Easter fun

Although our Easter holiday had ended it felt like they were extended a bit as Jo and Matt (who actually were on school holiday) came out to play! We had a really nice couple of days, with highlights including admiring big trees and boats in Cambrils, mooching around medieval MontBlanc, fine-dining in an all you can eat meat restaurant and front row seats for a helicopter rescue up at Montsant...

Starting out up at the awesome Montsant. Kilner stubbornly wearing his downie despite the sun! 

Embracing the sun (and each other!) on the way up - Morera village below 

Up on the ledges at Grau des Barrots. No more path this way Matt.

On the way up to the ledges we met a walker who thought she'd broken her arm. Although she was conscious, an air ambulance was on its way as the terrain is pretty steep so we had a bird's eye view of the rescue from the ledges. The skill of the pilot and winchmen was pretty incredible. They were flying literally metres away from the cliffs - and us - which made for quite a spectacle!

Eyeball to eyeball with the pilot! The injured woman was at the bottom of the cliff.

Beautiful little mini daffodils. Heads around the size of a 5 pence (or 2 cent??) piece.

Walking along the breezy top! 

Kilner hits the rock at Arboli!

And Mont-Ral

Chulilla

After a hectic few weeks at work finishing exams, reports and Easter egg hunts, our long awaited Easter holiday finally arrived! Unfortunately so did the unpredictable Spring weather and so we ditched our original plans for Provence in favour of Chulilla, near Valencia, where we hoped to avoid the Spring showers (and snow?!)! 

It turned out to be a good decision and we mostly stayed dry :-) It certainly wasn't a second rate venue either. Chulilla itself is a stunningly located little village and the surrounding gorges contain a ridiculous amount of quality climbing routes. We had eight consecutive days climbing, and I won't bore you with all the gory details suffice to say I had my best ever climbing week (three 7as in three days) and Ali continued his shoulder rehabilitation with six 7c+s and numerous on-sights (what do those doctors know eh?!). Other highlights included some lovely home-made biscuits from the bakery and some nice afternoons reading, cooking and drinking tea in the sun after early morning hits at the crag. 

The pretty little village of Chulilla perched above the dramatic gorges 

Views from a pootle around the Castle walls.

I love the stereotypical mish-mash of "casas blancas" and terracotta roofs...

Chulilla village from the climbing area Paret de Enfrente 

The view down from Sector Embalse - we spent seven of the eight days climbing here as it was so good (and provided necessary shade...but I won't mention that when most of UK was under several feet of snow!).

View of the gorge from the walk-in - amazing climbing on both sides of the gorge and huge trout in the river too. Unfortunately we didn't catch any and made do with pasta instead! 

Not the best photo as it's a shady wall, but behold the endless orange rock and tufa! For any climbing geeks this route  is the 40m 7c+ "El Rey de la Palanca". Far too hard for me but one of Ali's many successful ascents.

Post-crush pasta fest!