Mountain Lifestyle: The Tower of Power

Tuesday, 27 December 2016

The Tower of Power

Do you follow the Sat Nav, or your gut feeling? When faced with an impossibly steep dirt track that seemed to be heading down a very narrow lane with the possibility of a safe return in no way guaranteed, I decided to go with my instincts and use the common sense approach this morning - i.e ignoring the Sat Nav. Thanks to The Garmin technology, we had quite an exciting time negotiating several very small streets, many rough roads and then some terraced gardens before finally arriving at San Blas - today's Crag of choice - Located in a remote paint balling war zone!

There's actually a massive cliff running above the coast here, but most of it was made of soft, crumbly rock, so not ideal for climbing on.

Just below the cliffs is a free standing pillar called 'The Tower of Power' due to the steep and hard climbs on it. The weather was perfect and the bigger cliffs sheltered us nicely for the wind. Skins in December gave it a real holiday feel. Nothing like getting a late season vitamin D fix.

The route we climbed was steep and intimidating, but each time we stepped up, a hidden pocket or hand hold would reveal itself. Quality climbing on quality rock and a beauty sea view as well. It had been well worth the epic drive.

After a spot of sunbathing and a bite to eat, we scrambled up through the boulders to the base of the more solid part of the big cliff.

It was a good climb. The route on the main cliff was supposed to be better than our previous one, but we thought otherwise.

Once we'd had our fix on the rocks, we walked back to the car above the beautiful San Blass Bay and went for a cooling snorkel at the inlet we went to yesterday.

We had planned on visiting the small island of Comino, to snorkel in the famous 'Blue Lagoon', but after seeing the coach loads of tours shuffling into the boats all bound for the same place, we changed our minds. At the place we chose to snorkel, there was just us, tranquil turquoise waters, quiet blue skies and a few fish. We kind of like it that way. Having had a dip, like yesterday, we went to the west coast for sun set, but this time to see the cliffs by Xlendi. A crazy little sea side town. Check out in the photo how they've built around the sheer walls of an old Quarry! Bonkers! But the do sell a nice pastizzi (cheesy pasty things).

On the way home (after checking out a few other Crags), we stopped off in Victoria for a quick look around the Citadel. It's a serious building project and well worth a look around - especially after dark.