Getting Your Bearings

Unknown climber, Gandia, Costa Blanca, Spain

There's a funny thing about climbing that goes something like this: sometimes, getting to the crag can be the hardest thing, and even finding it at all is never a given. I'd even go so far as saying crag-finding could almost be classed as a sport in itself. For some guide book writers, the actual geographic position of a crag is a mere add-on to the main business of route description. It's clear from our ramblings in Spain that guide book writers must have been taken to some crags wearing blindfolds. On the back of a scrambling bike.

Take our recent trip to Font D'Axia. The crag is described as a small but pleasant crag in an idyllic setting, and so couldn't have sounded better. After driving several bumpy kilometres down a gravel track, we came to a clearing where the path surely weaved off to meet the crag. We parked up and started heading into the bush in approximately the right direction. The guide book assured us that we needed to climb up a couple of terraces and onto a plateau. So we climbed a few terraces, scratchily swashing past thorny undergrowth. I could tell from Stu's demeanour that he'd already given up hope of finding this one cleanly. I soldiered on, battling flicking spines and broken terrace walls until it dawned on me that we'd commando-crawled in a full circle, and were now right back at the car....

We decided to regroup over a lump of Manchego in the shade of a tree. A group of walkers were already sat having their lunch, and it occurred to me that they may have local knowledge, or even, maybe, just maybe, A Map. We approached them, quickly establishing that they were English.

Stu: "Do you know the paths around here?"
Walker "Ohhh, YESSS.....like the back of our hands! We've been walking here for over twenty years..."
Stu: "You don't happen to know where this path is do you? (pointing to map of crag and path)"
Walker: "Err...no..."

One of the others offered to phone a friend, while another told us that he had a son in Cambodia who might be able to help.

We decided to go it alone at this point. I eventually found it a few kilometres back, on a lovely path, absolutely nothing like the book's description.

Hot, tired, and a little scratched, we felt like we'd done the hard bit by the time we'd got to the climbs.