This years sun rock trip was organised by Dave D and CourtnAy who sent us to Calpe
The tourist hell hole of Calpe
With a bit of pre trip research, we managed to completely avoid polished or crowded crags. Simon and Carmen appeared to have a mission to seek out anything which involved squirming through limestone tubes,
Carmen in a tube, Morro Falqui
Cef in a tube...
surely not...another tube
Sang trait (6a) Guadalest
Speaking of castles, we soon discovered we had historians among us. The area we were climbing in was fought over by Romans, Visigoths (wore black and moped a bit), Moors and Spaniards, and each lot left mosaics and castles behind. These had a magical effect on CourtnAy and Dave, who only had to spot a crumbling wall to come over all Time Team, and one afternoon after mixed opinions on the crags at Guadalest the non-fans among us gave up on climbing to scramble up to a castle on top of a crag which I would guess nobody had visited in decades.
Scrambling up to the castle
Looking through the Moorish ruins
The view from the top of the castle crag
Meanwhile, Father Jack was in full fledged Twitcher mode, heading off each day in search of exotic birdlife and returning with tales of driving axle deep through swamps whilst everything feathered hid and laughed at him. I think there may also have been a day or two of mountain biking (I bet you can tell how excited I am…).
We finally came to the end of our stay almost climbed out, and gleefully checked our mail to see how our weather had compared to back home. I know schadenfreude is a terrible thing, but I think we were all anticipating (I wont say hoping for) mist and murk, turned out it had been a heatwave in Yorkshire too. Ah well.
The last day - climbing at Toix Placa
Other photos
Team:
Andrew (Father Jack)
Pete the Pie
Cef
Peri
Simon
Carmen
Graham
Claire G
Dave D
CourtnAy
Hi Peri
I was about to have a go at doing a blog but you beat me to it and did a better job anyway.
I was going to mention:
1. Simon and Carmen descending in the dark on a rope that was too short and the knot on the rescue rope then fouling the first runner.
2. Cef meeting his friends from USA by chance.
3. Pete and I getting a lift back to the bottom of the crag by some expats.
4. The mojitas incident (incl. the smoking texts).
5. Five of us almost starving on the Sunday evening until we found somewhere that woudl serve us at 10.30 at night.
I'm sure there were a few others as well!
Cheers
David
You can't mention the "mojito incident" and "smoking texts" and then not explain!
This would be the incident where Dave and CourtnAy persuaded us to give them sole use of the car for a morning of history geekery, on the firm promise they would be back by 1pm so we could all go climbing. We fell for this. By the time 1pm turned to 4pm some sizzling texts had been exchanged, and me graham and claire had given up and gone to a bar instead. By the time a beer or three had been drunk we had mellowed, and Graham sent a text saying it was safe to join us, so C and D came down too. It would then have been rude not to have another beer. Then Claire remembered how nice Mojitos were, so we had three each, just to make sure. We were very well behaved and mellow drunks really, although we did all end up fully clothed in the sea, and you might want to ask Dave about the portuguese students.
Best route of the week for me was Sonjannika at Morro Falqui, which somehow managed to find a way through seriously steep terrain at only 5+ (we missed out the optional 6a+ pitch). And best find was Upper & Lower Pillar at Abdet, brilliant climbing in a fine woodland setting.
And Carmen deserves a mention for getting quickly back to 6a leading despite having to stop at least once per route to cough her guts up courtesy of whooping cough…
and there was only one route involving limestone tubes, but lots of photos of it! And a couple of videos (sorry Cef)…
http://vimeo.com/40510509
http://vimeo.com/40511269