It’s the most obvious point of attention, and without doubt,
one that piques my interest all the time: The landscapes. As soon as the plane
flew over Paris, I couldn’t help but admire the large patches of green punctuating
the city. In the train to Valence, I watched open fields and mountain
silhouettes on the window. And as we drove to the crags, vineyards and olive
tree plantations were as abundant as coconut trees in the Philippines. They
were just everywhere.
These two days for me were as much about experiencing the
new climbing styles as it was taking in all the new-ness of being in this area
of France. The peacefulness and quietness of a small village, the days that
start late and end late, the fresh cold air that gets locked inside a stone
house.
Driving 5-10km out of Connaux could already take you to your
nearest climbing area (La Capelle), through narrow but well-paved, bending roads
that let cars run 60-90km per hour. There seems to be dozens of kinds of road
signs to remember, and everyone follows them, down to the 50km speed limit when
you’re inside a village.
Driving 50km will take you to even more crags (in our case,
in Mouries). Going further out boasted more greeneries, wide flowing rivers,
and quaint villages that all look like they’re over 300 years old because of all
the stone and brick finishes. Hill tops are almost always crowned with a castle,
and always made me do a double take.
So it was just to my excitement that we could easily check
out one of these ruins, which we did after a day in Mouries. And that’s
one of the coolest things, too. Because the sun doesn’t set until 8pm, and there
is no traffic to get from Point A to B, we could drive for just 10 minutes,
hike for another 10, and be on the very top of some century-old structure. Oh, getting to the top includes some low-ball wall climbing because some part of the stairs have been
destroyed.
Ah, but we are here for climbing, right? ;)
Mouries was actually Day 2, and it’s an old limestone crag that
sticks out for looking like hardbound books forced to stand on their spines. The
faces are flat like a book cover, too, and, as expected from these smooth faces,
are favorable to those with strong fingers. The routes were a crimp fest, but
because it stays in the shade for the whole day, the tiny features had nice
friction.
Another new and interesting thing to see were the old type
of hangers on the rock. They were old-style bolts that were hand-drilled! So
the protection came slightly fewer in between, because you can imagine how much
work would go into drilling in one bolt.
La Capelle was climbing day number three, and to our
surprise, it’s a 5-minute drive with excellent sandstone bouldering. Miel and I
can’t help but be amazed by how convenient the climbing area is, because you
can park right in the middle of the village, by the church, and walk 5 minutes
up and be in the middle of 10-15 foot boulders.
The boulders aren’t too high that everything's under the
trees (decent shade), the landings are flat, and there’s a good variety of styles to choose
from, from slabs and roofs to pinchy and crimpy problems. We tried problems
that had slopers and open holds, and they would stick, just because there was
enough granules (and possibly, relatively good conditions) that would bite into
our skins.
The boulders have interesting names, such as the Elephant
Rock and Lion Rock, named so because the rocks really look like faces of the
animals. And yes, the rocks are even properly labeled with signs and the trails
interspersed with symbol and color-coded markers; so even without a topo or
guidebook, we could easily spend days here and not run out of things to do.
We ended Day 3 by visiting Pont du Gard, a historical landmark
and apparently a UNESCO heritage site. It’s an ancient masterpiece: An aqueduct
built in 50 AD (the 1st century!!!), built by the Romans at that
time to supply water to the city of Nimes. To get an idea of its majesty,
the original construction ran 50 km long, and stands 50 m high, built from
limestone blocks that is plentiful in the region (no wonder there is so much
climbing here, ha!) Or maybe a better scale reference: The biggest arch of the
aqueduct stands 25 m high. And that’s just ONE arch!
 |
| With our new friend and tour guide for the day, local climber extraordinaire, Coralie |
😊
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