Guadalest

 

 

The problem with getting back is that everything speeds up and real life happens so quickly you forget to write about your ‘official’ adventures. At least it does for me, but I may get to that.

So I’d already decided that I didn’t want a full day climbing on the Monday. a) my energy  was truly waning and even with belay glasses my neck was still quite painful by the end of the day and b) I needed a bit of time to myself to chill back, gaze at the scenery and pick up some gifts.

Thomas suggested Guadalest being both good for climbing and visiting. It was an ideal choice and made even more pleasant as it was an easy location for John (of the belay glasses) to join us for a couple of routes. We didn’t start gracefully as Thomas swore his way up a ‘warm up’ route which involved some interesting backwards bridging between two ridges  (poor footholds meaning the only way to get up is to place your feet on opposite walls, push and hope friction keeps you up). I  then swore my way up a route which had beautiful moves as long as you didn’t mind the rock crumbling away in your hands and trying to set up an anchor perched two feet above and across from the stable (probably) bolt you are trying to attach your rope to…

John arrived at this point so we set up a top rope and he whizzed up the damn thing in trainers (he has a broken toe!). It then meant however that I could top rope (btw this is when you are attached to a rope that is running through a bolt at the top of a route, it’s easier than leading because you don’t have to clip your rope into bolts on the way up and when you lead your rope and the bolt you’ve last clipped into is normally below you so fall a lot further leading) an unnamed/ungraded route near the one I just led. Teeny tiny pockets in the rock you could just get your fingers into, small but sharp footholds and lots of twisting around – the best fun I’ve had in ages! Thomas finished the climbing by leading and taking a fall on a great overhanging route, I was able to practice my ‘soft catch’ belaying, stepping up the wall to stop Thomas’ fall gradually rather than suddenly  (particularly with the rock quality) and ended up 4ft off the ground.. delighted by praise from John on my belaying though, and Thomas managed to get back on the wall (I had to use some interesting techniques to help/get myself down) and finish the climb. I had a go but didn’t make it, I fell off at the 4th bolt with nothing left to give in any limbs at all! John went up in one rock boot and one trainer…

Lunch at a delightfully rough cafe I didn’t get the Paella I’d been yearning for but had some fabulous Tapas, I then had the afternoon to relax in Guadalest which is a beautifully wierd place. I even managed to find some decent gifts amongst the tourist tat.

Looking down from Guadalest 

After a lovely evening and farewell to the guys at the Orange House (I will definitely be in touch, Inverness I’m warning you in advance…) it was a 4am rise and home to find myself on a tram going through Croydon, in the rain at 10 am on Tuesday. If that sounds like a dreadful come down, don’t worry, I have had a fabulous few days back in blighty. I may even write a ‘personal post’ and possibly even fill in the ‘about me’ bit on this site. Or maybe not, we don’t want to take things to far now….

Last sight of the winter sun

The Ocean and the Orange House

It’s my last day climbing in Spain tomorrow, how did that happen?!

El Chorro seems to far away… we have, to be fair, done quite a bit of travelling in the last few days.

We broke up the drive by stopping for lunch in Granada, a city about which I knew little and expected less, it often being mentioned in the same breath as the dreaded Benidorm. My mistake. Granada old town is truly beautiful, perched high up looking out to Alhambra the vast palace framed by snow touched mountains in the strong sun. Standing up on the square listening to the flamenco guitarist, revelling in some quiet ‘me’ time it occurred to me that this was the only day in the trip when we had done no climbing and spent a little time in other ventures. This is a good lesson for me, I have really enjoyed the company of travelling with a friend, rather than solo, but I really do need proper breaks, for my sanity but also for my climbing, which I will explain later.

Actually this lesson didn’t really occur until later, I was occupied in laughing as someone on the square yelled ‘police’ and the variety of sparkly goods on offer were packed into travel bags at an impressive speed

We drove quite far north to a campsite near Orba as Thomas had friends there, and we had planned to go to a local cliff.

A not brilliant nights sleep, another change of plans and a sore neck meant that I was struggling the next morning. Thomas wisely left me to my own devices, (trying to get my head round some tricky integrations of a harmonic oscillator), drinking coffee. When he had met his friend and found me again I was much readier for the day and we headed back south to a location I had been looking forward to ‘Serra de Toix’.

This is a beautiful ridge that runs out from the the town of Calp into the sea. With the Bernia ridge behind us, Puig Campana behind it and the Ocean in front I could not have asked for a better location to climb.

