• Pete on the first half of 42m long Herodes Atticus at Arcadia

  • Laetitia on the crux of Litsa

  • David Simmonite at Arcadia

  • Pete on the hike up to the Bella Vista crag

  • A VW classic ripe for renovation?

  • A well stocked fridge!

  • Jo and Laetitia enjoying a swim off the Plaka beach near our apartment

  • Jo, Richard, Laetitia, and Pete get their lateral flow test results .. all clear ... hooray!

  • Jo finishing up the big holds on the flake of Satyr

  • ? ?

  • You can't beat a beer with friends after a day of climbing at Mad Wall ... clockwise: Laetitia, David, Steve, Richard, Pete, and Jo

  • Jo and Laetitia happy after a day on the crag celebrating with a beer and friends

  • Jo and David on the super sunny Hospital sector of the vast Kokkinovrachos cliffs

  • Sheltering from a rainstorm under the overhangs of Geraki Wave with a beautiful double rainbow over the olive groves

  • Jo tackling the big huecos on Ouranogtion at Geraki Wave

  • Laetitia getting on our first route, Souvlakias, at Geraki Wave, and Richard lowering off his route, Platanos

  • Zac taking his job driving us to the airport very seriously!

Leonidio – under new Covid-19 restrictions …

Back in September we got super excited at the prospect of our first foreign travel trip since the Covid pandemic brought travel to its knees, and we’d booked ourselves on our first post-lockdown trip abroad … to the Moroccan Anti-Atlas mountains in early December for 10 days of glorious trad climbing before Xmas.

Then, with a rapidly rising number of Covid infections in the UK, Morocco closed its borders to travel from the UK!

We rethought our plans and changed our flights to Athens, Greece with the intent of a return visit to the amazing sport climbing on offer in Leonidio.

The Moroccan team had been myself, Laetitia, Steve, and Nick. But for one reason or another (mostly Xmas being so soon after the trip) Laetitia and I moved our dates a bit earlier, while Steve and Nick stuck with the original dates. However, this move made it possible for Laetitia and I to join in with the accommodation plans of Richard and Jo. All very sociable. Which is welcome after such a long period of forced social distancing! 🙂

Of course before we got to Greece, we had to negotiate the process of leaving the UK during a pandemic! We booked lateral flow Covid tests, sorted our Greek passenger locator forms, and downloaded our NHS vaccination passes. All set? Nope! The government went and changed the requirement for day-2 lateral flow tests upon return to the more expensive PCR test due to rising anxiety over the new Omicron variant. Luckily Boots were helpful and gave us a £21 voucher each for the unused lateral flow test kits.

All that remained was for Zac to drop us off at the airport…

Zac taking his job driving us to the airport very seriously!

Plaka

Unfortunately our first day in Leonidio was rainy. Just like home! 🙁

Laetitia and Jo resolved to make the best of it though and go swimming in Mediterranean…

Jo and Laetitia enjoying a swim off the Plaka beach near our apartment

Douvari

Our first day on the crags was at Douvari. We’d been to Douvari on our previous trip to Leonidio, so we knew it would be a great place to get “tuned in” again to foreign sport rock climbing after our long break from travel thanks to Covid…

Geraki Wave

Day two was accompanied by a threat of the odd rain shower. So we opted to head out of Leonidio a bit and check out a new area to us and go to the stunning Geraki Wave. The crag is set in a vast flat area full of lovely well maintained olive groves. All very beautiful!

Laetitia getting on her first route, Souvlakias at Geraki Wave, and Richard lowering off his route Platanos
Sheltering from a rainstorm under the overhangs of Geraki Wave with a beautiful double rainbow over the olive groves

Panagia

David Simmonite and Steve Coughlan had arrived in Leonidio and so they joined us at the Mad Wall sector of Panagia for our next climbing adventure…

Hospital

Why is this sector called Hospital? Who knows! 🙂

Jo and David on the super sunny Hospital sector of the vast Kokkinovrachos cliffs

After such a great day at the Hospital crags we got a bit carried away with the alcohol! I blame Steve and his thirsty-gene! It all stared at a very traditional Greek bar in town … carried on before dinner with very large G&Ts … and ended drunkenly with more beer back at our apartment. The room was spinning when I went to bed!

You can’t beat a beer with friends after a day of climbing … clockwise from the Xmas tree: David, Steve, Richard, Pete, Jo, and Laetitia
Jo and Laetitia happy after a day on the crag celebrating with a beer and friends
A well stocked fridge – it got emptier!

Bella Vista

After the previous night’s drinking the crag was spinning for me when we arrived at Bella Vista. Needless to say it was a slow day! But it was nice to see Steve Scott and Nick Wharton there who had also now arrived. They, of course, were up and climbing from day-break! It’s likely that one of the dark pixels on the crag in the photo below of me slowly approaching the crag with a stinking hangover is Nick already climbing his 10th route of the day – and that’s just before lunch. 😉

Pete on the hike up to the Bella Vista crag

Arcadia

Our last climbing day was at Arcadia, another new crag to us, and what a great place – although it is mostly north facing and sees little direct sun.

Laetitia on the crux of Litsa
Pete on the first half of the 42m long Herodes Atticus
There were many lovely little narcissi growing from the small limestone pockets that covered the crag
David Simmonite at Arcadia

Getting Home

Of course Covid, and our “Trolley” led government, had not given up on making the trip a good deal more problematic. Just days after we got to Greece, on top of the change from simpler lateral flow tests to PCR tests on day-2 upon return, there was now another change … we now needed a negative test within 48 hours of leaving for the UK as well!

We’d been recommended a medical centre in Leonidio centre. What a great place with a super helpful and friendly doctor-in-charge. Our lateral flow tests were €10 (compared with £21 in the UK!) each.

Jo, Richard, Laetitia, and Pete get their lateral flow test results … all clear … hooray!
A happy Pete – negative for Covid – and a happy Dr Nikolaos!

So we’re safely back in the UK now and Xmas is saved from Covid … and hopefully safe from the “Trolley” too! But I worry that he’ll concoct another lie or new rule he can break while we are taken for fools. 🙁

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