A short stay here but a welcome return to climbing after a week of touristy stuff. The landscape was stunning with green rolling forested hills and very friendly locals. It took us three drive days to get here from the Argentine border and as this region is very urbanised we found bush camping rather difficult. One night we found a football pitch to camp our tents but the following we just camped in a car park of a truck stop. As you can imagine trucks were coming and going all night so did not get much sleep. There were 19 people on the truck for this drive which meant a serious reduction in drive day sleeping space, people were strewn everywhere trying to catch up on their 40 winks.
In Bau we stayed in a mountain refuge clearly designed for climbers. This had a kitchen so was a great place for my next cook duty which id been partnered with Kirsty for so could show her the ropes. Better still there was a huge artificial bouldering cave adjoining the refuge which meant compulsory training before dinner!
We climbed at two venues from the refuge. The first day we climbed at a single pitch granite venue with very hard for the grade climbs. Was pleasant enough for an afternoon but the sharp granite crystals seriously hurt the finger tips. The next day we went on a bit of an adventure with the aim of climbing a long seven pitch on Ana Chata. Finding the bottom of the route was the first challenge. The mist had descended over night and we couldnt see the rock. After losing the path we went on a great jungle bashing mission to get to the rock with me practicing the skills id learnt in the Indonesian jungle to try and avoid getting bitten by nasties.
We eventually found the base of the route and were rewarded with a wonderful route with lots of trad climbing and lots of run out pitches (Brazilians seem to like sportingly bolted climbs) with plenty of exposure on the last pitches 120 metres or so up. From the summit we had a great view of Pedra de Bau which looked a bit like the sugar loaf in Rio. The descent involved scrambling down through caves and across exposed terraces and was lots of fun before reaching the jungle just as it got dark and a little but spooky. Jon had a close encounter with a large snake hiding in a brick wall on his way back down, Im still waiting with baited breath to see my first snake.
It was with some reluctance that we left the Bau refugio, however it wasnt all bad as we were heading for surely on of the highlights of the trip - Rio de Janeiro
For photos please see below
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150390875373780&set=a.10150371029028780.357348.501123779&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10150371002108780.357341.501123779&type=1
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