Ok, so, up at 5:30 sharpish, had a huge breakfast and a shower and packed last few bits, met Jojo and jumped in the taxi with the others for Liverpool airport and promptly fell asleep, which was for the best as according to Heather, the drivers driving skills were questionable. Got stopped at security as Heather had a fork in her bag! Got on the plane and touched down in Malaga a few hours later. Had fun using the ticket machines for the trains, but managed and got two trains to Malaga and then El Chorro after having an interesting luggage storage experience in the train station and food shopping at the local supermarket which had HUGE vegetables! Was pretty late when we got to the cottages, so we cooked tea, and then went to the bigger cottage for a chat and to plan the week together. Emma and I left earlier as we were shattered.
EL CHORRO - DAY TWO
Had a late start the first morning and left at about 10:30 to do the ‘Via Ferrata’ King’s Walkway. We weren’t too impressed with the weather so far as it way mighty cold and windy especially in the gorge. The sun made an appearance after lunch when we were trekking through the gorge and getting across the river heading for Los Cotos for some climbing. I invented a new form of climbing called ‘shallow water bouldering’ crossing the river. Got to the crag and threw myself in at the deep end and decided to lead my first climb which was a 4+, followed by Jojo who decided to scrape all the skin off her knees slipping down the horrendously polished few meters just before the last bolt. Lead two grade 5’s after that and learned what it felt like to find a huge jug at the top of about 3 meters of smearing on ‘Bitchios on the Wailers’ which certainly lives up to it’s name! I and Jojo coiled the rope with me holding it and Jojo passing through my hands as my hands are too small to hold all the rope! Made our way back through the gorge along the ‘via Ferrata’ and then abseiled into the dark off the top. Got back and had ‘pasta and red’ for tea. We couldn’t to the ‘no red food’ challenge, so we went for ‘red food’ every day.
EL CHORRO DAY THREE
Today was our first full day of climbing, headed down to the bottom of the fontales with high expectations and allot of sun cream. Lead a few 4’s and 4+ to get into the flow, then we moved up the crags and had a crack at some harder routed on top rope.
EL CHORRO – DAY FOUR
Me, Jojo, Emma, Heather, Lizzie, Toby, Ben and Rob had decided the night before to go further up the crags to Sector Sergio. Took about an hour and a half trek up the road carrying ropes and quick draws and we were all a bit tired. The weather was looking questionable as Toby and Ben split off from us to go and do a multi pitch while the rest of us carried on up. Did a few climbs in slightly damp conditions and me and Jojo both had a bit of a scare on ‘kiwi’ and both took a bit of a fall dynoing for a jug that wasn’t really there! We decided we had had enough of leading for the day and went round the corner to join the others to second and top rope some harder 6a’s and 6b’s. One of which was the scrappiest rock I’ve ever climbed on and I took a chunk of my leg off and left blood all over the rock face. For the last climb of the day me and Jojo lead an easy 4 ... which gave us allot more trouble than was anticipated ... as Jojo got stuck and couldn’t undo the screw gate on the sling at the top. Lucky Toby was around and climbed to while Lizzie belayed him, however, Toby couldn’t undo it either!! He came back down and went to get my penknife, climbed back up and did a ‘vertical limit’ style cut though the sling. We were slightly worried when the rope started smoking as the friction from both Jogo’s and Toby’s rope going through the same bolt at the top was too much. I managed to film most of this and by the time Toby had rescued Jojo it was getting dark, and we wanted our chilli we were cooking that night. Got back and Heather and Emma had cooked the chilli and we all sat down round the table like a family =] and chatted about the day ... and ‘The Great Rescue’!!! After tea, ma Toby, Jojo and Lizzie went and star gazing on deck chairs by the pool with blankets, and found the alphabet and numbers 1 – 20 in the stars.
EL CHORRO DAY FIVE
Our last day of climbing was interesting for me and Jojo ... we detached from the group and went down to the fontanels with the plan to work our way up filling in the gaps of climbs we had previously missed. Started off with a few easier climbs and a few 5’s, laughed at a guy wearing a ‘hankie’ on his head and packed up to move on up. It was a bit further than we reaslied, and as we only had a 50m rope we were slightly limited in what we could do. We were getting hot, Hungary, and tired ... so tired I didn’t bother to duck for a tree, shut my eyes and walked through it. Hours and hours, up and up, round and round later we finally found the others and collapsed. Me Toby and Jojo decided we had had enough and walked back to the pool where Al chased me in wearing a ‘man-kini’. We also found a cat. The others got back soon and me, Jojo and Toby cooked tea for everyone and we sat down to our last ‘family tea’. Went to the pub later where a parrot and Heather and Ben fighting over beer amused us (not the parrot fighting over beer). Staggered back, took blankets out to the pool and we all fell asleep under the stars.
EL CHORRO DAY SIX
Got up late and we all decided to make pancakes so we wondered down to the ‘shop’ and I bought some flour. Spent our last few hours making pancakes and lying around the pool then packed up and headed for the station, said goodbye to El Chorro and hopped on the train to Malaga. Had a pizza out in Malaga and I was the only one who finished it!!! It was amazing ... with tomato, cheese, onion, chicken, pepper and a fried egg!!! Anyway, we got to the airport eventually, and I fell asleep on the cafe floor. Got on the plain a while later and got a shock when we got back to ‘tropical England!!!’
All in all, had a fab time with some great people I know better now. Did some amazing climbs and feel so much more confident. All pictures up on http://picasaweb.google.com/Emmmmmmmmmmmma
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