of
things to kill” more like-job done...toys back in the box then-
NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED DURING THE MAKING OF THIS FILM....no, really...it was a TOY so
please don’t e-mail-the cat is safe and sound back inside with a much better hair do
wot.....not another climbing wall!
Monday 17th march 2008
“ninja turtle”with chris
launching off the mat
tunhill rocks-exquisite lumplets
hot and sunny day...well
that’s summer over then