Hello, just back from a weeks hols in Rhodes, and before I go any further - I did ferk all bouldering while I was over there.. but it may be an interesting location for anyone planning a sunny island/beach/culture/souvlaki holiday with the odd bit of bouldering thrown in...
From what I saw (and have read - a little) Rhodes seems to be made of mainly limestone - ranging from tottering flakey choss to superb hard top quality climbing rock. Some of the larger faces/eposures sadly looked like ignimbrite (by my uncultured eye) which is sawn out by the locals to build things with - so its not very hard and too friable to climb on. BUT, theres quite alot of possibility around.. theres some info here
http://www.rodosclimb.info/ but it seems to mainly be for sport not bouldering... Some of the blocs I tried were uber sharp (its not far from Kalymnos renowned for its sharp holds so no surprises I guess) but a couple were beautiful clean marble..
Of note, were at the end of the (superb) beach at Tsambiki, was a large bloc with a beautfiul clean overhanging face.. there was a superb looking obvious line up the centre - which had a couple of small crimps and sidepulls before a long move for a jug(ish) c.1m below the top.. I got no where near it - but what a bloc.. Grade? 7 something? (im shite on lime..) there were a few other blocs around in the undergrowth.. but lunch got in the way of any more exporation
behind the (very pleasant) small beach of Stegna, there was a hillside full of boulders, mini-crags all pretty easy to wander around... I would eat fiends red camo hat if there wasnt anything here to go on... theres a small bloc at the end of the beach with a few 5's on it to play around on..
I suspect its too bastard hot from mid/late may to mid sept - but outside of peak and summer, its like most Greek Islands a great place to be. Pretty cheap, very friendly, safe and easy to get by. Lunch was typically 4-5E for a Gyros and a beer, and the hire car was 25E a day.. (50 in peak time)... As I said at the beginning, its wasnt (doesnt appear yet) a bouldering holiday location but if you're after somewhere to go for a week with family/partner etc.. who are not into climing then it might be worth taking your boots along
I'd love to see that line up that bloc get done...
