Visitors!

Last week my parents, sister, brother and nephew came out to visit. They were staying on one of the coast's holiday parks and so we took full advantage of the facilities - swimming, mini golf, BBQs and of course sunbathing with British newspapers(!) as well as seeing a few sites away from the pool!

Walking up from Llaberia with mum and dad 

Mum was persuaded to the edge to admire the views!

The pirate with a watering can arrives! 

Time for the pool! 

Henry spots a van!

Strolling with the boat...

Time to set sail... Henry not quite so keen anymore...

A bit small for Uncle Ali

Reluctantly Henry gives the boat a go...

But wasn't a fan!

Splashing around... Some weight training for Uncle Ali

Uncle Ali gets a kick in the face!

After work we had quick peek at Trapezi, Reus's Circus Festival... some human catapults and weird dancing.

One of many lovely desserts - this one a treat from Montbrio's bakery 

Massacred! It didn't last long.

Rain and Flowers...

The beginning of May saw a few days of pretty extreme spring showers, creating some new rivers around Montbrio as well as washing away some paths and roads! It also brought out some vivid flowers, some pics below...

A waterfall outside Montbrio - there's normally a road across this! 

We won't be crossing the path today! 

Beautiful colours! 

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! 

Go Wiggins!

I can't claim to be a life-long cycling fan but when we heard that Sir Bradley Wiggins and all the other pros we see on TV during the Tour-de-France were going to be passing within a few miles of the house it seemed rude not to go and cheer him on! 

We chose a spot near Mont-Ral, on a slight incline which we thought might slow them down a bit... This theory didn't really work and the peloton passed by in a flash, but it was pretty cool to see all the same! 

Once in position we watched about 50 police motorbikes drive past - nice work if you can get it eh?!

The riders arrive... I wasn't quite prepared for how fast they go! You can certainly smell the sweat too :-s

"Go Wiggins!"
I was intending to cheer him on but it all happened so fast that by the time I recognised him it was too late... oops. Sorry Sir. 

As impressive as the smelly riders were the support cars... Sooooo much bling kit! Seemed like they were all fighting for position too! 

Snow!

It doesn't happen very often around these parts (the last time was 2009) but it's certainly a spectacular sight! We headed up to Siurana, which had had a jolly good coating - we even had to use our "snow socks" a couple of times on the way up. The conditions were pretty good for climbing though and we had a productive weekend in the sheltered village sections. Ali ticked another 7c+ (You'd never believe his shoulder was hanging out of its socket less than two months ago!) and I did my first 7a of the year :-) 

A snowy  (but climbable) Sector Melafots!

Despite the occasional dusting of snow blowing off the trees this wall (Can Marges de Dalt) was a pretty pleasant place to climb in the snow!

The church at Siurana along with snow covered blossom... never seen that before!

The village looking very different to normal - note the icicles on the Hotel! 

A few pictures of the year so far...

I haven't been doing much blogging recently and we haven't really taken many photos either, but that isn't to say we haven't been getting out and about! In fact, with the help of a very pretty pink theraband, Ali's shoulder has been recovering in leaps and bounds and we've been climbing pretty regularly locally and even had a weekend up in Ager... A couple of pics below!

Ager - Sector 300. Not a great photo but lots of good rock!

Our "rustic" rural B&B in Ager (It's far too cold for camping at the moment!)

The "wilder" sector of Paret de Grivols at Ager - lots of very good loooooooong  routes!

Closer to home at Llaberia -  a "wilder" place with a bit of a walk-in and some bushwhacking, but a pleasant change from the busier Siurana and Margalef! 

Blossom! I love this time of year...

The almighty theraband... A key part of Ali's recovery!