For some reason, I woke up before sunrise today, so made the most of it by standing on the balcony and enjoying the light, before going back to sleep for a little extra shut eye.
There is a change in the weather here and the skies have clouded over. Strong winds are also in the post, so before breakfast, we walked down to the beach and had a swim in the calm waters. We made it back for breakfast just before the heavens opened in a short sudden shower.
We returned to the crag of Avancorpo di Destra as the forecast was for more rain and this crag has one of the shortest walk in times at twenty minutes. The rock was perfectly dry but this time we climbed in jackets as there was a bit of a breeze - especially as we climbed some longer multi-pitch routes, so felt a little more exposed as we got higher up the cliff.
The upper pitches of the routes here were a bit overgrown, but the climbing was terrific - as was the coastal panorama from up high on my hanging perch.
From our elevated position, we watched as two big shoals of fish swam past in the shallow waters, moving like a murmuration of starlings. If you zoom into the photo below you can just about make them out. We wondered what could be chasing them along the coast? No dark whale like outlines could be seen in pursuit though. It was amazing to watch.
After doing a few of the multi-pitch routes, we moved along to some of the shorter, but more travelled climbs. Although they were on clearer rock, they were hardly 'well travelled'. The rock was so sharp, that at times it was too painful to hold onto!
The final climb involved a short over hanging section with rock that was like velcro! You just could lay your hands down on the fine limestone edges and your hand would stick to the rock, without need for a proper handhold.
As we were climbing the final route, the noise of the sea began to increase. At first I thought it must be more traffic on the road below, but then we noticed that the sea had completely changed. No longer was it flat calm - instead, lines of surf were heading to the beach and crashing on the sand.
A beam of light was hitting the horizon and a few spots of rain blew in for out at sea. It felt like it might be a sign that we should get back down off the cliffs before a storm arrived. And our hands were too sore to carry on anyway.
We packed up and headed down to the beach.
The line of bars and cafes along the waterfront were all seemingly closed, but when we asked at one, we were assured that they were 'open open'. Two chair were duly produced and placed at the empty table and minutes later, we had two coffees and our own private seating area.
It was quite a position to enjoy a coffee from - it really was beach side and the now sizable waves were almost reaching the buildings. The forecast rain never did amount to more than a few drops.
Climbs at Avancorpo di Destra, Sperlonga:
- Alan Ford, 5a
- Ipnos, 5b*
- Lex. 5a
- Il Conte Oliver, 5c*
- Filibek, 5a***
- Danzando sotte la luce, 6a** (one super hard move on sharp holds!)
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