It's been a week now and we're starting to settle down into van life. We now have most things we need day-to-day stored in accessible places, and the eight steps required to set up the bed in the evenings have become second nature.
Most importantly, we have found some sun! After driving through a storm from Millau on Saturday, we emerged the Spanish side of the border on Sunday to glorious sunshine which has lasted ever since.
Our first stop in Spain was Monserrat, which Andy has already written about here. A lot of the climbing here was on very strange, conglomerate rock, which Andy described (fairly accurately) as 'like climbing up the pebble-dashed wall of a house - but weirder'.
We did find a section where the climbing was a bit more conventional though, and i managed my first proper climb of the trip, a flash of a 6a that didn't get a name in the guidebook we have, but was the first pitch of Top Manta (7c+). I was very pleased with this (as you might be able to tell from the picture below). My first mini-goal within my larger 'get better at climbing' goal was to lead a 6a, so to achieve this so early on was quite encouraging!
We next moved on to Siurana, and treated ourselves to a couple of nights of showers, laundry, pizza and beer in Toni's campsite and bar. We spent a day at sector Grau dels Masets and had the whole place to ourselves for most of the day apart from a friendly robin.
The plan was for me to spend the morning pottering up easy stuff (Fr 4's and 5's) to get some mileage. This worked well until i got sucked into trying a 6a that lulled me into a false sense of achievement low down, but then got hard and did this to my hands:
Yesterday we walked up to Montsant, a continuous band of conglomerate rock stretching all the way across the edge of the Sierra de Montsant above the village of Cornudella de Montsant (it's quite an important geographical feature). The most famous and impressive sector, Racó de Missa, is reached by a half-hour trudge up a hill from the parking area, which I then had to trudge back down and up again when we realised we had left the van curtains open and forgotten the suncream. The view from the top was worth it though - we were looking down from above the clouds hanging over the valley.
Andy climbed with Tomar, a friend from Bristol we had met in the bar at Siurana the previous evening, while I had a bit of a rest and enjoyed the sunshine and watched other people.
Apparently, the climbing at Montsant can be best described as 'unrelenting'. No individual moves are particularly hard, but there are a lot of them. Andy put in a fantastic effort to get his first Fr7a onsight of the trip, and came down looking like Popeye.
Because Andy felt like he deserved it after his efforts, and to celebrate a successful first week in the van, we rounded off the evening with pizza and beer in a bar in Cornudella. This morning has been a slow start - I've been writing this, drinking large amounts of coffee and eating caño - a pastry like a sausage roll but filled with chocolate cream instead! Off to Villenova de Prades for more easy mileage in a few minutes though, then the plan is to keep heading south...
Most importantly, we have found some sun! After driving through a storm from Millau on Saturday, we emerged the Spanish side of the border on Sunday to glorious sunshine which has lasted ever since.
Our first stop in Spain was Monserrat, which Andy has already written about here. A lot of the climbing here was on very strange, conglomerate rock, which Andy described (fairly accurately) as 'like climbing up the pebble-dashed wall of a house - but weirder'.
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| Montserrat rock, with rope for scale |
We did find a section where the climbing was a bit more conventional though, and i managed my first proper climb of the trip, a flash of a 6a that didn't get a name in the guidebook we have, but was the first pitch of Top Manta (7c+). I was very pleased with this (as you might be able to tell from the picture below). My first mini-goal within my larger 'get better at climbing' goal was to lead a 6a, so to achieve this so early on was quite encouraging!
We next moved on to Siurana, and treated ourselves to a couple of nights of showers, laundry, pizza and beer in Toni's campsite and bar. We spent a day at sector Grau dels Masets and had the whole place to ourselves for most of the day apart from a friendly robin.
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| New friend! |
The plan was for me to spend the morning pottering up easy stuff (Fr 4's and 5's) to get some mileage. This worked well until i got sucked into trying a 6a that lulled me into a false sense of achievement low down, but then got hard and did this to my hands:
Yesterday we walked up to Montsant, a continuous band of conglomerate rock stretching all the way across the edge of the Sierra de Montsant above the village of Cornudella de Montsant (it's quite an important geographical feature). The most famous and impressive sector, Racó de Missa, is reached by a half-hour trudge up a hill from the parking area, which I then had to trudge back down and up again when we realised we had left the van curtains open and forgotten the suncream. The view from the top was worth it though - we were looking down from above the clouds hanging over the valley.
Andy climbed with Tomar, a friend from Bristol we had met in the bar at Siurana the previous evening, while I had a bit of a rest and enjoyed the sunshine and watched other people.
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| Racó de Missa. For scale, there is a teeny tiny climber low down on the left wall. |
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| The view out towards the sea |
Apparently, the climbing at Montsant can be best described as 'unrelenting'. No individual moves are particularly hard, but there are a lot of them. Andy put in a fantastic effort to get his first Fr7a onsight of the trip, and came down looking like Popeye.
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