A Spanish Gastronomic Paradise

Well, after a hectic summer at work, and the sudden change of weather from "ooh it's raining! Ooh, it's windy! Ooh, there's a bit of su.... oh no, my mistake, it's raining again..." to "Ok, I admit it, it's Autumn" Lise and I returned to Spain to try and catch a few days of sun-baked limestone, with our eyes on the magificent El Chorro gorge.

However, the weather had other ideas, of which more later...

We discovered an amazing hotel, the Hotel El Juncal just outside of Ronda. It's all very stylish, in a black, white, chrome and glass, Phillip Stark kind of way, so it felt deliciously naughty tramping back in wearing our mud-caked mountain gear, but the staff were very friendly and helpful, and their command of European languages put us to shame.

The main thing, though, was the food. Ohhhhh, the food! It's a gastronomic paradise, with its own vegetable garden and vineyard, and a chef who really knows how to cook. There's no menu - well, there is, but it has no choices, the chef merely publishes what he is going to create - but my god it's good. Favourite dish had to be the Iberian pork, and the curiously-named "sky bacon" dessert. The in-house-produced red wine is really drinkable too. Highly recommended.

Just a couple of things to note about getting there:

The directions on the website are really hard to follow. What you need to do is go to Ronda, then from the big roundabout on the north-east side of town (by the big supermarket) take the El Burgo road (A366, IIRC). Just after the hospital, only a mile or so out of Ronda you'll see a big gate at a little turning on the right. Take the turning, but don't go through the gate, turn left as soon as you've turned off the main road (like, ten yards in) - you'll also see a big white sign a way back from the road that says "El Juncal". Aim for that! It's a shame you can't see the sign from the other direction... took us a couple of hours to figure that one out!

There are two main ways to Ronda from Malaga airport - along the coast and up, or up to El Burgo and across. Either way, the drive is stunning, with some jaw-dropping views, but the road from El Burgo is poor. We couldn't get above 20km/hr for much of it! Stick to the main roads. (cue Brian Glover voice: "stick to the roads, lads - stay off the moors, and may god be with you...")

Spanish Castle Magic

Lise and I nipped away for a week of sun, sea and sport climbing in the Costa Blanca. Well, there was certainly sea, and we managed to get some top rock time in between bouts of rain - for sun, we'd actually have been better off staying in London. But nevertheless, we did some great routes in some fantastically dramatic settings. Sadly, no pictures, as all our cameras got nicked in a burglary, so I'll just have to link out to other people's pages :-)

Puig Campana is the most impressive of all, with some classic expedition-style routes up the main face. Sadly, the weather was never quite good enough early on for us to have a crack at these 10-hour-plus marathons, so we tried the 4.5km hiking route on our first afternoon. We got almost as far as the saddle, before turning back due to time - we really didn't fancy descending the massive scree slope in the dark.
(What IS it with scree? Everywhere it's bloody SCREE! After Jbel Toubkal, I've had enough of bloody scree to last me a lifetime...)

We managed to get a full day-and-a-half's climbing in at the beautifully dramatic Sella, which I guess is the Stanage of the Costa Blanca. Hundreds of routes, single and multipitch, from F3 up to F8c+, and most pretty-well bolted. The setting was absolutely gorgeous, with views that reminded me of shots of Yosemite - great towering orangey rock faces either side of luscious tree-covered valleys.

We started on the easy routes on Techo del Rhino, and they were - well, ok, nothing special, but very polished. So much so that people told us There's a 6a round the corner that's easier than these!. For us, the most enjoyable climbs were right at the far end, in Odra. This sector reminded me of Stanage High Neb - quality climbing, but a nice peaceful sense of being away from it all. Highlights were:

• La vergüenza II - a really enjoyable, technically easy, long, ledgy climb reminiscent of the Bishop's Route at Stanage. Make sure you take at least 12 quickdraws for the route, otherwise like me, you'll either have to skip clips near the top (eek!) or traverse left and finish on the adjacent La vergüenza I


• Con mallas y a lo loco - which Lisa led, but I didn't try, as I'm still getting pain from my broken big toe. She loved it, and it looked scary but a great crack climb, with laybacking, jamming, bridging and a crux that took several attempts to work out. It looked to be a bit of a "bling" route aswell, with lots of people wanting to test themselves against it.

A word of warning - Sella has some BIG ants, like really REALLY big. Practically small puppies, some of them! Be prepared to potentially get stung, as you stick a finger into a small pocket that's already occupied. I found a handy trick was to flick chalk at them until they move :-)

Route of the week, however, had to be Aniversario at Marin. Marin is a lovely calm setting, sun-baked and peaceful, and feels "away from it all" enough for me to do my first ever climbing-without-a-top-on without feeling like a cheesey rock-jock.

Aniversario itself is a really fantastic 5+ route, climbing up the craggy side of a cave on sharp but decent holds, and then getting very balancey and technical at the top as the footholds peter out to tiny nubbins. Lise led this valiantly, but sadly my toe got the better of me and I had to back off the second.

A word of warning - although the guidebook says "it is possible" to top out and scramble down the gully round the side, it feels VERY exposed on the top and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're very confident. Bring some maillon rapides (the bolts didn't have any chains when we were there) and lower off instead, it's just so much easier.

Also well-worth doing is the no-honestly-that's-the-way-it's-meant-to-be-spelled "Jhonny" (4+). It's a two-pitch route going up the corner arrete, with a lovely feeling of exposure as you round a big bulge towards the top of the first pitch. I led this, and had to swallow hard and gird my loins to make these moves, but the climbing is not technical, just fun. The guidebook gives this route three stars and only two for Anniversario, but we think Anniversario is worth three.

All in all there's a massive amount of quality climbing in the Costa Blanca, and we only got time to scratch the surface. Final words of advice -

• most of the routes are HARD, if you're not comfortable at UK 6a and above, then you're probably best sticking to Sella and Marin
• Bring a 60m or 70m rope if you have one, and plenty of maillon rapides for lowering off routes without chains
• If you bring a small trad rack aswell, you'll be able to do many more routes, as lots of them are listed as bolted with some sparse sections, or bolted for 3 pitches and trad for one, etc
• If you're looking for somewhere to stay, as a climber you can't get better than The Orange House. It's run by climbers, it's full of climbers, and there's no shortage of friendly people who'll chat and recommend routes/crags/restaurants, you name it.