A scorcher!

A heatwave has arrived here, which means only one thing... time to dust off the BBQ! We chose a secluded spot a few minutes up from the house, giving us sea views without the crowds and sand from the beach. A very pleasant afternoon :-)

But Sunday we were keen to burn off the burgers so we headed up towards Farena to tick off a "must do" ride that we've wanted to do for ages. There's a long ridge between Prades and the Cogullons climbing area which we've walked sections of but always thought it would be cool to traverse the whole thing on bikes. So today was the day! It didn't disappoint, with spectacular views and mixture of terrain. Not the longest or steepest of rides, but in temperatures of 30 degrees plus it felt pretty hard! Forested sections or long downhills were particularly enjoyable today! http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1172651 

A BBQ with a view

Ali enjoying his appetizer - cheese and pineapple baby! 

Dessert!  The result of a morning's baking... Pear and chocolate tart. Pretty much your 5 a day in there.

Arriving in Farena, a cute little village on the way to Prades. 

Slogging up to Prades in full midday sun... the kind of heat that makes it hard to breathe! 

A pretty elaborate signpost (sponsored by Reus Deportiu Football Club?!) 

Santa Ana

It's beginning to feel like summer here now so we decided to head north for the weekend, to a new area for us called Santa Ana.

To be honest we went with fairly low expectations. It's one of the closest climbing areas to the large city of Lleida and so we were expecting it to be over-run with climbers, children and dogs. We also knew it was a series of cliffs by a working hydroelectric dam, so weren't sure how industrial it would feel...

Well, we were utterly wrong on both counts! It turned out to be a really atmospheric spot and there were only a handful of climbers there.

We climbed at three of the sectors, and it was very pleasant in the sun. Neither of us are at our best climbing-wise at the moment so Ali just enjoyed cruising some easier routes and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to haul myself up after him!

The Santa Ana Dam, with climbing sectors on both sides of the river

A little rock tunnel - home to thousands of birds and bats!

Our riverside camping spot. Hoping that the dam was solid! 

An evening's exploration at the dam - this ledge is actually pretty wide 

Beautiful red poppies everywhere! 

Looking down to the river from sector "exploradors", a 25min steep slog up from the river

What a nice car... and a narrow crossing to get back to it!

Trying not to fall in!

I made it! 

Ali's arty shot of the day... some German dude climbing something hard in the cave above the car! 

Medieval Bouldering

Today we had a good morning's bouldering at La Riba - amazed at the quality of the area which has been recently cleared and developed. I'm not the world's keenest boulderer really but there was a good range of boulders to play on and just a really nice place to be, in the forests along the river - one problem was even by a waterfall!

We then went to the annual Medieval Festival at Montblanc, a town which prides itself on its medieval history and likes to go back in time once a year with street markets, parties and displays. This was our second visit but it was still an interesting afternoon, some great people watching in the street markets!

a giant mat enters the main La Riba bouldering area

Riverside beach bouldering on incredible pocketed rock - it's like an outdoor climbing wall

Medieval giant bread - almost big enough to have a boulder problem!

Medieval horses and knights by the city walls. The one on the far right was Ali's steed of choice 

Medieval stalls in front of the medieval church

Medieval crazy paving

Medieval blacksmith and photographer 

A record breaker!

A record breaker today, both in terms of length, time and height gain - a jolly good day out by all accounts! We did a large loop from our flat in Montbrio, up to Colldejou, all the way along the edge with the wind turbines and back up to the same church as last weekend as Ali was itching to ride the 10km descent down from the Col d'Alforja again! 60km (including some carrying along some overgrown rocky sections) and over 2000m height gain. We're going to have massive ham thighs at this rate! http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1104714  A few photos below, though the camera didn't come out after lunch as it clouded over a bit and I was either "in the zone" struggling uphill or "whizzing" (tentatively) downhill...

Starting out across the fields around Montbrio - the apple blossom beginning to peep out 

Along some fun narrow tracks up to Colldejou 

The very windy edge along from Colldejou. Montsant to one side, the Med to the other. Spectacular but  a bit blowy! 

Continuing along the edge...

Under a mini crag as we approached the Col de Teixeta. No climbing today though! 

Lunch on the edge overlooking Riudecanyes and home! I love being able to see where we've come from!

Beach pootling and gnarly singletrack...

Our first weekend back from the Easter break was slightly mixed weather-wise, so on Saturday we opted for a pootle around some of our local beaches in between the showers! Sunday was a much better day and we completed our longest ride to date - a 38km loop up to the Col d'Alforja from our house. It was nice to explore some of the more local tracks and see up close some of the churches and landmarks that we normally just drive past! Route here http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1084256 

Miami Beach.... in Catalunya!

Feeling like an idiot with an umbrella with blue sky in the background - but it was actually raining!

Relaxing at the Church ("Ermita Mare de Deu de Puigcerver") at 790m having slogged up from sea level!

The start of the looooong descent along stunning wide tracks to start and some pretty "gnarly" singletrack. We never get photos of this as I'm too preoccupied  with trying to stay upright! 

Cycling past the Church "Mare de Deu de la Riera" and the tempting smells from the BBQ area behind! 

La Mussara loop

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1029667 

We had a slightly less gruelling day today, cycling along the edge of La Mussara. The route started off along a very muddy, broken and overgrown path, but after we'd carried / splashed / bushwhacked through this section it was onto large open tracks and quiet winding roads with fantastic sea views all day :-) Another highlight was jet washing the bikes on the way home - a very satisfying job for clean freaks! 

Cycling along the endless edge of La Mussara

Stopping to admire the "Grand Design" project in the background (not because I was knackered obviously!)

The cool windy road on top of the edge 

A nice spot for a leisurely lunch 

Exploring the abandoned Army barracks 

Not sure if the graffiti was original? 

Marça to the "white ball"

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1029467

Today's ride was pretty ambitious, a looooong circuit around Llaberia involving several big hills! I also had an extra warm up cycling to Mont Roig (our neighbouring town) on my "courtesy bike" to get mine back from a service. After a lengthy lecture on the state of my brake pads, which were pretty much completely down to the metal and "totalmente gastado...muy peligroso y por la vassura!" we headed up to Marça to start our ride...

We began along vineyards before we hit the hills, heading up towards llaberia. We also passed four policemen here - presumably patrolling for illegal off road motorbikes or something, but as we only saw goats all day this seemed pretty odd?! Great use of my taxes ;-)

A slog (and some carrying up the rocks!) but worth the effort... Capçanes in the distance 

Still a lot of up to go! 

Some fun downhill too :-)

Destination of "the white ball" on the horizon (a radar station visible for miles around)  

Traffic jam as we arrive at the white ball 

Finally made it to the white ball! The high point of the ride

Having realised a long held ambition to get up to the "white ball" However the day finished with a rather frustrating carrying section. between us and Marça there was a bloody great hill and a very chossy path. The hill wasn't a surprise (these things are on the map afterall) but the state of the path was! The way up was rocky and the descent even worse - on terrain that I struggle to walk on without a bike! I also need to work out a more efficient method of carrying that doesn't involve bashing myself so much...

Made it! At the final coll of the ride. Feeling rather weary and bruised after carrying my bike up a mahuuusive hill after 6 hours on the go! 

Fun and rideable tracks through the forest to finish. 7 hours in total!