Let the Games Begin…

The Valley

We arrived at Val Masino the same day Paul’s parents left, the plan was to get in some  climbing before the bouldering festival Melloblocco kicked off at the weekend. We took a wet walk from San Martino to Val Di Mello, scouting out the climbing and taking in the scenery. Looking up from the valley you can see hundreds of water falls leading from the snow topped mountains and they all lead into the crystal clear river that runs down the centre of the valley.  We spent the next few days lounging in the van and most of the wet evenings in a local bar wasting time on the internet. On Wednesday the rain stopped and the rock dried, and we were up and ready to climb.

Climbing in the Streets

Huge boulders

As we made our way through San Martino a woman sitting in a local bar looked like she was trying to take a sneaky picture of us. After pointing this out to Paul we agreed it was strange and quickened our pace crossing behind a car to evade her. Only when we popped out the other side of the car she was stood waiting with her phone at the ready.  After a quick explanation we ‘posed’ for a photo and it made its way onto facebook with the tag line.. “The first boulderers to arrive in the valley.”

Lake Como and Company

As promised we have tagged the photo’s from the Camargue into this post, I wish we had captured Paul’s bail from his horse on camera!

Sunset on the Camargue

The Famous White Horses

Riding across the Camargue

Breakfast Time

So after our little disaster in France we arrived in Italy, Lake Como and headed straight to Bellagio, a little village on the fork of Lake Como. Here we eagerly awaited the arrival of Paul’s Mam and Dad. This had been planned for a long time, and it would be an understatement to say we were excited to see them. In a twisted way the robbery had happened with just enough time for replacements and supply’s to be bought by both our extremely helpful parents back in England, and then shipped out with Anne and Eric. After initial hugs and welcomes we found ourselves checked into a lovely little hotel in Bellagio, with suitcases of goodies being emptied onto our bed. It was like christmas all over again.

Rollercoaster France

Our friends said it best when they posted a blog titled The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, nothing could be more apt for this post, and strangely enough we are speaking about the same country!

Millau 2013 – Bouldering WorldCup

So last week when we were wasting a rainy day on the internet in Targasonne, when we realised the next round of the bouldering world cup was to be in Millau, France. This fit perfectly with our timetable to leave for Lodeve and was only 1hr more up the road! It would have been silly not to go and show our support.

The Bouldering WorldCup 2013