Hanging upside down, 25 metres up a rock face I realised that if I fell now I was going to swing about 8 metres down past the jaggedy rocks below...this is supposed to be fun, I thought, a two day journey for this? Then I wondered if I was insured for this kind of malarkey...

We had arrived in Railay exhausted. The trip had involved an overnight bus from Pakse arriving at 5am in Bangkok where we spent a two days sampling the street food (fried grasshopper included) before getting another overnight bus from Bangkok down south to Krabi. Here we waited for an hour at a jetty while some boatmen waited for enough people to make the journey worthwhile.

Despite the boat trip there, Railay isn`t actually an island. It does feels like one though and to all intents and purposes is as it is cut off from the mainland by impenetrable mountains and cliffs. It is a peninsula jutting out from the mainland meaning there are beaches on both the west and east sides. The waters around Railay are dotted with big limestone karsts that tower out of the sea like massive teeth making the whole place look straight out of a film set. The limestone walls and cliffs envelope the beaches and are perfect rock climbing territory and that´s what we had come for.

We signed up to a days guided climbing to get our arms used to hauling ourselves around like the monkeys we are and got a great guide who took us to one of Railay's best know wall areas called 123. This has over 40 climbing routes ranging up to grade 8a, if that means nothing to you that translates as nearly impossible, and go as high as 30 to 40 meters.

Not even trying to climb the next day through sheer arm pain, we went on a diving trip to a place called Koh Phi Phi, the set of the film ´The Beach´. Its about a 2 hour boat ride from Railay and is a huge limestone island with sheer limestone walls protecting and surrounding an inner island with some lovely beaches. We ended up treating ourselves to this day out as a late birthday present and got on a massive double decker dive boat that made the journey to the dive sites and spent the day just floating around using as few muscles as possible.

A few days later, arms recovered, we decided to get on with the rock climbing and signed up for a course in lead climbing. This is different from the normal climbing we do where a rope is already looped through an anchor at the top of the climb. You tie yourself in on the ground and a buddy ties themselves in at the other end of the rope. As you go up, your buddy takes the rope in so that if you fall, you don´t fall far at all...Lead climbing is totally different! This time you actually take the rope with you as you climb, clipping yourself in every 4 or 5 metres as you go. First you attach clips called quickdraws to the wall and once they are in place you feed the rope into the clip. That´s pretty irrelevant and boring I guess but in short, it means that if you fall while trying to put a clip in then it is the last clip that catches you. Further, that, means you can fall way too far to avoid being totally petrified for the whole climb! That means you get a shaky leg that everyone on the ground can see...so you have to claim it's always like that when you climb...

Starting on a different wall from the other day, I tied myself in and looked up the 25 metres to where I was meant to be going. I took a deep breath and started the climb, a few metres up and before the first clip I got stuck on a smooth piece of wall that needed me to cross my legs over to step along a crack at my feet putting me off balance. If I fall now I`m not tied in to a clip and so I fall 3 metres onto a big rock on the ground below. I manage, just, by getting my hand into a fold in the rock high to my left and steadying my feet. I make sure I am balanced and take one hand off the wall and reach for my harness where I have a number of quick draw clips attached. I push the hinge of the clip in and take it off my harness before reaching up to the metal bolt in the wall itself to clumsily clip the carabiner to the wall. It´s in. I reach down again to get a hold of the rope at my waist, my left hand is still clinging to the wall but is getting slippery from the sweat which can´t be remedied until I get the rope in and can reach around for my chalk bag. I lean in close to the wall to give me the best balance and pull the rope up from my waist to my mouth in which I hold the rope before reaching down again to bring more rope up and hopefully enough to reach the clip above my head. My left hand is really starting to lose grip. I pull the rope up and over my head and with one hand position the rope next to the hinge on the caribener clip, I push with one finger against the one way gate while steadying the clip with another. The rope goes in, it feeds through front to back as it should. I shout for tension and the guide tightens the rope. If I fall now, I`m secure so I relax, dip my hand in the much needed chalk and carry on to the next clip...

...7 clips later I get to the top of the wall without falling and clip into the big metal anchor loop at the top.

So what happens at the top and how do you get your clips back you ask? (Well, actually, you didn´t I suppose but we want to remember how to do it so we´re writing it down here!)

So then, at the top you tie yourself directly with a second short piece of rope to the top anchor (a big metal loop). you feed the long rope that is attached to you through the anchor loop as well and then...you untie the rope from your harness. THAT is scary, there are so many ropes that you have to make sure everything is in the right place so that when you untie yourself you are still clipped in directly by the short piece of rope. You then feed the long rope through the anchor loop fully and re-tie yourself back to it again. You really don`t want to drop the long rope just now as if you havent clipped it to yourself properly then you might just lose it all the way to the ground and then you are stranded there 30m at the top, clipped to the wall by a metre long piece of rope. Once tied back in it is time to put your trust in the knot you just tied and you unclip youself from the short rope. Slowly, you lean back and put your weight on the long rope,

it creaks,

IT HOLDS.

You get lowered back down, taking each quickdraw clip with you as you go. Sweating, shaking and smiling.

And if you actually just read that and followed how to do it then congratulations!

Next we created a bit of a routine, taking a day off climbing to do another day of diving. Better dive sites this time and even better as the divemaster knew we were also divemasters and arranged for the boat to drop us off at a totally different point from everyone else so we could see a better site and didnt have to swim with the masses on the boat...

Following this day, climbing the next, practising out new found lead skills by ourselves.

Well, I`m not a big fan of routine but diving, climbing, diving, climbing...that`s one I really don`t have an issue with. A great week, lots of fun climbing and diving during the days and playing cards or going out for the nights with some of the friendly folk we met on Railay all culminating in a farewell night out leaving us tired for the 3 day trip back to Laos and Via Bangkok to see the parents...