Wandering Northwards

The time finally arrive when we had to pack the car and leave Ariège, sad faces all around, especially the cats - and us! We headed up to the Buis de Barronais area to stop for a week with Craig and Vicki  Entwhistle at their place Les Air du Temps which turned out to be great, nice and central and very well appointed. The unsettled weather that has plagued most of Europe continued - with snow on the top of Mont Ventoux but we managed to dodge the showers and get four days climbing in.
Monday caught us out, we had forgotten it was a Bank Holday and the cliffs were packed - plus all the shops were closed - hey-ho!

After a great week it was back on the road and up to Chamonix. Thorbjørn has a bought a small place (and very nice) in Les Bossons for when he is guiding in the area and kindly offered it to us - which turned out to be quite brilliant. Just on the edge of town, nice and quiet plus with spectacular views.

The bad news is that is is Half Term week in the UK and ferries are full (Zeebrugge to Hull) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so we either need to leave in a couple of days or stay for more than a week - decisions!

A couple of hours later and decisions made, ferry booked - homeward on Wednesday - gulp!

Boulder Bash

A year and a day since I was up at the Orlu Boulders with Colin, last year it was 35C and this year it was 16C - a bit more like it!
I did 20+ problems (all easy ones of course!) and thoroughly enjoyed it - a cool breeze off the snowy peaks, the river gushing by, and not a soul about - despite it being a Sunday.
I have never been into bouldering - "playing on small rocks - but it is undeniably a pleasant enough way of spending a couple of hours.
 
Less than a week left in Ariège now before we have to load up the car and head back north. Plans are fluid, we are booked in close to Buis de Baronais for a week, there are several crags in Adian's newish guide to the area that I have never climbed at, so that should be good. After that, may be Chamonix, we'll have to see.
Since we set off for Kalymnos in September we have spent a grand total of six days in the UK - that will be 9 months by the time we get back - wonder if they will let us in?

Summer Time

Above Ussat - heading for the hills

The high Pyrenees from Appy

Back in the Ariège, back in the groove. Island life was great but now it is the quiet rural version, climbing, walking in the hills, keeping the cats company and doing a bit of work. Temperatures have varied between 28C and 6C - weird!

It has been a while since I looked at 'the work' - last year three saw books published in 10 months which was a bit of a grind, but as ever I have started thinking about the next one coming down the line - Eastern Grit Ver III. That will require a return to the UK - but lets not rush into things.
Interestingly we have three offers to visit friends on the way home; Mike and Elaine on the Cote d'Azur, Monty and Hillary in Provençe and Thorbjørn  in Chamonix - choice, choices!

Trains 'n Boats 'n Planes

The month on Kalymnos was great, but the escape was confounded by a strong northerly that blew for 5 days - and is still blowing apparently - so no ferries were running. Then I remembered the high-speed catamaran that runs a daily service from Kaly to Rhodes and sails in wilder weather and so we got away. The flight back to Stansted cost €22 each which is amazing which ever way you look at it. Stansted was a real culture shock - we queued for 30+ minutes at passport control, 20 gates wide and hundreds (thousands?) of people waiting to get into the UK.
A brisk five minutes saw us in the Radisson - another culture shock  - and all a bit posh, I wasn't really sure they would let us in. An early flight to Carcassone (£20 each) then John and Anne whisked us back to Chez Arran - the circle was closed.
Thursday and a quick six routes on Auzat in mint spring conditions - it is great to be back!

The Good Life

We usually arrival in Kalymnos in late September; the cliffs are rammed, it is hot (25C+) and everywhere has the feeling of a desert as is hasn't rained for five months. The place is fully open for business: restaurants,  shops, scooter hire and apartments giving the place has a real holiday resort feel about it. Many folks love it like this but were are more ambivalent - though the snorkelling in the warm Aegean is brilliant.
Being here in the spring has been a really pleasant surprise; it has been a bit showery on occasions, but pleasantly warm, very quiet and remarkably green and flowery. The cliffs are drier than I was expecting - bone dry in most cases. Easter week was a bit busy but nothing like the 'high season' - I think it may become our favourite time of year to be here.
As ever the climbing is superb, I ticked my 1000th route here last week, and the locals are like long lost friends - a great spot to escape the tail-end of the grotty northern winter.

This Sceptered Isle

Ariège > Barcelona > Kos > Kalymnos; the travelling was as easy as ever. Great to be back, it is green and remarkably quiet, we were the only team on Sea Breeze/Pocket Wall yesterday, we thought it might be busy but it is obvious the rush hasn't started yet. The couple of week in Sicily means I still have a bit of rock fitness and thick skin, it was a nice change from the more usual September scenario of extreme heat/humidity, crowds and sore digits!

The weather in the UK looks appalling - even worse than normal - which makes the warm breeze, lapping waves and dry rock a double treat.
Thursday 28th March - not surprisingly quite a few folks have started to arrive - though it is still very quiet compared to 'peak season'. We popped out between the showers(!) and I logged my 1000th climb on Kalymnos (which includes 528 different routes) might be some kind of a record!
Thursday 4th April - a big thunderstorm yesterday allowed the hoards to sneak in under the radar - today was glorious, but were about 75 scooters below Arhi/Ghost Kitchen/Katarina - lots of pale skin and excited people - but they will all be going home soon!

Sampling Sicily

 Two weeks in Sicily meeting a bunch of 'the Grumpies' from Sheffield seemed like a fair idea. We found we could fly cheaply from Girona, an easy three hours from Chez Arran, and there was a spare cabin available on the San Vito camp-site so it was all systems go. Car Rentals UK sorted us a complimentary vehicle with their usual efficiency and the 1st afternoon we ticked 5 easy routes.

In the event it was a great trip, there are around 450 routes within walking distance of the camp-site, the setting is lovely in a really wild corner of Sicily. The place was busier than we were expecting - having imagined it might have been completely deserted in late Feb/early March. The weather was a teeny bit unsettled, though we only actually lost one day through rain. Generally temperatures were fine, the crags dry quickly, access takes minutes from the accommodation, and as the cliffs face west, afternoons climbing were pure pleasure

From the road the cliffs look a bit scrappy, but the climbing was excellent almost without exception, the routes of all grades tend to be steep and the bolting is encouraging. Many of the pitches are very long and a bit on the sharp side - the norm for Med limestone I guess.


In summary - a great spot that deserves to become popular, the combination of sea-side setting, the great climbing, the easy accommodation and superb accessibility sure take some beating. There are 'only' around 600 routes in the area at the  moment - compared to Kalymnos's 1700 - but that is a great starter.
Top marks to Jim and Scott Titt plus all the other equippers have done us a great service.

NOTE: we discovered that a few of the glued-in bolt runners and a few of the 'pig's tail' lower-offs had a bit of rotational movement (1-2mm) in them - slightly worrying when this are single point anchors. I e-mail Jim about this, they are aware of the issue and have a fix, though interestingly they tried to remove one of the 'loose' lower-offs and failed despite exerting an outward force of 6000kg on it - so it sounds like they are actually fine!