Our own tradition of being somewhere unusual and/or exciting for Christmas Day continued again this year. It was great arriving in the dark on Christmas Eve, as it meant that we had no idea what lay outside... Having found the apartment, we got the fire lit straight away as it was cold outside and in!
We awoke to bright sunshine streaming through the balcony windows. It was no white Christmas, but it was certainly looking like a bright one. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky!
Excitable as ever, we enjoyed a Christmas breakfast, on the terrace, out in the sun, looking out to sea. It wasn’t long until we’d walked down to the beach to do a ‘temperature check’ of the water. We were in full sunshine, but the air was still warming up.
Clare was first in for the Christmas Swim, and declared it ‘warmer than Denmark in summer’
She was right too! To our delight, it was actually warm enough for a swim (rather than my usual dive in and straight back out!).
Ok, it was quite cold, but not painful and we lasted much longer than expected!
On the walk back to the house, the local hotel owner came out to greet us in the street. After making sure that we knew she was open for drinks and food any time of day, we were presented with a ‘welcome orange’ and sent on our way! I put it in the fruit bowl with ‘Terry’s’.
Having had freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast, after our swim we tried out some of the sugar coated cakes that had been left out for us on the table. Yum!
Eventually, in the afternoon we got ourselves up to one of the cliffs that we’d come here to climb. The view, over looking the town was spectacular and the sun on our skin felt healing. It was 23°C at the base of the cliffs!
We climbed three good routes at a sector called “Dornröschen” which had a short but steep walk in.
Once the sun hit the horizon, you could literally feel the temperatures drop.
We climbed our last route in skins, as the shadows crept across the valley.
After packing away our gear, we sat and stared at the view while munching on some delicious Christmas cookies courtesy of Aunty Susan and Co. Thanks!
On the way home, we took a short walk through the town and popped into the climbers cafe for a coffee and to get some upto date info about some of the newest climbing areas.
Then it was back to the pad for hot showers and Christmas Dinner - Clare and Ian style! Cheers!
Dornröschen, Leonidio:
- Three Holy Kings, 5b
- Teamwerk’5, 6a
- Benny, 6b
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