On The Road Again…

Rainbow Over Albarracin

Sorry we haven’t written in a while. We have been in Albarracin for the last 5 weeks, and today we finally decided to leave. Not because we have run out of things to do, in fact we still haven’t managed to visit the entire forest/crags Albarracin has to offer.

We have had a fantastic set of weeks here and met some lovely people, it is a shame to leave.

So for the last couple of weeks we have been climbing lots, having massive BBQ’s, eating delicious tapas and drinking copious amounts of alcohol, with a great group of friends!

For a short while Me, Paul and Ixi where the only remaining souls in the car park… this was due to the 2 metres of snow that fell that week. With all the snow we did what any sensible person would do and decided to go skiing at Javalambre for Andy’s birthday. With Andy’s savy driving skills and his hardy little van he managed to get us up the tiniest mountain pass, and we only had to push once! This was my first experience of Skiing and it was brilliant, with Paul, Andy and Hannah showing off their Snowboard/Skiing ability, I demonstrated the art of tumbling my creams with style! The slopes where in perfect condition with 2 metres of fresh powder and we had the entire ski centre to ourselves. The visibility was so poor that non of the holiday makers were brave enough (crazy enough) to tackle the slopes. It was hilarious we had to wade in snow up to our waist to get into the centre; and when you fell it was nigh on impossible to get up, with our arms sinking into the snow up to our shoulders, we spent most the day in kinks of laughter.

Las Bodas de Isabella Segura

So we have had a lovely Valentine’s Day which consisted of a great sunny day climbing, found myself a new project to work at, a lovely 6b.

Photograph By Ixi

Then to top the day off a last minute decision to stay in a hotel for the evening. A real hotel with a toilet, a ready-made bed and most importantly a shower.

A Real Bed!

Fantastic decision! Neither of us wanted to leave the comfort in the morning but after we dragged our clean selves back to Ivan we did feel mean for abandoning him.

Stinking in Albarracin

So nothing much has changed since my last blog post, we are still in Albarracin and we are still hiking to fetch water, oh and it’s still beautiful. This place seems to have the best continuous climbing conditions, but unfortunately that means it is the most consistently freezing place I have ever known.

To address the stinking part of the title… Although Ivan is equipped with a shower/splash wash system, the temperatures as mentioned are freezing. The water if not frozen is icy cold and threatens to freeze at any moment. Our heater cannot be filled in these conditions; therefore the shower option is out. Hotels in the area cannot help, and the only showers available are in the gym, which are available 3 days a week, we keep missing the available times and they are apparently likely to be frio! As a result of this, it has been no less than 12 days since we last showered! I have it on good authority that the weekend temperatures are set to be warmer and therefore a wash could be on the cards. Wet wipes and minimal washing in icy water can only do so much. It’s laughable how scruffy we are.

Albarracin

We have been here once before for the climbing, the village is lovely. The whole village is built into and around the massive boulders. When I say hillside I mean STEEP! People who live here full-time must be fit!