A return to the rocks
I needed to have a break from cycling so that my knees could recover, and so I left our very hospitable hosts in Lisbon and took an overnight bus to Madrid and then another bus to Benidorm. I had arranged to volunteer at the Orange House climbing hostel in Finestrat in return for free accommodation. I had to remove both wheels and my seat and wrap my bike in bubble wrap to get it on the bus which made moving my bike and all my things around very difficult!
I was able to see a lot of Spain on the bus ride and was reading a book called Entangled Life about the incredible abilities of fungi. Unfortunately when I arrived I realised that Iz had our bike tool and so I couldn't put the seat back on my bike! Someone from the Orange House offered to pick me up and then fortunately a passing cyclist lent me his bike tool.
I was reunited with my close friend Jodi at the Orange House who I hadn't seen for over a month, she had spent 40 hours on buses coming there from the UK! Commitment to the flight free life! As well as the hostel there is a garden area full of orange trees and camper vans with a view of the nearby mountain the Puig Campana.
We chilled out for the rest of the day and met the other volunteers - Tanja from Sweden, Kat who was from Poland but had been living in Scotland for a few years and her partner Isaac, Callum from England and John and Paul from Scotland. Tanja has a dog which she rescued called Mancha and Paul was looking after a very sweet little dog called Sally who he's fostering before someone adopts her. There is also a little cat called Zina who is definitely the boss and there were plenty of stand offs between Mancha and Zina! Almost all of the campers here are volunteering, with the exception of one guy working in rope access called Alex who lives full time in his van, most of the time around Sheffield and the Peak District like me, and Jonathan who's a semi-resident camper here.
On my first day I went climbing at Sella with Jodi, Tanja and Paul. There are loads of people from across Europe living in their vans at the crag, people were cooking lunch in the car park when we arrived! I stuck to easy routes to see how my knees felt and they were fine. It felt good to be back on the rock again but I was definitely feeling out of practice having not climbed for about two months! The weather is great here - sunny and warm - how we had expected Spain to be but had seriously underestimated the cold of the northern mountains! I have been doing stretching and strengthening exercises morning and evening which seems to have been helping the knees.
Unusually for here it actually rained the next day! Sam who runs the Orange House also runs a charity shop to raise money for her dog rescue charity as there are lots of stray dogs here. So we helped her to move a load of things which someone had donated to the charity shop/garden centre, which was an eclectic mix of plants and random objects including a plate with the Queen's face on!
The following day a bunch of us went climbing at Cabezon de Oro. It was a lovely crag with panoramic views around the surrounding mountains. Rich - Sam's partner - joined us, he's an incredibly energetic character who is always telling bizarre tales and making jokes which don't always make much sense. Whilst climbing Tanja accidentally pulled off a huge block the size of a microwave which fortunately didn't hit her belayer! Jodi and I started on an easy but scary slab which freaked me out and I didn't feel good climbing and so Jodi did all the leading for the rest of the day.
The next day we started off with some cleaning and tidying - the work here is pretty easy - mostly odd jobs like clearing garden waste and helping with house clearances. But as soon as we cleared out some stuff more would arrive so it was an endless job! Two people turned up to buy a guidebook, one was feeling sick and so asked if we could climb with her friend. We thought they were a couple to begin with but it turned out they had met on Facebook and planned to go on a climbing trip together without knowing one another at all! There was a lot of confusion as she suggested we go in her car but only she was insured to drive it. Eventually Jodi, John, our new friend Chris and I went climbing at Sella again - it's such an extensive crag there is so much to go at! Chris is from York in the UK and like us he frequents the Peak District - he is incredibly psyched for getting out climbing! The routes we did were strangely graded - including a 5+ with a mantle move with no footholds! Unfortunately Jodi pulled her finger on the 5+ - such bad luck! In the evening we played a game called Perudo which originated from the Inca empire - it involved dice and cups and guessing how many of each number were in the game.
The following day a group of us went climbing at Alcalali - it was baking at the crag in a sun trap! We were dripping with sweat but Paul and I still managed to do 7 great routes. My head was back in the game today and I didn't feel scared anymore! I did four 6bs which were quite technical and interesting routes. Tanja managed to onsite her first 6c!
Paul also did a long cycle touring trip around Europe and so was keen to hear about our trip. Both him and John work as climbing instructors in Scotland and live full time in their vans but when there's less work available in the winter they spend the whole season climbing in Spain. In the evening we tried to go to a local pizza restaurant but it wasn't open so we ended up at an English pub having some classic scran - a burger, chips and a pint. Fortunately they had a vegan option. Afterwards we explored the small town and someone decided we should all show one another our talents! John did some parkour which was impressive! Amy did the worm, Jodi did a handstand, I did some cartwheels and Paul told some dad jokes.
For the next couple of days Jodi and I started work renovating an old caravan because the house will be full soon and so we need to move out of our room. We moved some of the stuff out of the caravan and found that mice had been living there and there were lots of small holes for them to get in! We had to clean up a lot of mouse poo whilst wearing gloves and masks! But after this we jumped in the freezing cold pool to cool off and spent the rest of the day doing yoga and relaxing.
We continued doing a bit of a bodge job on the floor at the front of the caravan where the mice had been getting in - gluing some planks of wood onto the metal floor. We had medium success through pressing the planks down with some rocks, but I don't think wood glue is meant to be used onto metal!
