Mike Owen's blog: Climbing at La Moreria (Valencia region of Spain)

After Elaine's fingers had recovered from their arthritis injections, we headed off to Spain. We optimistically thought it would be for 4 or 5 weeks, that's what we were hoping anyway.

I'd always wanted to climb at La Moreria (see "Levante North" topo) in the Valencia region of Spain, so we headed there. Our first impressions were a little disappointing to be honest. The crag didn't look as good as the topo suggested, it looked rather dirty and kind of blocky at the base, especially after a 40 minute walk-in! However it was obvious that the rock quality improved after the first 5 metres or so and there were several tufas higher up. My main objective was the classic 8a called "El poder del carajillo" which looked fantastic. Unfortunately the easier routes on the right were in the shade all day, which meant it would have been far too cold for Elaine to try those, but there was a really good 7a+ just right of the 8a, called "La banda de Calanda" which she was happy to play on. Initially it was a bit too cold and windy for us but, after a couple of days, the temperature warmed up and conditions were perfect. We were the only climbers for the first few days, after that we were joined by two very good climbers, Paul and Nuria from Cornudella.

Sadly it proved to be a very short trip of only a week, as a few days after we'd arrived, Le President Mr Macron, announced to the nation that France was going into lockdown again. We thought very carefully about whether to stay in Spain or to return home. It seemed obvious to us that Spain would soon do the same, and there was a lot of heavy rain due to arrive where we were climbing. If we didn't head back we were worried that we'd be trapped in Spain, with all the worries of needing to be tested to eventually re-enter France or to self-isolate in a Spanish hotel, if either of us was proved to be positive, for two weeks at our expense. The safest and most sensible thing to do was to return home.

Despite having to return after only five days climbing, I was very happy to have managed to red-point "El poder del carajillo" (8a), on-sight "Tiempo de valientes" (7c) and I was very close to doing "Decotation inminente" (8a). Elaine's fingers got stronger with each passing day (until her skin eventually became too sore), none the less she was very happy to piece together and finally succeeded on "La banda de Calanda" (7a+). Stuck here at home under reconfinement I'm dreaming of returning to La Moreria again next autumn.