Gorge du Blavet - never heard of it!

I have to admit, the older I get and the more places I visit, the more convinced I am that we got the sh1tty end of the stick in the UK when they were dolling out the rock resourses - and don't get me going on the weather!

We took a ride up to the Gorges de Blavet, about 30 minutes from St Rafael today, to have a wander round. It looks mighty complicated in the new guide, and it is. though a couple of hours spent exploring the area soon had it sorted out in my mind.

I had never heard of the place and I bet 95% of UK climbers haven't either, 300' granite walls, a sunny side and a shady side, a downhill approach and heaps of great looking routes many in the upper grades.

There is even a sunny beginners' cliff a short distance above the road, a bit of something for everyone really! And is it on the circuit - not a chance!

Then there are the many fine limestone cliffs around Toulon, we have pretty much had to ourselves during our weekday visits - they are at least as good as their vaunted counterparts on the Costa Blanca and a lot less polished too. Have we heard and English voice there - of course not!

Cønnectiøns

Thorbjørn has been and gone! An intense two days of pouring over the Lofoten manuscript looking for Norwegian spelling mistakes on a chugging laptop left me knackered, it is surprisingly tiring just sitting staring at a screen for 12 hours, and sure brings on a quality headache! Long working days lead to late night drinking sessions (just to unwind of course) and 2am is too late to bed for a man of my years!
Thorbjørn was especially impressed with the way we utilised iChat to talk things through and shunt files back and forth, he said he almost expected Alan to be sat there with a big white cat on his lap, controlling his far flung minions! What an odd way to work though - Alan sitting in Sheffield would ask us, sat in the south of France a question about the book, then Thorbjørn would phone Arild Meyer up in Lofoten or Odd-Roar Will sat on an oil rig in the North Sea, and a few minutes later all would be sorted.
Alan is working his magic and the book is beginning to look stunning - possibly the most visually attractive book we have ever done. Even the locals back in Lofoten are starting to get excited - though apparently they have been asking whether we just do guidebooks or are we real climbers too!

Halfway to Somewhere

Seven weeks gone and seven more to go - how time flies, especially when the weather is as good as it has been recently. Apart from a nagging aching wrist that I can't shake off (arthritis?) things have been pretty good, the current almost daily activity is searching the the local hills for wood to keep the stove going! That and walks in the Esterel or along the coastal paths that run in both direction from St Rafeal.
We had a slight shock yesterday when Alan informed me that the binders our printers uses had gone bust - Northern England should have been there this week, though unfortunately (!) there was a last minute delay due to the paper not having arrived from Spain - phew!

Thorbjørn arrives this week for a few days to proof the Lofoten manuscript, Alan has only had it for a few days and already it is looking quite superb. Then Dave Greg is back for another week on the rock - I better get the wrist sorted.
Then of course there is the big question of where to go next - Sherri has no job to go back too - so hey-ho!

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!

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.

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!

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!