Rai Lay rock-climbing

Surprisingly it was pouring with rain when we arrived in Krabi, but I got the local taxi to Ao Nang and then a longtail boat to Rai Lay beach. I hadn't realised there was a separation between Tonsai (where I was meeting the others) and Rai Lay, so I ended up wading through water and clambering around some cliffs for a little extra adventure on arrival! Despite the weather, I was amazed at just how beautiful this place is.




I climbed a couple of routes that afternoon with Dave & Patrick, and was surprised to climb reasonably well considering it's been so long. There are some areas with huge overhanging rocks so the rain doesn't affect them too much. We're staying at some pretty basic but quite fun bungalows on Tonsai Beach.


Day 2 I climbed with Philip, Dave & Patrick at "1-2-3" wall over on Rai Lay East beach. (There are several walls spread over about 4 beaches which are all easily accessibe...loads of variety in grades so there's something for everyone!) I climbed pretty well again, total bonus because I was expecting the first few days to be quite frustrating until I got some confidence back. The rock is superb though, with loads of excellent holds and some really fun climbs.




The third day the boys were having a day off so I climbed with Warwick, Michelle & Steve at an AMAZING area called Thaiwand Wall - an enormous rocky outcrop hanging right over the sea. It was incredible, and I climbed really well so was very pleased with myself! I did my first lead climb outdoors (grade 5 which is easy but you have to start somewhere!), and then top-roped some 6A, 6A+ and 6B climbs, none of which I thought I'd be able to do within the first week.


We went through a huge cave with head torches, which came out at another beach called Phra Nang. After an extremely refreshing swim and some fresh pineapple on the beach, we were able to walk back through to Rai Lay East, across to R.L. West, and over the 'jungle path' back to Tonsai. It was a superb day.




Day 4 the sun returned. Warwick & I rented a double kayak and paddled out to an island about 45 minutes away. Around the back we found some spots to do a bit of "deep-water solo-ing", which basically involves rock-climbing off the boat up some cliffs, as high as you like or can manage, and then jumping into the sea...great fun! We found a nice beach which nobody else was at and did some snorkelling (I borrowed gear from PD & Dave). It was magical - the coral wasn't so good as in Australia, because most of it was destroyed by the tsunami last year, but the fish were spectacular...thousands of them all around us. Kayaked back and had a lazy-ish afternoon exploring a bit of the Rai Lay beach area, and then met the others who had just finished climbing. There was a beautiful sunset over the cliffs & beach as we headed back to Tonsai.




Yesterday I went for a run on the beach in the morning (it's not very long so I did a few laps but it gets kind of boring!), and then joined PD & Dave for climbing at "The Nest". We did 3 routes in the morning, but I didn't climb nearly as well as I have been - aah, back to reality :) Just felt quite tired and my arms seemed a bit dead from the previous days. Time for a day off I reckon! Had a relaxing afternoon and then all met up for dinner and a few drinks later on.


So today I decided to rest from climbing (so have the others but they've rented a boat for half a day to go snorkelling and swimming again)...I went for another few laps of the beach this morning but it got hot pretty quickly! Back for a shower and I just walked over an extremely overgrown path that Dave discovered yesterday to get to Ao Nang (takes about 1hr 15mins but everybody takes the longtail boat for 60 Baht and even some of the locals don't seem know about the path!). I'll probably get the boat back later but am going to explore around Ao Nang (which is pretty small so won't take long), and maybe write some postcards etc. Then I'll probably get the boat back and meet the others for dinner tonight. Then I'll hopefully be ready for some more fun climbing again tomorrow :)