Swanage, Dorset - Also known as The Beach Boys Saga!

This is the second part of my sea cliff odyssey this year it was meant to be a trilogy, but like Douglas Adams my numeracy is a little bit on the dodgy side!

Anyway, Swanage is a superb venue for a weekend's summer climbing with vast amounts of sun-kissed limestone by the sea!

So, what's there for you? Well there are routes of all grades, but to get the most out of this meet you really need to be able to climb VS (at one end of the rope anyway), as this is the starting point of the best routes. In the area there are so many quality routes that its hard to pick out some that grab the attention, at VS Freda and Old Faithful are the obvious *** routes, in the HVS range why not try Lightning Wall, Fraggle Rock, Finale Groove The Golden Fleece or perhaps the pick of the crop, Behemoth.

In the higher grades there are at least as many *** routes, Mars and Elysium stand out at E1, Gypsy and Buccaneer at E2, and Soul Sacrifice at E3.

So, where to stay? I'll be camping at Tom's Field (which does have facilities such as showers), which is near to the village of Langton Matravers, from which you can easily walk to any of the crags or most importantly, the pub! Of course if this seems all a bit to stressful there are also some superb beaches in the area which you could take advantage of (or use to soothe the ego if you find the routes a bit nasty!).

As for the weather well... I'm picking up good vibrations; she's giving me excitations, good, good vibrations....