Monday
Woke up at 3am. Bus to Liverpool St station right on time, then train to Stansted. Went to lounge for breakfast – good muesli with separated nuts and seeds and berries and Greek yogurt.
Rented car and somehow got free full coverage car insurance. Got sandwich stuff on the way (deer meat and chorizo and cheese). Went straight to crag – not very stable to stand on, climbed from around 2pm.
Went to the beach, swam briefly with some of the LSR people. Mexican tacos for dinner.
Tuesday
Breakfast same as every day. Toast and Nutella, banana with pb and j. Big bowl muesli.
Climbing at Guadalest. Set up a 4 for Viki, then did a lot of routes. 5+ through setting up a hard 6b+ that everyone else really struggled on and Nicole tried a lot and couldn’t get. Swam briefly.
Curry for dinner with chicken by Nicole. Tomatoes / spiced.
Wednesday
Same breakfast as normal. Did multi pitch with Isaac, 5 pitches, almost all quite easy, but then had a really cool 6a at the top involving laying back up at extended flake.
Bought ice cream on the way to beach, I did long swim and got probably hypothermic. Dizzy / disoriented / took ages to warm up. Pasta for dinner.
Thursday
Same crag as day 1, but not as high up the road. I did 3 pitches leading trad with Santeri and brought Viki up first pitch. Irish couple followed us.
Thai curry by Isaac for dinner. Viki cooked the rice. Really good / coconut milk base.
Friday
Back to Guadalest. Coolest day for me – 3 pitch multi pitch up to the chapel on the cliff top with Isaac. 6a+, 5+, 6a. Very vertical. Super exposed at the top. Walked over to the chapel. Abseiled down and got to the bottom just as torrential rain started. Made it down in 2 rappels. Last one ended 2 feet above the ground – so perfect!
Early dinner – curry, scrambled eggs and bacon, various other things.
Saturday
Left for Valencia around 10am. Drove straight to Airbnb, arrived at 1pm. Moroccan guy met us to give us keys, a bit confusing, not the host Iriana we had been talking with. Viki really hungry, had a €10 menu of the day with paella that wasn’t great.
Chocolate con churros at Santa Catalina – really authentic. Walked home and had some baguette / food for dinner. Went to grocery store on way home – lucky because all closed Sunday/Monday.
Sunday
Woke up late. Cooked muesli with banana and pb for breakfast. Went to the Semana Santa de Marinera parade – it was really cool. Man gave us brochure explaining all the brotherhoods.
Paella by the beach at a nice place with Sangria. Then walked over an hour back into town and got horchata and chocolate with Buñuelos. Walked home and had pintxos.
Monday
Woke up late again. Muesli breakfast. Left after noon for waterfall at Pou Clar, had manchego and chorizo sandwiches. Then drove to Bocairent – pretty / touristy town on a hill.