So, on one early Tuesday morning we set off with the climbers consisting of Mr A, Matt, Will, Phil, Tony, Callum, Chris, Joel and Mr Joel's Dad (Andy). After 1½ hours drive we finally got to the car park at Harrisons rocks where we packed up the stuff for the 5-mile walk to Toad Rocks. The weather was, of course, raining so we all put on our waterproofs (apart from Phil who had managed to forget his) and started walking. We held a quick leisurely pace for most of the journey. That is until we reached the sewage works. It STANK so bad, even Mr Alderson, who is usually very hard, thought the smell was disgusting so the pace was quickened as we all held our noses. After passing some "tourist attractions" including the crooked house and the stagnant pool of green slime we got to Toad Rocks. It looked very impressive when we first got there but after a while we realised that there were not that many problems with only about three climbs with good landings. We all did a climb and moved on to Bulls Hollow.

This was a two-minute walk to the old quarry with the slimiest slime in the world. We put up two climbs, Tree Climb 2a and Broken Crack 3b which everyone in the group did at least one of even after being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes.

We packed up and moved on to Happy Valley. By now it had stopped raining as we set off. We walked down and had a look at the crag but an annoying fence stopped us climbing, it was no longer a Seven Outcrops Walk, more like a Six and a Half.

After stopping for lunch and indulging in a bit of tree climbing we moved on to High Rocks Annex, the owners were not in so we did a spot of bouldering. The friction was really good despite the rocks being green and we were all happily climbing away until we heard a scream and saw Phil falling and bouncing down the rock, he had fallen on is shin. Luckily Andy was a Doctor so checked Phil over. Nothing looked broken so we walked on to high rocks continuation with Phil hobbling behind with the aid of his trusty stick.

We climbed a slimy slab that to get off involved balancing on an old log before jumping to safety. Everyone did this apart from Phil who found it hard enough to walk.

While walking to Eridge Green we heard a toot toot, The TWERPS* were driving one of their steam engines under the bridge, so we all ran over and got covered in steam and smoke, it was the most exciting thing on the trip so far. After ½ hr of walking we got to Eridge Green and decided to set up Battlements Crack 5a and Barbican Buttress 4b everyone did either one or the other we packed up and moved to our last destination Harrisons.

Thirty minutes later we had reached the north boulder and climbed there for five minutes before heading off to the car park. We had been on the go for nine hours and were now quite tired so after a long but very good day we were off home.

Chris Powell

*Tunbridge Wells and Eridge Railway Preservation Society