One Last Time

With only a week to go we decided to get round the area one last time, a day on the coast path, a day in the hills, a day cragging and day at the seaside.

It had been pretty windy of late, the good old Mistral, but sunny and warm, compared to the Baltic conditions back in the UK we certainly are not complaining. Now it really feels like it is warming up, the trees are greening rapidly and the flowers are out - spring is on the way.

It has been great spending another winter away from the UK, though oddly, apart from two weeks at Climb France (Buis des Baronnais) we have nothing else booked for the year - though I am sure we will find somewhere to go! 

There are rumours of a major shindig in Lofoten - something about the launch of a new guidebook so we might have to head back up there!

Zooming by

Fourteen weeks is zooming by, we are off to ClimbFrance next - must be nearly thirty years since I climbed at Buis de Baronnais and the Dentelles, so that should be interesting. Dave Greg is turning up for a week (EMA - Nimes, £10 return - all in!) so we will doubtless have a busy time.
After that I wouldn't mind a few days in Chamonix, to revisit old haunts, then it is back home to get stuck in to the rewrite of Western Grit.

Comings and Goings

Had a great week with Dave Gregory - only a bit knackering - I think 21 routes in the first two and a half days was probably overdoing things a bit though! The weather was kinder than on his last visit, and doing 30 odd routes (and at 72 and 3/4) was more than we would have got done in the UK. The biggest shock to the sysem was a visit to a limestone crag at Chateaudouble - the guides 25 minute approach tool us over and hour up an interminable scree slope - the climbing was good, but the descent was equally horrible - not sure my knees will ever recover.

Thursday we dropped Dave of at Nice airport and he had an uneventful journey home - jet-setting was never easier. On our return, the fat package in the post box was the brand new Northern England - nice!