Looking down on the coastal plains from La Mussara village.

The church at La Mussara looking from another derelict building - the village was abandoned in 1951 when most of the residents moved down the hill to nearby Vilaplana.

The Durhams at La Mussara village.

Coffee break on the way to the gorge.

Prades' answer to the Grand Canyon - the impressive Avencs de la Febro.

Lunch back at the refuge.

Fraguerau gorge, on the walk from the Ermita de Sant Antoni to Sant Bartomeu de Fraguerau.

The suspension bridge to get across to the Ermita de Sant Bartomeu.

The 13th Century Sant Bartomeu de Fraguerau church.

A monk called Fra Guerau apparently lived in this cave next to the church.
When he cured the then Queen after childbirth he was allowed to live in the church in return (if you believe the legend!).

The spring inside the cave where the monk got his water from.

After the church we walked up onto the ridge above.

Threatening skies on the ridge - thankfully they didn't come to anything.

Further up on the spectacular ridge - typical Montsant scenery.

Nice views over Ulldemolins in the distance.

Bird spotting at the Delta de l'Ebre.





Flamingos!!





Down to the beach.

Nice and sunny over us but not so inland - big storm brewing!

Pleasure boats on the delta.

Rice paddy fields at the Delta de l'Ebre.

Wind farm up above Colldejou.





Coffee in Colldejou village.

Cherry season!

All the 'giris' by the pool at Cambrils Park (what the locals call the foreign tourists that spend their nights in the club and the day turning into prawns sat on the beach!)

Très windy Tres Ponts

With a good forecast extending to Sunday night we decided to go away again this weekend, but to come back Sunday night to avoid the predicted thunderstorms. As the crags only go into the shade in the early afternoon we were able to have a fairly relaxed morning on Saturday before setting off - 2.5hrs later and we arrived to a very windy Tres Ponts. The crags were still partly in the sun but the strong wind meant it was just about possible to warm up in the sun. As soon as they went into the shade conditions became perfect!

The crag of Tres Ponts on the bank of the River Segre.

The newly installed bridges making the approach much easier.

I warmed up on 'Aonvolsnà', which conveniently starts with a 6b+ first pitch followed by a 7a/+ steeper second pitch (the 8b extension to this looks amazing!), then an unnamed 7b over on the left which was also superb. Next up I intended to have a go at the classic 7b+ 'Esperit Jove' but got confused where it steepens up and splits into two. I thought there was an extra route, heading rightwards, so I took the middle line, which turned out to be 'Mites Moderns' (8a). I fought my way into the crux but fell off where it moves out rightwards to join the other route, getting a total flash pump in the process! After I'd got to the top and then stripped it I got down to check the guide and realised I'd taken the wrong line.

Once I'd got rid of the pump I did a few of the less well-travelled routes over on the right hand side of the crag. These turned out to be far better than they looked from the bottom and would be 2/3 star classics anywhere but are overlooked most of the time, being a bit away from the main wall. Here I did 'Graellada' (7b+) and 'Forat Penat' (7b/+) - the latter being solid 7b+ if compared to the former! After the unplanned onsight attempt of 'Mites Moderns' I was getting pretty tired by now so decided to call it a day and save something for the following day.

Unknown climber on 'Alt Urgell' (8a)

High up on the very long and very classic 'Segre' (8a).

As well as world-class climbing in this area, Parapenting seems to be a pretty popular activity so after we'd finished climbing we stopped off to check it out.

Coming in to land.

Perfect wild camping spot at Col Piqué.

Tent just visible between the bushes.

Sant Climent de Coll de Nargó church.

Breakfast down by the Pantà d'Oliana.

Coll de Nargó village across the water.

Early morning fishing on the Pantà d'Oliana.

Sadly for them all the fish were over our side of the lake - so close you could pick them out of the water!

Next day we were back at Tres Ponts and once the sun had gone off the crag conditions were the same as yesterday, with a strong wind blowing down the gorge.

Today I managed to go the right way on 'Espirit Jove' and did it succesfully. What a classic route! After this we went over to the right hand side again and I did yet another superb and totally overlooked classic - 'Taghia' (7b+). Much more technical than the standard Tres Ponts fare and following two steep right-facing corners the climbing on it is superb, with really intricate and tenuous bridging and laybacking. With so many soft-touch routes at Tres Ponts it's easy to get complacent but this one felt like "proper" 7b+. An old-school 7b+! Not only did it tire me out, but my elbow had started twinging again (a recurring injury from St Leger that doesn't seem to be improving at all). So after this I just did one more route, an unnamed 50m(!) 7a+, to cool down. And then it was time to head home for pizza and beers :-)

Classic steepness on 'Espirit Jove' (7b+).

Tres Ponts wildlife!

A few days at the beach and some DWS!

The weather this week has been a bit too hot to contemplate climbing at the usual local spots so we decided to have a few days at the beach instead. Wednesday was a typical beach day, just down at Cambrils, with the first swim of the year.

I'd heard about some deep water soloing down on the coast to the north of Tarragona, near Torredembarra, and today we finally went to try and find it. We only had a pretty poor topo of some sport routes down there and also a few photos of a small cave with some DWS lines, but no real idea of where they were. After wandering around the port at Torredembarra (where we found a little bouldering cave with some chipped holds), we headed up onto the headland and past the big tower. This section of coast had some nice looking caves, prows and other rock features which would be ideal for DWS but they either had big rock platforms underneath, making it too dangerous, or they looked quite tricky to get established on.

The bouldering roof at Torredembarra port.

Potential DWS territory, if only you could get established on it somehow.

Past the big tower.

Beyond the big tower we dropped down to a nice little cove with a perfect quiet sandy beach and on the far side of the beach we found the DWS cave I'd seen online :-) Unfortunately at this point my camera battery ran out so I couldn't get any pics :-( But it turned out to be pretty cool. An easy access traverse line on good solid rock with some 'up' lines splitting off at various points. I didn't have any chalk or my boots and the rock was pretty greasy, making it quite hard work but I made it halfway across the traverse before I plopped in the drink. A few swims later and it was time to head home for work. Next time we'll park a bit closer to the cove to make the approach a bit shorter - if the weather continues like this we'll be down there quite often I think! Next time I'll try to get some better pics of the climbing.

DWS in Torredembarra - my camera battery died so I had to settle for someone else's pic from the web.