This was a day for learning: lesson one – an easy climb in the guidebook can be complete bollocks if you personally don’t like the rock/moves/dodgy belay position of some old tatty rope through a hole… I bailed out and let Thomas finish the climb

Lesson two: be prepared to lose expensive kit if it means you (or your climbing partner) getting down safely, especially if you are not the person making the decisions, even if (or especially if) you might have done things differently

Lesson three: if you want to go somewhere or do something in particular then do it, you may surprise yourself

Lesson four: if you are stiff or in pain, accept it, stop, and don’t be a grumpy cow

Lesson three and four are probably the more interesting.. In what could have been a difficult/stressful day I actually managed to pull a 6a climb out of the bag in the one location I had chosen. The Tropical Dreams sector of the cliff is one of the highest areas on Toix and I went up a beautiful section of rock on a climb called Dear Renata, looking out over a setting sun, before having to end the day as belaying had started to send white pain down my neck.

A very low moment in the week was saved by a gorgeous walk,

arriving at the Orange House (this is the morning view!),

meeting new climbers (Paul and Simon win for giving my pastries!) and being lent belay glasses by the legend John.

Belay glasses look hilarious, two prisms enable you to watch your partner without straining your neck and those plus ibuprofen saved the day. We got to spend today at the Ojo sector in Sella, another truly stunning location that will have me returning to Spain again.

My climbing was not so successful and I have to accept we are at the end of the trip and I am getting to the end of my reserves.  Tomorrow will be the last full day and the plan is to make an early start and just climb hard in the morning. . We’ll see. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m going to my little attic bed in the bunkhouse and settling down for a deserved nights sleep

 

Where the hell did November go!

I’ve just finished writing a 9 page assignment on Quantum mechanics.

And with that I’m not going to apologise for a lack of any updates, my last post was November 8^th and now it’s the 28^th, which is a week later than I intended, but it’s been busy folks.

There are so many little stories to tell of the last three weeks; turning up to the Garbage 20 Years Queer gig in Brixton to discover that my tickets were for the day before – but getting in anyway, getting a job for January (I probably will go into that one in more detail later), taking my nephew to Beaver Water World (best. name. ever.) – they appear to have one Beaver (they also have an awesome reptile house of rescued ex-pets, if you’re ever near Biggin Hill make a detour), meeting so many friends I didn’t have to cook for myself for a whole week! (my wallet and my weight are both suffering), watching my folks wallpaper a giant woodland to my lounge wall, discovering that my Open University Quantum Mechanics assignment was actually two assignments – one due a week earlier than I thought and the other being a lot more bloody difficult than I thought, knitting projects, spraining my wrist whilst delivering first aid to an Annie doll, oh and the training plan….

The training plan is going to involve a separate and more detailed post when I get back, possible a video and the start of some interesting new adventures. As a quick summary, on the way back from the Peaks trip (see earlier post!) Gemma and I were listening to a climbers training podcast in her car (she has an sd slot in her car radio – how cool is that! and had downloaded a bunch before we left). I wanted to download a couple because I kept talking over them and signed up to the website. The website sent me the first week of their endurance training plan, which looked pretty good. And Gemma bought the rest of the plan that evening. Thus the training schedule began.

For me climbing is the epitome of afreebean, the idea of looking up at a mountain, seeing a ridge leading off into the distance and going ‘I’m going to see where that goes’. ‘Training’ as a climber is just about enabling myself to gain the skills I need in order to do the things I want to do. And, well I’ll leave this for later as it’s led my nicely into the introduction to my next adventure.

Since the last post I have gained a new climbing buddy (which is a bloody miracle considering the amount Gemma and I have been doing), who as it happens is also free over the next couple of weeks so (although I’m gutted Gemma can’t come, sorry sweetheart) I’m off climbing in Spain. Tomorrow. Ha ha ha ha ha.

I’m still laughing.

I can’t help it. This trip has been booked in the space of about three weeks, in fact since the last post. When I said ‘I want to climb somewhere warm’ and someone said ‘Costa Blanca!’ (someone else said Portland but I was aiming for a couple of extra degrees) I discovered, with a high level of embarrassment that I knew nothing about Spain. I’m exaggerating slightly, I knew it had Tapas, Sangria, Barcelona (they have a good football team), Madrid (maybe also football), Portugal attached, my sister loves it and it’s sort of square shaped and further south than France…. That is pretty much it, sum total knowledge. So as I knew more about rural Myanmar than a major European country I thought I’d visit!

Well Kalymnos is a bugger to get to….

I’ll update you with the plans from Andalucia – sweet dreams!