Climbing in Buñol

On Sunday we made a trip once again to the nearby valencian pueblos (it's amazing what kind of nature and climbing possibilities you can find that close). We went there with two cars. We were Fernando, Joel (esp) and I in one, and Stephane (fra), Titus, Peter (hol), Robert (ger) and Anja (pol) in the other. We left as early as we could, at 8, because it was going to be a very hot day.

Buñol, the pueblo famous for its tomato fiesta Tomatina, offers a luxurious climbing valley just a twenty minutes drive from the city of Valencia. After leaving your car behind and following a small river you come into a canyon that is full of walls that rise on top of you. The good thing about this place is that as it is so narrow you can climb all day in the shadow of the sun. That's a big deal as the temperature usually goes way over 30 degrees and it can be even dangerous to be climbing then. Joel had sugary hot tea with him in a thermos bottle, it really tasted awesome under the burning sun.

It's still nine o'clock and we had time to find good walls



Fernando rappelling (securing the other climber) and Joel going up



Some Spanish guys, Titus and Robert


The finlander who came down with a bloody finger after climbing 10 meters


Stephane rappelling with ease and Titus checking that everything is alright


Joel had a great day - he finished every route he started


This is the wall that I also managed to climb all the way up


Stephane enjoyed this beautiful roof (a horizontal wall)


The water in these river pools was, as the Spanish say it, fresco!


We spent half a hour trying to catch the fish with Peter




The Spanish and Arabic boys went nuts with the cold pool and were jumping down from the rocks - a bit of Maroccian music and.... VOILA!


Coming back after a long day