Spain 7

Despite the sunny landscapes visible in the pictures below, it's been a rough stretch of gnarly conditions around here lately. We've endured some terrific rainstorms, ones the locals say are very unusual. We've been forced to be creative with our time and dash out during the brief, sunny windows that occur between the fronts.

The beach in Villajoyosa is close by and always good for burning off a little steam. Elise loves the play structures more than the beach itself. Look closely at the top of the spider web...

Elise's creative talents continue to surprise us. Between making paper clothing for her various dolls and painting unicorns, she has built a Barbie mermaid surfing set on the living room floor, complete with a standing wave that the dolls can surf across using Elise' homemade surfboards. She is a magician with scotch tape - it's a sight to behold.

Last week, we hiked up the Penon de Ilfach, an impressive rock tower on the seaside near Calpe. Due to the steepness of the face, a tunnel had been blasted through to connect hikable slopes that led to the top of the peak. After half an hour of rock scrambling and dodging thousands of aggressive seagulls, we reached the top......and found a family of cats! Elise was delighted and we spent lots of time feeding, petting and holding them when possible. Unfortunately, Pam got bit by an aggressive kitten - the wound was deep.

Elise enjoyed the cat summit so much that a week later she insisted we go back and do the hike again. This is akin to a six-year-old begging her parents to hike up the Squamish Chief! I felt it was our duty to oblige her. If only I could stash kittens in strategic locations around British Columbia, then all my hiking and climbing issues would be solved!

The Penon...

Flamingo in the salt lake by Calpe. The lake was full of them. Apparently they change colour based on their diet. This one was white, but others were pink.

The tunnel on the Penon hike.

Cats on the summit. Who'd have guessed?

A few days later, we drove about an hour and a half to the city of Villena to climb a via feratta. For those that haven't heard this term before, a via ferrata is essentially a series of ladder-like rungs drilled into a cliff face that allow climbing on sheer walls normally reserved for those with technical climbing skills (and strong fingers). Via ferattas are popular in Europe as they allow "normal" hikers to venture up cliff faces, places they'd never likely go. The routes are typically protected with steel cables along which you run a leash, but we chose to use traditional climbing rope protection and belays. The route we choose was about 200 m high and consisted of many ladders, traverses and two cable span bridges! On the bridges, you tiptoed across a tight cable with handlines, which was protected from above by a second cable. It was exciting and Elise had a great time!

After the via feratta, we attempted to tour some local castles, but all were closed. Elise asked, "Are they closed for restorage?" She meant "restoration". Close, but no cigar. We did see one of the most bizarre sights on the trip, though, and that would be a flock of painted pigeons. A local artist captures them and paints their feathers with non-toxic paint before releasing them, which we witnessed. The purpose of this we never figured out.

Villajoyosa, the seaside city closest to Sella is a pretty spot with colourful homes. We've spent some time in the city beachcombing between storms and having the world's best hot chocolate at the Valor cafe! No kidding, it's like rich dark chocolate in liquid form. It had better be at four euros a glass!

As the storms finally cleared, we were awarded with some sunny weather during which we decided to hike to the summit of the Devino, the large rock face that looms over the valley in which we climb. The moist earth had sprouted many mushrooms in all sizes and colours. We wish we'd been able to identify them - a feast likely laid at our feet.

As always, eagle-eye Elise spotted a bizarre insect on the trail. Pam and I walked right over it, despite it being about 2-3 inches long and brightly coloured. It had a wicked looking stinger sticking out of its backside, so I opted not to handle it. I did get close enough for a good picture, though! It was very large.

Near the summit of the Devino.

Looking down into the valley. Wild Side, the cliff we've been climbing at, is visible in the shadow just above the centre of the photograph. It's orange with dark rock along the top. The cliff was absolutely soaked after the storms so we had to climb elsewhere.

We've seen very few fossils around here, but were pleasantly surprised to find thousands embedded in the rocks at the top of the Devino. 

The Cabezon de Oro is a cliff we travelled to during the rainstorms. Elise asked to climb on a 5.11 route while we were there, so we eagerly obliged. I pulled her through the crux sections, but she went about 20 metres up a gently overhanging wall without a complaint - her hardest attempted climb to date and a very exposed one at that. I finished the day by climbing a long route as darkness fell. We then had to quickly pack up and hike down the trail in the dark and rain; luckily we had our headlamps.

