Mercian Mountaineering Club

Hi everyone,

It's that time of year again. I've just booked flights to Kalymnos for myself, Vicki, Tom Morris and Luke Perry. The itinerary that we've gone for is flying Jet2 departing Manchester Airport on Wednesday 14th October at 09:45, arriving in Kos at 16:00. We'll then grab a taxi over to the dock at Mastachari and hop on the ferry to Kalymnos. The return journey departs Kos at 17:00 and gets in to Manchester at 19:30 on Wednesday 21st October. Flights cost us about £330 including a 22kg check-in bag for your gear (when split between 2 people).

Several people said they'd be interested in meeting us there and to keep everyone in the loop - hence this thread.

So long as you find accommodation in Massouri, you won't be far from where we are staying, it's a small one street coastal village with loads of places to stay. We'll probably rent motor scooters once we are there so we can climb at some of the more distant crags in different sectors of the island. But you could equally spend the whole week climbing local to Massouri and on Telendos Island, neither of which require a scooter.

It'd be great to get an even number of climbers so do your best to pair up. It makes your accommodation more cost effective too if you buddy up.

Stew.

Awesome, i'm in, i'll look at flights. H

Great! Count me in!
Anta

Stew, what's the reasoning behind going Weds to Weds? There's a few people considering Sat to Sat, myself included...

Hi Beth, it's just convenient with flights and departure/arrival times. The flights I've selected leave at a very reasonable time of morning and will still get us onto Kalymnos that night. If a flight arrives too late in Kos you won't be able to get on the ferry that night and will need to spend a night on Kos. The return flight is at 5pm which gives us a nice relaxing last morning on Kalymnos (sleep off those hangovers, take a swim) before departing, nothing is rushed.

And it fits in well with Naomi's wedding which is on the Saturday before.

To go Saturday-Saturday you might find flights only go from Gatwick or Stansted and at ungodly hours. That said you might find some that are suitable. Whatever works for you really. I know that not everyone will do the exact same dates, I think Rich Greaves is overlapping with us for 2 or 3 days - I think he may be doing a Saturday-Saturday itinerary.

This amazingly coincides with my two fixed weeks of annual leave...how can I say no! Will look into flights

Hi guys,

I have just booked flights for little P, Fran and Me with the details shown below, the costs were £62.00 on the way out and £31.00 on the way back. Luggage was around £20.00 both ways. Feel free to forward on any questions which you may have.

Saturday 10th of October with

easyJet Flight 8795
London LGW
15:10
Kos KGS
21:10

Returning on the Wednesday 21st of October with

Aegean Flight 223
21 Oct-Confirmation no. 8LC6ZW
Kos KGS
11:55
Athens ATH
12:50

Aegean Flight 602
21 Oct-Confirmation no. 8LC6ZW
Athens ATH
13:30
London LHR
15:30

Blimey, £31 on the way back for two flights! That's impressive. I just found last night that you can buy Easyjet flights with Nectar points so you might find you can actually get it for free. You're going to have to be prepared to run though if you've only got a 40 min turn around in Athens.
Looks like this is turning into a full on meet now.

Officially booked, yaay!
I've gone for..

Outgoing:
Wed 14 Oct, Manchester - Kos (as per Stew & co)
£97 (incl. luggage)

Return:
Wed 21 Oct, Kos - Athens - London Heathrow (as per Pierce & co)
£78 (incl. luggage)

(NB - Easyjet flights only on Sat/Thurs)

also booked! With Ned and Anna. On the same flights as Khyati I believe x

Cool. Does this mean you are going to be going out and buying some nice shiny gear? It's best to get a 70 metre rope as some of the routes require it abroad. Have you got accommodation sorted yet?

Looking like it's gonna be a good one Seems like we got stung on the flights though Stew, maybe we should have waited!

Yeah, but you can never tell as sometimes you wait and the cost just goes up. It's a shame but hey ho.

Not looked at accommodation at all yet but open to suggestions and grouping up. If there are any big houses/apartments that could be good.
Ned and Anna have a rack and rope but don't know how long their rope is...

A 60m will be ok too Beth. Most routes in the guide book tell you if they require a 70 and they are the minority. And there are loads of routes that can be done with a 60m.

This is the guide book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kalymnos-guide- ... bing+guide

The author is really good at keeping a word document with all new routes put up since the book's publication on the website.