Spain...Part 2

Hola!

We have managed to neglect our blog for the last few weeks but we're back online again and you will start getting regular updates again.  We now have our laptop with us and free Wifi at the campsite so it will be much easier (and cheaper) for us to keep in touch.

After the last update we had to go back to Sydney for a few weeks to sort out the ongoing Will saga.  Although it wasn't in our plan to come back so soon, we both really loved seeing everyone again and we were also able to sort out a few problems we had with the house too which could have been a right pain to sort out from the UK.  It cost us alot of money to go back at short notice and has cut a rather large hole in our holiday fund, but with very careful budgeting we have worked out we can spend another 6 weeks here before we have to go and work again.  Fortunately both of us have now had offers to return back to our jobs we had in the UK so we can still enjoy the next few weeks without having to worry too much about running out of money. 

We arrived back in Spain last Wednesday after an extremely long 40 hour journey back from Australia.  We had 3 flights, 2 bus trips and 3 trains plus abit of waiting time tying the transport together.  We arrived back at Tania and Nick's place about 2:30pm and then had to repack all our bags and sort our gear out ready for our flight to Spain early the following morning.  We thought we'd be exhausted but surprisingly neither of us suffered from jetlag at all.

We arrived in Alicante and picked up our new car hire from the airport.  We have used a different car hire company this time and for the same price have managed to score an awesome flash Citroen people mover sized car.  It was so fancy we were almost too scared to drive it.  It had only 11kms on the clock when we picked it up.  It has an automatic handbrake which senses when you stop and also senses when you want to go again.  It also has automatic window wipers and automatic lights, all which go on before you even realise you need them.  We have a little fridge, arm rests, and a sequencial automatic gearbox.   Anyway we feel pretty rich driving this thing around and are lapping it up as we will never own one remotely like it in our lifetime!

Our first night we stayed at the Orange House just to meet up with our friend Kris.  It was a bit of a nightmare as there was a group of rowdy uni students there who partied very hard and very loudly all night and were totally out of control with food fights, hurling, yahooing.  Needless to say we bolted the next day for a quieter place.

We stayed in a village called Sella (pronounced "Saya") in a very simple campsite which had no electricity, drop loos and showers that were very hit and miss.  But it was perfect for us, we were 2mins walk from the climbing and nestled in a beautiful mountainous valley.  We had 360 degree views of cliffs all around us.  The climbing is literally at your doorstep and there is so much of it there is probably a lifetime just in this one valley.  There is something for everyone, easy beginner climbs right up to super hard for the professional.  We ended up staying for a week here and just touched the surface. 

Yesterday we resumed our Spanish lessons in Finestrat which we will continue to do for the rest of our trip.  It was nice to see all our classmates and teacher again and to start learning again.

We have now moved back up North to the campsite that we stayed in just before we left for Australia last time.  We have convinced Kris and her dad Randy to leave the Orange House and join us here.  They have managed to score a 2bdm very flash wooden bungalow for half the going rate.  The price they are paying is actually less than what they were paying for a dorm room in the Orange House, yet they get separate rooms and internal kitchen and bathroom here and a tv.  Randy is only here for a week so Ed and I are going to move into the bungalow and share with Kris when he leaves. 

We are about to start picking up the climbing pace again now that we have eased back into it after our Aussie break so will crank hard the next few days.   We will possibly head inland a few hours to another climbing area in the next few weeks so it will be something new.  We have also heard of a really big climbing area up north of Barcelona which is in some mountain range 2000mtrs above sea level so we are now considering this as our summer trip rather than going to Germany as planned.   We are still considering a 2-3 week trip over to Kalymnos in Greece as well if we can find cheap enough flights etc.