Boredom then Spain

Four weeks of sitting around being bored, can’t climb as wrist is injured, no money to go anywhere, just me, the laptop and the t.v. Relief was in the wings in the form of Yvette’s birthday present, a trip to Kalymnos. Only thanks to XL airways going bust this was canceled with a week to go. Luckily we were covered and we spun the dice and picked a new destination; Spain!

Rodellar Village, perched on top of the gorge

This was going to be Yvette’s climbing trip of the year and we flew into Barcelona, jumped into the smallest hire car available and started out tour. First stop Catalonia and the caves of Santa Ana and Santa Linya then Rodellar with its steep gorges and wildlife. Then finishing off doing the touristy thing in Taragon: so here we go, a few sound bites of Spain.

Architecture: Rolling hills, medieval fortified villages, all with their church spires watching for marauding Moors. Some with castles perched right at the top. But this is where it goes wrong. The Spanish aren’t very good with their planning regulations, often after hiking up to look at the imposing castle you find a nasty little red brick house stuck on the end and any deteriorating brick work daubed with cement. Rodellar was better, being in a national park they at least ensured all new buildings where built out of the local stone and came with traditional features.

Some of the Wildlife of Rodellar

Food: Spanish food is generally simple and easy to prepare, eating at the social clubs we gorged on deep fried squid and octopus, chorizo and other sausages, cheese and ham. Unfortunately if you’re on a budge this is often where it ends, after a few days of deep fried Squid, only to find on the fourth you have ordered it again because the new item on the menu was just Squid, but written in Catalonian, not Spanish.

Olive Groves of Catalonia

Tourists: Am pretty sure for the first stage of our holiday we were the only tourists the village of Castillonroy had ever seen. We had the Alberg all to ourselves and we met with blank stares from the locals. Although to be fair as soon as we appeared lost the redirected us to the interesting sights of the village.

Village of Catalonia

Student: How much is it to look around that bit of old ruin? The bad part of cities, you have to pay to see anything that is worth seeing. At least in the countryside it’s all free. I managed to get around this with my local mountaineering club card, which usefully doubles as a student card. At least it does if you are Spanish and can’t read much English.

Climbing: There is so much rock in Spain that needs climbing. All around Santa Linya are amazing cliffs, often we would have the whole crag to ourselves on some of the most perfect routes I have ever done. Rodellar is more, but much more popular, unfortunately this means a lot of the easier routes are polished. The hardest bit was often just getting off the ground. But new routes meant there was always something great to climb.

View from our Hotel in Taragon

Wildlife: No were else in Europe have I seen so much wildlife, Rodellar was packed with birds, butterflies and even a snake with coursed through the river after small fish. At times when you looked up you could see up to twelve vultures circling around the thermals, mostly Griffin Vultures, but, I am pretty sure I also saw a Golden eagle as it swooped over us.

The Beauty of Spain

Team Spain
Being a climbing bum is great fun, you go to some of the most beautiful places in the world, hang around with honest and interesting people and get to do cool things all day! Being stuck in the flat back in rainy England isn’t so much fun. Trying not to die of boredom seems to be my sole preservation. I have managed to survive by a combination of coffee in town, reading a massive biography of the revolutionary idealist Che Guevara, making bread and the odd trip to the climbing wall. So when my text plea to friends was answered by Adrian saying there was a possibility of a place in Jane’s hire car for a trip to Spain for a week. I was a dead cert!

Rodellar Village

Terradetts Multipitch

The trip was put together by Martin and a team of Southern Sandstone climbers, most of whom I had met at some point. Me and Jane where to fly from Bournemouth (which is actually really easy to get to from Guildford), hire a car and join them in Rodellar in the foot hills of the Pyrenees. This would have been a great plan if it hadn’t been raining for a week across the north of Spain, all the crags where soaked and the river which you have to cross to get to most of the climbing was a thundering torrent. As a result our stay was brief and we headed over to Terradetts further to the west. Although still damp the cliffs where much quicker drying and on our third day in Spain we explored some of the massive multipitch options. Jane and I opted for Smokin a 7 pitch 215 metre 6b route, the climbing was delicate to say the least and with some juicy run outs which really tested my nerves, I only really started to relax and enjoy the climbing once the crux pitch had been lead and we neared the top. I had to make a mental note to myself not to do multipitch for a while.

Castle in Terradetts Valley

Lake of Terradetts

Our accommodation was at cheap refuges which provide dorm accommodation and an evening meal, although nothing fancy it keeps you going and the beer and coffee is cheap. After our day of multipitch we travelled further afield to check out the new climbing area of Santa Linya, this area, slowly being made famous by the attention of some of the world’s top climbers is gradually being developed and is certainly an area to look out for in coming years, offering routes of all grades.

Fording rivers in Rodellar

I feel I need to inject a bit of excitement into this trip, but there is little to add. The areas we travelled through where of extraordinary natural beauty. Steep gorges, snow capped mountains, valleys with eagles and vultures circling beneath you. I hope my photos do the area justice. On our return to Rodellar the end of the week the rock had dried and river subsided. This village on top of a steep gorge boasts some of the hardest climbing in Spain on steep pocketed limestone. To access many of the crags we forded the freezing river, the longer fords numbed your feet. We stayed at a new refuge, being built by a dreadlocked Swiss guy, Kalandraka was aimed completely at the climbing market, by far the cheapest place we stayed it had a lively atmosphere. If you are heading in that direction please stop and check it out.

Enough of this little excursion, I wish I had more to add, but that’s the way some trips go.