There's more to Prades than climbing!!!

After a surprisingly stressful week at work in the form of some "open days" (where the parents of all the kids classes come to sit in on a lesson - whose bright idea was that?!!), I was ready to get away and relax. Neither of us are that psyched for sport climbing at the moment with it being so hot and it seemed a little silly to drive all the way up to the pyrenees when we'll be there later this week, so we opted for some walking and more exploring around the Prades area. Again I'll just post some photos of some of the highlights.

Day 1 was a walk down in the gorges around Siurana. A very familiar area for climbing but I'd never explored this end of the valley.

After a long and painful bush-whack along from the source of the Siurana river at La Febro (which we were led to believe was a half decent track!) we finally emerged below the Corral Nou sector at Siurana for a very welcome dip.

This little chap was sunning himself on a rock.

Another beautiful pool - this time big enough for a swim!

Another nice pool in the gorge - no swim this time!

And then we had a BBQ on the La Mussara ridge overlooking Reus.

BBQ with a view!

Best burger in my life...and ya don't get a view like that at McDonald's!!

The bright lights of Reus town!

Next day we started off from Prades village and headed up the hill...

....to Tossal de la Baltasana - the highest point in the Prades area (1,203m).
Amazing views of Prades village, La Mussara, the end of the Montsant ridge, and even across to the Pyrenees to the North





From there we carried on along the ridge, dropped down into another valley and then back up...

...to L'Ermita de l'Abellera, tucked into a rock overhang in the side of the cliff.

Nice spot for a church.



The view out from the church.



And then back to Prades for a mooch around.