Killarney

It's been a while since my last post, as I have been finding it hard to find internet and have also been very busy. We spent 3 nights in the beautiful Killarney, which is situated in County Kerry, Ireland. 

The first day we decided to visit Ross Castle and do a beautiful rowing excursion on Killarney lake. 

The next day we did what we came to Killarney to do, climb Ireland's highest mountain, Carrauntoohil. It is not a large mountain by any means, being only 1038m high, but we also had to somehow get to the mountain without means of public transport or a car. We decided to ride there, climb the mountain and ride back to Killarney. The bike ride was 20km to get to the mountain, and gave our legs a fair working before starting the 14km hike up Carrauntoohil. 

This is the start of the hike to the mountain. The route takes the central gully (just above Tahlia's head), which is named Devils Ladder. 

Here Tahlia is climbing the dirty rotten scree, named Devils Ladder. Apparently it was supposed to be very difficult, and dangerous in the wet, but it was okay. 

At the top of the ladder we were greeted by amazing views. The weather was close to freezing, and the wind was the strongest I have ever encountered, almost knocking us over. As soon as this photo was taken, the clouds swept over us and we continued on our journey to the top with no visibility. 

We arrived on top exhausted, and waited a while, but did not get any view unfortunately. Ah well. The view on the way up was amazing. We walked back down, and faced a 20km bike ride home. Beers were well deserved that night. 

The next day we did the famous Ring Of Kerry on a bus trip, but I have no photos to prove it, so you will just have to believe me. The following day to that we decided to ride the Gap of Dunloe, a beautiful 24km ride through an amazing gap in the mountains near Killarney.

We first had to take a boat over lake Killarney, where we met this beautiful dog named Charlie.

We had an amazing ride through the gap

Finally we finished in a little cottage and had a beer, and than cycled into town and got on our next bus to Ennis!

Cork

Tahlia - After finishing up in Kilkenny, we headed off to the city of Cork. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland, but we headed there to explore it's surrounding areas. The below photo is the view of the city at night. It's a struggle to stay up until dark here, with night setting in anywhere past 11pm.

Our first deviation out of Cork led us to the town of Blarney, famous for Blarney Castle which houses the Blarney Stone. 

The tradition is to kiss the Blarney stone, and it will give you the gift of eloquence. Many famous people have been said to kiss the Blarney Stone, including Winston Churchill. I thought I would give it a go. 

This is the view from the top of the castle, overlooking park of the massive surrounding gardens. 

Matt was far too excited to find a bog in our travels in the garden! 

The following day we took a trip to the nearby fishing town of Kinsale. 

We hired bikes for the day and cycled to Charles Fort, which was built in 1678 and used up until 1922. 

The view on our cycling trip en route to the fort. 

In the distance you can see Kinsale, as well as the fort to the right. 

Next stop- Killarney! 

Kilkenny

Matt - After finishing in Dublin, we caught a train to the medieval town of Kilkenny. Many people, including myself, have heard of Kilkenny because of the beer. Funny thing is, Kilkenny beer is not brewed in Kilkenny. Smithwicks brewery is located in Kilkenny though. 

As with all European cities, the streets are great to explore

The walk through Saint Candice's Cathedral, and the round tower was amazing. The tower is over 30m high, and I highly doubt tourists will be allowed to walk up it in the future. We were allowed though, and the view was absolutely amazing.

We have both found it hard to get used to the long days here. I succeeded in staying up till it got dark last night (11pm) so I could take some pictures of the city at night. Tahlia failed, and fell asleep at 9pm, tskkk, tskkk. Below are some photos from last nights walk

Now I am sitting on the bus on the way to Cork. Bye.

Europe. First Destination: DUBLIN!!!!

Hi there peeps!

Tahlia and I finally made it to Dublin, after some long ass flights. This is Tahlia's first trip to Europe, but she is handling any jetlag well! We are both going to be writing the blog this trip. We will start off writing about Dublin, which is the first destination for our two week Ireland trip, before heading to Germany and Czech Republic.

Matt - We arrived into Dublin (the capital of Ireland) on Monday morning at 7:30am, and with little to no sleep a whole day of sightseeing seemed like a big task! We decided to go for a big walk, while waiting to check in.

Tahlia checking out the beautiful Christchurch Cathedral.                  


We also had a beautiful walk around Dublin Castle

This 121m spire, which has been standing since 2003 helped with city mapping, as our hotel was right near it! Walking in either direction along the river was equally beautiful, so we refused to catch any buses.

