El Chorro

I recently headed to El Chorro near Malaga in Spain with a group of friends for some Autumn sunshine, sport climbing, adventure and relaxation.

We headed to the distant crags of El Polverin on the first day, this involved an adventurous ‘walk’ along the disintigrating kings walk way which is a walkway perched on the side of the gorge over a hundred metres up. Having successfully negotiated the walkway we headed down through the scrub and bush to cross the river. But when we arrived at the river it looked pretty deep and fast flowing! I volunteered to go across first with my friend Elizabeth to steady each other against the current. It turned out to be chest deep in places and pretty fast flowing! Once we were across we set up a rope and we all braced ourselves against the rope and passed the bags across above our heads to keep them dry, then just another scramble through some dense scrub, and up some loose rock and we were at the base of the climbs! By then it was pretty hot so I think I only seconded one route and then we headed back! A pretty adventurous start to the trip, and quite a lot of fun despite the lack of climbing!

I did lots more climbing during the rest of the trip at a few different crags, particularly Desplomilandia which was really good quality! In fact I enjoyed it so much I think I might now be a convert to Sport Climbing! I have discovered that I have a limited supply of fear, so if I climb something really scary and use up all my available fear, then I am usually alright after that!

It rained a bit on the last few days, but some of the crags were sufficiently overhanging that it was still possible to climb in the rain and being from Scotland we probably felt more at home!

I also had a shot a slacklining, as there was a slackline over the swimming pool but I managed to fall off on the first attempt and land with the slackline caught behind my knee- ouch! So maybe I will try it about dry land first next time!

Overall a really excellent trip, after also going to hear a Dave McLeod talk last night I am feeling very climbing inspired!