Deep Water....SOLO and Swimming in a big river with waves

I have wanted to come climbing in Yangshuo since I first heard about the Karst Mountains in Guilin about four years ago. Yesterday that dream became a reality, today was more than a dream come true!

As Susannah and I took off looking for a place to climb today we remembered a place that we had bouldered the day before and a place we had seem some other climbers. The climbers recomended some deep water soloing but from our vantage point the place looked a little dirty and we were a little worried about parasites.

Yesterday's bouldering on an unmarked wall next to a small farm road had wetted our apetites and a morning of hiking with Jialiang (Anthony) and Dainian (Daniel) had made us start dreaming of cool water.

At a climbing guide store the rumors of deep water soloing were confirmed so we mounted our dear little pink "Alice"

town crusers headed off into the afternoon.

Riding down city streets strait backed and feeling like Mary poppins soon gave way to rock filled country roads that took us to some stairs hidden between two restruants. As we decended the stairs we eyed a couple of widely spaced rocks that lead around the corner of the cliff.

Nearby some people on bamboo rafts watched...

I hoped that some of the kids would come over and let us use their rafts as a floating base. I packed my electronic dictionary and passport in plastic bags and twisted the tops as well as I could then we stood on a sunlite rock and tried to figure out how we were going to change into our swiming suits. After deciding that mooning the river traffic might not be that bad of an idea we noticed some men heading our way on a bamboo raft. The were dressed nicely with button shirts and shiny leather shoes.

After paddling over and asking our permission they began to play pocker on our rock. They happily let us use their raft and we (feeling like my boyhood hero Huck Finn) paddled around the corner to take turns changing in a small cave with a hand towl to protect the river folk from viewing more than intended.

Now feeling like a fantasy from a climbing magazine we took turns controling the raft while the other climbed, all the while our excited Chinese hosts cheered us on and played pocker. After a while Susanah, asked if that was my back pack in the water. Looking over I confirmed that it was indeed my backpack floating down the river and we scrambled to reach it before it, my passport and everything else that I didn't want stollen from our hotel room decided to stop floating and dissappear.

We soon discovered that bamboo rafts are not speed boats and also are not extremely manuaverable, at least not in our novice hands. After a diving save of the back back we returned to shore and were greeted by a flock of 8, 12 year old, Chinese boys swiming down the river to meet us.

In a tender mercy the double layer of bags had fully protected my valuables, wich if lost would have been worth every penny!

The pictures will follow when my flash drive starts communicating with my computer.