Tuesday 29 January 2008

More Like It

The news headlines show the UK being washed away by the floods, but down here it is just plain pleasant, no rain for two weeks and non forecast for the next ten days. Walks around the neighborhood, up into the Esterel hills and along the coast have been interspersed with the odd day on the rock, all in all, nice work if you can get it! Work on Lofoten progresses wall, Thorbjørn will be calling in sometime soon to help me with my Norwegian spellings, on his way to a couple of weeks skiing at Chamonix - its alright for some!

Saturday 19 January 2008

Job Done

That's Northern England put to bed - well just about! Three years of nagging to get Alan interested and two years of steady work, many trips to 'the North' - and we are just about there - its always a nice feeling. I have Lofoten to finish off though that isn't a huge job as I have been working in parallel for the last 18 months - then what - who knows?
We headed down to the coast, had a walk out to the Cap d"Amont and watched the sunset - glorious - and according to the forecast is set fair for the next ten days.

Saturday 12 January 2008

Was it ever different?

Colin and Dave Gregory had a reasonable 11 day trip to visit us, seven decent days, in which we got a heap of climbing done, both in the local area and a little further afield, on a fine mixture of granite and limestone cliffs. The weather has been cool and occasionally showery, and views of the big hills to the north have revealed stacks of fresh snow.
Then just as were were fit(-tish) and fired up we got two days near solid rain - probably the wettest spell of weather ever in our many visits down here. Saturday morning I delivered them to Nice airport, and it was still hammering down - the motorway was just like driving in the UK.
By the time we got back to the pad, the sun was out and the forecast is set fair - sorry about that lads!

Saturday 5 January 2008

Happy New Year

Colin and Dave Gregory arrive on the first day of the year and we had two busy days on the rock before the rain set in! A couple of damp days gave me chance to crack on with Northern England (not long now!) and check the local Decathlon where I discovered three climbing guides I hadn't come across before - including one the are right behind the pad. The lads did a bit of local logging to keep the home fires burning.
During a drier spell we tried one of the cliffs, nice red granite, well-bolted and in a sea-side setting - very pleasant. The weather hasn't been the best - but I have done 20 more routes than I would have in the UK!

And it Continues

Exploring the coast north of Altea February in the Costa Blanca Three weeks on and we are still seeing slow improvements in my stamina, bala...