Gorges du yarn

Hey all

Sorry ive been really slack with putting updates on the blog but a few to come now.

Well we have been in the gorge du tarn in france for 5 days from 10th -16th june. climbing and hiking there is amazing so many awsome long inspiring routes ive never seen 60-70metre single pitch routes tis a bit of a shock after rodellar as its super vert and technical on small holds.

In the middle of the valley is anorhter beautifull blue river. we been going down to every morning to eat breakfast, swim and let tala chase fish, its amazing to start the day like this in time for the shade on the crags at 3pm.

Theres a old village/ settlement over the river that looks so picturesque that it doesnt look real. see the photos below its like some kinda dolls house.

We did plan to stay there for a few weeks but we got kindly woken up at 1pm and told we could stay there anymore by the french police and fined a whopping 11 euros for the pleasure :) so we then headed off to venasque which is further east in the south of france by avignon.

On the way we stopped off in a free campsite in a little village. was a nice peacefull break from the driving and we met a french couple called John-paul and Silvie. they were really nice and spoke no english, we spoke no french but they Invited us to have a drink of Pastice. This lead on to a wine and beer then they produced cornettoes was a good evening which pretty much wqas like a continus game of chardes :)

Moving on from there we continued iur journey to venasque which is amazing its a little sandstone crag below a old village on a platoo. it was Sandstone so a totaly different style to what we have been used to. we had a few days climbing there but the weather was playing ball and got hotter and hotter till we were sweating sitting in the shade so this to was abanonded with the promis of comming back when its colder. Our road then lead us to ceuse which as somewhere around 1800m and east facing is in the shade from 2.30 and loads colder its so nice wake up in the glorious sunshine then hike uphill for a hour to the crag in shorts then get in the shade and get the down jackets out and climb in the cold. We have once again bumped into lots of our friends we have met in other parts of spain so again team england has inhabited a corner of the car park. Where were so high in the mountains here the sunsets are awsome so going up to the mini ceuse peak next to us to get some shots tonight if its good expect then soon :)

anywho thats enough for now speak soon

Si

Anniversary

Its mine and lucys 3 year anniversary yesterday (5th june) so we celibrated in style with a bottle of bubbley Courticy of Jason and clare Cheers guys. After the bubbley we continued the style with a bottle of the finest spanish wine at 1.10 euros it doesnt get better. We did try a "special" bottle of wine we got at 55 cents we didnt expect much and i think lucys comment linking it to left over ghurkin water was about right. Think were leave this for cooking. Lucy was amazing and cooked me a 3 course meal which we ate over looking the lake and enjoying the tranqulility,

 

Location wise i dont think we could have gotten better were up in perreniess mountains in a spot called port du lers its a mountain pass at 1500m high After following 20km of winding single track road hopeing not to meet anyone comming the other way webve ended up were parked up by a beautiful lake surounded by soaring mountains. Was pretty special to see a giant eagle circling above us then swooping down to catch Something then Launching back off up into the sky. The tranqulilty was only broken this morning by a heard of mountain cows trudging past the van many adorned with large cow bells, the time 6.30 what a treat for us

Its been nice to chill for a bit and not be pushing ourselfs hard every day and relaxing. Infact since we have moved on from rodellar we have climbed a total of 2 routes in 5 days its been wet and misserable, we still been having fun though we stayed at an amazing spot high up on the pass between Andorra and France which at 2700m high was pretty amazing and cold, very strange to go from stinking hot sun to minus temps in a few hours, there was still snow on the floor, managed to get some great views between the constant fog and low cloud Would be absoloutly perfect if it has been clear, Cheers to chris and kat for the heads up to check it out.

Take care all

Leaving rodellar

The sad time has come to finaly move on from rodellar and after being there for 54 days it did start to feel like home, but as with all things ending its the start of new things so to finnish it off here is the car park crew complete in all our glory cheers for the awsome time guys and see you all in a few weeks in Ceuse.

Were now heading through andorra to Ariege in france for a some more chilled climbing in the mountains then depending on how it is we will either stay here for a bit then head to southeast france or stay here for a bit, lots of topos and photos here if you fancy looking (its in french) http://cafma.free.fr

And finnishing off with the possing shot what a treat we are.