What better what to finish our first day at Dublin than to visit the Guinness factory?

The Guinness factory was absolutely hectic. The tour takes you through a crazy touristy showing of how Guinness is made. The part of the tour we wanted to participate in most, was the tasting in the Gravity Bar, which is set high above the city. Watching the nitrogen settle in the glass has become rather mesmerising.

The view from the bar was absolutely stunning, and gave us some idea of what the city layout looked like.

On our second day we went to see the Kilmainham Gaol, which was built in 1796. We did the tour, which illustrated some important history of the Gaol, and also Ireland in general. The below picture shows one of the wings in the prison. 

Tahlia - Our third day in Dublin saw us travel to two ancient sites: Newgrange and Hill of Tara. Newgrange, which is older than Egypt's pyramid of Giza, was constructed around 3,200 BC as a secret passage tomb. In order to hide the tomb, the mound was covered with grass and disguised as a hill. On the right hand side of the picture below, you can see the excavated outer section of Newgrange. 

We got to venture a quarter of the way inside the tomb, and see the ancient markings which signify something of unknown significance. When the tomb was excavated in recent history, only five corpses were found inside, compared to the thousands that were found in other passage tombs. 

Next we stopped at the Hill of Tara, which is an archaeological complex, containing many ancient monuments. Today it appears as a set of hills, but in the tenth century a church, banqueting hall and many royal monuments existed there. 

The photo below shows a small burial tomb, one of many located in the ancient site.

This church was built in recent past in 1822-23, however the earliest church at the Hill of Tara dates back to the 1190's, and no longer stands. 

Around the church lies a graveyard, with headstones that have succumbed to the weathering effects of age. 

On our final morning in Dublin we visited Trinity College (founded in 1592), to see the Book of Kells and the Old Library. The photo below shows the Long Room of the library, which contains many of the library's five million books. It was a special sight to see (and smell!) such an expanse of old knowledge. Onwards to Kilkenny!

Nevis Bungy. New Zealand

I have always wanted to do go bungy jumping, so when I had the chance last November on a trip to New Zealand's south island with Tahlia, I jumped at the idea! HA....Sorry... This jump is Australasia's largest jump at 134m.
Skip the first few minutes, they are kinda boring.

Bungy Jumping, New Zealand from matt schimke on Vimeo.

Serpents Hardest Route!!

I finally managed to send my long standing project at Serpent, QLD about two weeks ago. The route, which was bolted long, long ago was dubbed Pandora's Box and given a grade of 27+. It took 18 shots to send packing, which is by far the longest I have spend on a route since 2011. I have left the name as it is, because I like it. So here it is!!

 Pandora's Box Sport 15m,  28

The current hardest route at Serpent. Stickclip first two bolts from chossy ledge. Hard pull onto wall, with continual bouldering which doesn't relent until you clip the anchor. Hard the entire way. Originally an old Aaron Jones project, until he broke the crux hold and deemed it to hard for the time. Many years have passed and it has finally seen an first ascent.

FA: Matt Schimke, 27th May

I wanted to write briefly about the effects of projecting in a remote location. Serpent, although not 'remote' is a crag that not many venture too. There are a few reasons for this is, including the slightly longer than most approach (25 minutes), the limited publicity and the old school bolting of most of the easier lines. Because of this, I have been forced to harass people into coming out there with me, which in effect gave most days of cranking at Serpent a negative touch. As much as I had the support of people such as Terry Forbes and Susy Goldner, who would often cancel their own ideal crag day for a day at Serpent with me, it was still an unfortunate situation knowing that the pressure was on for me to tick so they didn't have to come back with me.
I feel this underlying pressure I put on myself actually extended the amount of shots it took, as I would feel nervous that I NEED to send. Funnily enough, the day I sent the route was the day my expectations were limited, as I knew my tendonitis was playing up, and I would need to take it easy. Lewis Templar, director of  Climbing on Sunshine was at Serpent on the day, to film me on Pandora's Box, which worked out awesomely, as somehow I managed to send the route with him capturing it all for the upcoming movie!! Here are a couple of stills from the footage he shot. Get ready for some awesome footage when the movie surfaces.

Here's the really steep and powerful first section off the ledge.

This is the 'rest' before the long crux section which resolves at the anchor. And yes, that shows the steepness correctly

Big lunge to the right sidepull, which has just enough friction to be an enjoyable hold.