Climbing in Spain was very much a bitter sweet experience for me. Sweet cause the climbing I did do was great and the holiday I had was sensational but bitter cause of the amazing climbing opportunities I missed out on.

Over 12 days in October 2008, 8 of us rented a brilliant villa on the hills above the village of Alcalali in the Costa Blanca. A stunning location and great pool terrace made for relaxing times by day and fun evenings gorging the local wines and brai well into the wee hours.

The local crag was only 5 minutes walk from the villa and provided a few good sessions. The rock is all limestone, from my experience really clean and very well bolted. The locations are well accessible and very pleasant to climb at. Further, there is so much quality rock in the area you could climb the Costa Blanca for a lifetime. Although sport climbing will never be my passion, I think there will be place for a return trip in my future.