Spain (2)

From Aulas we ventured over a high mountain pass in the truck, our first real off road test, the gravel road though well graded was steep and winding but the pinz had no difficulty and even kept a good pace. We pulled up at Roca Regina, a 550m high rock face and the target of our next great climbing adventure.

Our first deadline of the trip was looming as Katie B was wedding ‘The Wedge’ back in Blighty and we needed to fly from Alicante in two days time. We started to pick up the pace and looked for more direct routes to the south coast. On the map we could see a 100km stretch of straight Roman road, which looked good, however after 60km of pig farms and slurry spreading we were starting to get a little nauseous and decided that we had found the ass hole of Spain. Little did we know that when we finally hit the south coast, we would eventually see what comes out. We managed to park at a relatively nice area of beach somewhere between the sprawling mess of hotels. Had it been in the tourist season, I have no doubt that we would have been moved on. As it was, we were only 5km from the airport to fly the next day.

There will now be an intermission, which will be known as ‘The Wedding’. Please be back in your seats after the weekend for the continuation of the recital...

	We landed back into Alicante with ‘The Mother’ (a.k.a Betty, Ditter, 12a’s Bet) and Emily (the vet, acupuncturist, fairy, fiddler, potential climber). Both had come with us to meet up with a bunch of climbing mates from the UK for a week of sun-soaked climbing on The Costa Brava.

We caught up with the rest of the group at the guest house of Vio and Jonathan in Sella, the Hort de Gloria. In fact it was far more than a guesthouse, it felt more like going to stay in someone’s house, and after a week you felt that a return trip would be like catching up with old friends. Somehow between running a small organic holding, growing food for the table, making fabulous home cooked food including excellent veggie stuff, rearing two energetic kids, climbing, biking, sea kayaking (Jonathan is the Spanish Champion) they still seem to find time to sit up until the small hours enjoying DB’s dirty jokes. They have accommodation for 14 and were fully booked by our group but were still happy to include Jools and me sleeping in the truck parked up in the olive groves.

Vio and Jonathan were ably assisted by Sergie and Yurgus (apologies for spellings) who someone told me were a couple of woofters? (workers on organic farms). We would definitely recommend Hort de Gloria to anyone coming out for mountain biking, sea kayaking, walking and/or climbing.

	On a less serious note, I must tell you of our last day after the goons all had flown home. Mum was staying with us for a few more days and Vio and Jonathan were having a night off from cooking, and so they invited us (and some new climbing guests) to join them for a curry at Via Jojosa. It had been a hectic week for the two, and with a night off from the kids to boot, it was definitely playtime. It was so surreal being served in a curry house by a half-cut, sun-dried, cockney dame, but that’s Costa Brava for yer. Serg and Yurgus arrived late with the other guests, which gave the rest of us a head start on the beer. The reason they were late was that there had been a minor RTA. One of the guest’s car had been hit whilst doing a U-turn. According to Sergie, shortly before impact the driver’s last words were “Watch this!” I’m still astounded that everyone was in agreement that it wasn’t his fault (Sergie’s that is). So with our head start in the drinking and the designated driver definitely designated, Jonathan went on a head-to-head drinking session with Jools. Now I decided to act as the pace maker up until the lager ran out and the liquors started, but by now Jools was inching ahead. The final leg was run back at the house over red wine, champagne, and the dregs of a rather nice single malt. Although it went to a judge’s decision, there was a clear winner, Jools by a table leg.