Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Toulouse and Targasonne...






It's been a while since our last update, so you may be a little confused about our whereabouts...  After Annot and La Camargue we visited Adrian, Delphine, Liam and Luka in Toulouse.  It was great to see them again and catch up since our last visit.  The swimming pool (for which I'd helped with the landscaping earlier in the year) was now finished so we had to try it out.  It wasn't heated, so felt a little Baltic in November!

From Toulouse we stopped in a Targasonne for a couple of weeks - we couldn't resist the great climbing and fantastic scenery, oh and perhaps the hot springs tempted us too!  We met up with some other English climbers from Bristol - Hugh, Ross and Lucy.

Unfortunately Claire had a bout of Autumnal 'Flu' so didn't get to climb too much.  I ventured out lots with Ross and Hugh and finished off lots of the classic 7B and 7B+'s.  I got very close on Eroto Mechanics 8A, but it wasn't to be!

After Targasonne we ventured Further South to la Pedriza - a lesser known granite area North of Madrid.  We were anticipating a long drive so left early.  Our journey took slightly longer than expected because Juan's engine cut out whilst travelling at 50mph!  It turned out that our fuel gauge is not very accurate!  We had, for the first time ever, run out of fuel.  Of course, Sod's law dictated that it would be cold, raining hard and 10km to the nearest fuel station.  I hadn't been running for over a year, but saw this as a good opportunity to get some training in!  Forty five minutes later I arrived sweaty and wet at the Petrol station. I acquired a Jerry can and filled it will diesel.  Fortunatley, a Spanish farmer recognised my plight and offered a very welcome lift back to Claire and Juan.  After a one hour break, we were on our way again! After a very windy drive we arrived in La Pedriza that evening, found a quiet spot and relaxed for the night... La Pedriza post coming soon!