The next day Jodi, Callum, Isaac, Kat, Tanja and I did a house clearance for Sam's animal rescue charity. Unfortunately the flat was on the fifth floor and there was no free car parking space outside. We ended up parking 2 cars and a trailer directly in front of other people's cars! Sam proposed that Jodi should stay with the cars to move them if people needed to get out despite her not being insured to drive them. Fortunately Rich insisted on staying with the cars instead and had to do a lot of manoeuvring to get out of people's way. The rest of us moved a random bunch of things down the lift - cupboards and tables, antique dolls, a full china set, a chest of knick-knacks and a zimmer frame! We managed to cram everything into the trailer, with cupboards precariously pointing out more than a metre, and slowly drove over to the garden centre to unload. The final mission was how to fit everything into the already overflowing space, before we returned to the house to play games around the warmth of the fire.
Another successful day! All of us volunteers went to Pared de Rosalia at Sella. Sam's son Dan's partner Marie joined us - she's around our age but now has two baby twins! Jodi's finger was feeling good enough for her to climb today, so Jodi, Marie and I did three 6a/6b routes including the classic of the crag, which were all quite thin and technical, and then Marie and I tried a 7a. Both of us managed the eponymous two-finger mono crux, but ran out of beans for the later sections! We made it up with a couple of rests and decided it was one to come back for. On the drive home Tanja, Jodi and I made up for the lack of signal for Spotify by taking turns to sing a song for the others to guess the name!
Yet another day climbing! Jodi and I went to Guadalest crag with a guest called Amy who is from Colorado and came over here to do some work guiding, and decided to stay in the house for a week afterwards. On route to the crag we saw a car being stopped by the police which turned out to be Rich and Tanja getting a fine, as Rich hadn't got round to fixing the indicator lights on the trailer! We had the crag all to ourselves, and did some great long routes. I managed to onsite a 6C, although I felt like I was coming off for the whole of the first half the route as the holds were fairly non-existent.
On our well-deserved rest day Paul helped Jodi and I to cut and drill some pallet wood to hold together the existing panels on the walls of the caravan and we painted the walls. There were still a lot of holes left so we had to improvise with some duct tape. It was a big improvement on our new home to be.
Afterwards Tanja and Jodi and I went to the beach for a swim with Manca, who had a great time because she got to meet plenty of other dogs. It was our first night in the caravan and fortunately it was quite cosy with a little storage heater.
A bigger group of us made another trip to Guadalest. Jodi and I did a great two pitch route which had a surprisingly big overhang for a 5C! It was fun to multi-pitch again and we had great views over the surrounding valley. Jodi made some valiant attempts on a 6b but it was quite awkward and so I finished it off. By that point it was time to return home for dinner.
A Finnish couple, Hannah and Tim, had turned up to camp - they live full-time in their van and tour around Europe climbing and kite surfing for most of the year, and spend the Summer in their tiny house in Finland. Living the dream! They both work for 27 crags - a subscription based online guidebook. A long debate ensued between Amy and Tim over whether online platforms that are replacing guidebooks should be free and volunteer based like the Crag, or cost something so that route developers can be paid for logging information about routes that they have put a lot of work into developing, like 27 Crags.
Tanja, Callum, Isaac, Tim and I went to a sector called Doggy Guantanamo at Sella - Rich and Jonathan from the Orange House had put up most of the routes there. The routes are clearly following a theme here - we did Piss on a Pooch and Doggy Guantanamo - which was unexpectedly my first 7a onsight! It had a technical lower half followed by a pumpy but easier finish. We also tried a 7a+ La Bilyruina which was very cruxy including one very reachy section, which Tim cruised up and I took a few falls on, eventually making it up. .
When we returned a bit of a saga ensued over a guidebook which a couple wanted to buy. The guidebooks were in the reception but the key was nowhere to be found. I phoned Sam but she had no idea where it was. First me, next Callum and then Paul came to search for possible hiding points around the door which I think the couple were a bit bewildered by. Eventually Paul sold them his guidebook as he could get another one when we found the key. I felt like this summed up the general chaotic vibes of the Orange House.
On my last day at the Orange House Jodi, Hannah and I went climbing at Sella again after clearing some garden waste in the morning. Jodi was going really well on a 6b and a 6c and Hannah and I did the classic of the sector - Kashba - a 6c+. I had tried this route multiple times last time I was here but had always fallen off, and so I was pretty chuffed to do it clean. I got a lift back with Paul who had been climbing nearby, and we stopped off to have a beer with old John on our way back, he is 70 odd years old but is still climbing solidly despite walking into crags with a stick! We had planned to go out to the local pizza restaurant but it was closed again! Me and Jodi only had two peppers to contribute but between us all we managed to rustle up two cracking curries for a big group meal. We stayed up drinking beers and telling tales - it turned out that back in the day Paul had been a graffiti artist and was interrogated in a cell by the British Transport Police for spray painting trains
On the 1st of February I said goodbye to everyone at the Orange House, making a close escape from doing another house clearance, and got a bla bla car to Algeciras. The car was pretty small and the back seats didn't go down so even with the wheels off my bike was balanced across the top of the back seats and taking up half of the car! The driver Manuel was a pop singer and had been attending a songwriting event in Benidorm - he hoped to participate in Eurovision next year! Another girl who was getting a lift worked in the ferry port in Algeciras and so was giving me all the information about getting the ferry to Morocco. Manuel very kindly dropped me out of town so that I could find somewhere to camp. Unfortunately as I was putting the wheels back on my bike I was approached by two soldiers who told me that the area was a military base and it was forbidden for me to be there! So I continued cycling along the main road, but every track that I went down hoping to find a quiet spot to camp turned out to be a housing development. Eventually I found a spot in a clearing just off the road, made some spaghetti and settled down for the night.
The following morning I continued cycling 10 kilometres to Tarifa and then treated myself to some vegan banana bread and an oat latte. I waited for Iz on the beach whilst gazing out on the expanse of sea, which we would cross later that day to continue the next phase of our adventure in Morocco!