The YAC sun rock trip (1 of 2) took six of us to the sunny locale of El Chorro. Home to the most gigantic selection of limestone I have ever seen. Pete, Rob, and Myself opted to head out a few days earlier than the others, arriving at Malaga airport around 9:00 after a 4:00 am start (thanks to Karl for driving us to the airport).
From Malaga we wasted no time getting on the rock, the first stop was Valle de Abdalajis, a sun trap just east of El Chorro, and the first big crag you come to on the drive in. Here we 
started on Un Pobre Infeliz, which was optimistically graded as 4+ (turns out that is was 5/5+ according to the Rockfax update – that'll teach us not to read the update). Not only was the grade incorrect but the lower off wasn't in the right place on the topo, or even a convenient place! Anyway, having freaked ourselves out with a route we fully expected to romp up with ease, we turned our attention to other routes, El Olvillo del Osilllo (5+) amongst others, an entertaining climb into a runnel with a very traditional feel about it – highly recommended.
Day two was wet (as was day three but more on that in a moment) so we headed off to look at the Camino del Ray, which from most reports had become impassable due to the removal of the via ferrata wires. This turned out to be mostly untrue and we were able to access the walkway from the climbers via ferrata, 
although the wire is missing on the initial traverse you can clip into the staples which seem safe enough. The cable was there for the walkway proper and we have an enjoyable time getting to the end of the gorge – interesting in places where the walkway has clearly seen better days! Reports from later in the week say the cable protecting the climbing just after the initial walkway has now been removed. So it sounds like places to remove the cables are taking place, just slowly. Back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.
Day three started out wet-ish so we tried our luck further out from El Chorro and headed to Turon. Here we had to valiantly fend off giant rats, who tried to nick our lunch, but also managed two nice routes before the heavens opened and we had to retreat to overhanging shelter of Desplomilandia, via a small spanish bar for some coffee. We had just enough time to get a coffee and pickup a hitch hiker (Neils from Germany) who was looking for a lift back to El Chorro. Unfortunately, for Neils, we weren't going to El Chorro straight away but gave him a lift halfway back, he was very grateful and as payment told us we'd only completed half the Camino Del Ray, the other half being at the far end of the gorge, opps. Desplomilandia was steep enough to keep us dry but as a consequence offered limited climbing options save two polished and slightly bold 5+'s. It did however give us ideas for later that week, a bunch of 6a/6b climbs that were too wet for today provided some fun later in the week. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.
The weather was picking up by day 4 and we set off to Frontalas Bajas to climb in the sun! A disembodied hello was heard as we passed the train tunnels on the way to the crag, it was Neils, our hitchhiker. He joined us while his friend was sleeping of a hangover, Rob paired up with him and climbed what looked like some lovely rock but at 6c it was too much for me so Pete and I headed off together. Amongst the best were Zulu Express (6a+) and Stanage Girls (6a). Stanage girls gets a star in the guide but in my opinion deserves at least two, superb climbing and quite sustained at the grade! One to lookout for if you're in the area. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.
The rest of the party joined us this day, Karl, Catherine, and Gav. The later two set off for harder stuff (or perhaps just went back to bed). Karl, however, joined Rob, Pete and myself on the 10 pitch Rogelio (6a+ – really just 9 pitches of 4/5 and one 6a+ move on the last pitch but this doesn't sound as awesome as 10 pitches of 6a+ so you should ignore this comment and imagine us battling away to the final bolt) at Escalera Arabe. And a battle it was, at least for Rob, our rope got stuck on the first abseil and Rob had to prussic back up. Thankfully a handy pair of German girls saved Rob from having to go the whole way on his own. Anyway, this gave us time to meet the local mountain goats as we sat on the belay stance. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.
And onto my final day in Spain, we headed for Desplomilandia to try the nice 6a/6a+ routes we'd seen some days earlier. Top choice for the day has to be Sin mantenimiento (6a) with a nice overhang made easier by some fortuitously located jugs. Also the adjacent (+1) route Kung fu Panda (6a+ ???) is worth a punt, and not only for the name. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.
Day eight was stared with a full english then many many talk on Nuclear Physics. Opps, wrong blog, this is where I leave the Spanish crowd to head back to work. Of course the rest of the trip must have been awful but you'll have to wait for one of those who stayed to tell you in part two of the scintillating stories from Spain.