The countdown to the end has begun. Whistler is opening this Friday, but I see the snow base is actually quite minimal. Regardless, winter is not far away!

Marc

Spain 6

The weather around here is not getting better anytime soon....

Spain 5

Our transition day from Mallorca to the mainland went smoothly and we landed at the Alicante airport around 4:00 pm. As dusk fell, we drove north along the coastal highway to Villajoyosa where we turned inland toward our destination, the small medieval village of Sella. Our hosts met us at the town square and helped us through the recently rain-soaked streets to get settled into "Casa Roc", our new home away from home.

Casa Roc is a series of small houses that have been painstakingly restored by a British couple who have relocated to southern Spain to run this business. Their chosen location, Sella, is a hillside village in the mountains just inland of Benidorm, a mega centre of beachside tourism. For us, Sella is perfect. It's a peaceful haven far from the hustle and bustle of the coast, much like our village in Mallorca.

The streets in the village are so narrow that cars cannot squeeze through, so we have to park on the outskirts and walk just like all the locals. This is a photo of the front of our casa, the best I could do in the narrow walkways.

Our hosts paid great attention to detail when renovating the house and the results can be seen throughout the rooms. This is a beautiful tile mosaic beside our front door.

Elise was very excited about Halloween when we arrived on October 30th. Spain celebrates, but it's much different than in North America. There was a village costume party, but it was held on November 3rd in the basement of their local community centre. We attended, but it was kind of weird to be honest, and we left fairly quickly. The Spanish children stood around eating white bread sandwiches and chatting in Spanish - we could tell that Elise felt uncomfortable. She did enjoy Halloween, though, and dressed up as a dancer before conducting a candy hunt throughout the house. We managed to buy a pumpkin at the local Carrefour supermarket and we carved it on the night of the 31st. It was a fun evening...

Fresh fruits and vegetables grow everywhere on the terraced hillsides. During our evening strolls, we can't help but gather up a few specimens, especially since so many seem to be laying on the ground in various stages of decay. Here we have salads made from our forages.

The climbing is quite good here, but in very contrasting halves. It's either on sunny, low-angle slabs (perfect for Elise and Pam) or on a steep, shady wall called "Wild Side" (perfect for me). Once again, all needs are being met, much like at the crags in Mallorca. It's unfortunate to me that this isn't always the case at the areas we travel to in North America. Rock type, local history and style seem to dictate the approach to route development in North America, which is very different than in Europe...

A donkey greets us each time we go through the gate to Wild Side. It's pretty aggressive and always noses into Elise's pack, which she loves. We fed it a pear, which it inhaled before drooling green saliva onto the ground.

We now realized we were very spoiled in Mallorca. The beaches there were magnificent as was the landscape and hiking terrain. We've been to the beach twice in the Costa Blanca, and although the sands are very nice, they don't have the same "wild" feel as the spots we hiked to in Mallorca. Regardless, we've enjoyed getting pummeled by the early November swell, but the water is definitely cooling off!

Play structure on the beach at Villajoyosa. Elise later claimed this was her favourite part of the day. Go figure.

We traveled south past Alicante to Santa Pola, a port of moderate size. Using our hiking guidebook, we did a rather disappointing walk to a lighthouse on the cliffs above the sea. The views were nice, but the walk was along roadways and under transmission lines - not the wilderness experience we were looking for. 

We did another walk in a gorge near the city of Alcoy, which was marginally better. We saw griffins circling overhead and enjoyed wildflowers, but the hike still had a somewhat ad-hoc feel. We hope to have better luck with some mountain walks. Right now I'd say we're zero for two in the hiking department, a far cry from the spectacular walks we did in Mallorca.

After a few glorious days of sunshine, the weather changed for the worse. We've been stuck in a cycle of heavy rain ever since, and this has made all outdoor activities unpleasant to say the least. Luckily, we have our comfortable house to relax in, but it feels like we are back in Squamish, housebound in November! Luckily, better weather seems to be in the forecast - we'll cross our fingers.

Making the most of a bad situation. A hike to the base of Puig Campana near Finestrat late one afternoon after the rains had tapered off.

We won't be climbing on that peak anytime soon!

Less than three weeks to go. We hope for better weather during our final stretch and to come home to the start of another good ski season!
Marc, Pam and Elise