(Early July) Well I don’t know..all I can say is that motivation is at present it’s a bit low. My body feels tired and injuries seem more prevalent and nagging, the weather is too warm, the tides always seem wrong and the roads are getting busy. August is approaching and I hate August in Cornwall!… maybe I can get down to Mullion Cove and finish off a problem that has now taken half a dozen sessions. It’s not even hard, just too warm etc etc. Today though the tides are right and it’s not that warm, although it is humid. The dog sits next to me…he stinks and has fleas, he hates the summer as well. So am I any closer to understanding the slump in motivation, well the above is a start, it may also be doubts about the problem, the doubts that I have in creating new boulder problems, in spots that are at best esoteric. Mullion is accessible at least, very close to a car park and a cafe that does a mean cream tea and it has a unique walk in, via a 15 metre tunnel. It has at least a dozen problems on pretty solid hard rock. So what’s the catch, maybe the tottering choss that sits brooding above the main problems, maybe its the odd tourist that discovers the secret tunnel and comes to watch…maybe I just need to try harder!

11/07. Several days later and another session at Mullion, I think I’ve reached the end of this little period. I’m done with the place. There is no sit start to ‘serpentine’ or at least there hasn’t been on my last four visits, it’s been  buried under pebbles on each occasion. This makes coastal bouldering really frustrating at times, still I did add two other stand ups on the same area of rock. All three problems finish on the same hold. The middle problem is easiest, the left bit of wall climbing is quite hard and quite technical, 7A-ish I imagine.

I’ve put in some time at this spot and I have to now admit that it’s not quite as good a spot as I hoped. It’s a lovely spot though, I’d recommend it to anyone. It also has some very hard projects. The steepest, baldest, roof prow, that I’ve seen, which does have holds and I can imagine it being climbed. The catch, it only dries out late afternoon, evening time and needs a low tide.

Now I feel able to turn my sights to some other small and meaningful rock.