Sorting the dustbins from the cellar The three weeks in Cyprus were very pleasant, then it was a double hop, up to Athens and back Kos for the night before an early crossing to Kalymnos as the weather began to get a bit too wild. Ten months since we were last here, and a lengthy six years since Colin was. We often arrive in mid to late March and the place is quiet, but getting here at the end of February saw the whole of the west coast resorts absolutely deserted. Within a week the 'works' had begun with people appearing and the whole of Massouri turning into one big building site - w ..read more

Sunset off the balcony The crossing from Santander was flat calm, a pleasant change from last time, and the complimentary upgrade to Club Class was appreciated - as ever. We had a night in a hotel in Portsmouth, the fact that rats broke into the car and stole a lot of our food was the most memorable thing about that. Then it was three days in Sheffield before we were off again! Paphos winter sun A taxi ride (train strike - how typical is that?) to Manchester, followed by another night in a hotel and an early transfer for the four hour flight to Paphos. A week in and we have ..read more

  The spectacular road up to Luz-Ardiden skiing We left Chez Arran and headed west to the Pyrenees south of Lourdes, an area we visited about six years ago for a brief climbing trip.  One of us (that would be me) made a slight miscalculation as the whole area was snow-bound, it is peak skiing season!!! We made the most of being up amongst the white stuff with some great walks in spectacular scenery. The plan had been to head into Spain next but the forecast is cold and unsettled into the foreseeable future so we have decided to cut our losses and head back to the UK via the ..read more

Cliff top walks - Costa Brava Chez Arran was full over New Year so we had to move out, plus we have already played the game where the place is full of noisy youths celebrating the end of the year into the wee small hours so we were happy to go. Originally we thought about westwards towards Lourdes but because of the cool and manky weather we decided to head eastwards and over the border to Spain and the Costa Brava. A great call as it turned out, the weather was gorgeous, up to 20C, there was no one about and we got four days climbing on the granite towers of Solius. Sunset from ..read more

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Our house - back left - catching a bit of sun  Colin had almost four weeks climbing with us, we got a heap of stuff done despite some mixed weather, but soon enough his time was up and we packed him off north with a car load of food and a following wind. We spent a few more days at Avrieux getting use to the peace and quiet (did I mention Colin had a horrendous hacking, every few minutes for the whole of his month-long stay) and doing a few routes to keep ticking over.  Then we move around to the opposite side of the Ecrins to Venosc in the deep-incised valley running up to ..read more

Autumn in the Briançonaise - gorgeous  Colin duly arrive after a 15 hour epic drive from the Channel, though heavy rain most of the way, finally grounding his car by dropping it off a hidden a kerb in Briançon, a couple of miles from the pad. We went out to find him, the recovery truck was already in the act of lifting the car back onto the road - and relieving Colin of €150!  Ailefroide granite It rained for the first couple of days - how inevitable is that - we managed to squeeze in a damp trip up the Via Ferrata at the Rocher de Bez?  Then things perked up ..read more

Mont Blanc from 60 miles away After two weeks in Austria we crossed into Italy (via the Stevio Pass - that's another story) for a few days on the granite of Mello, then over the border again to the Maurienne Valley in France for a couple of weeks. It is an area we like a lot, quite high, so cool, some decent climbing and always so quiet. The Maurienne, nice round here There is lots going on in the area with road closures and works associated with the 58km tunnel under the area which is going to link Lyon and Turin in about 10 years - they have only been on with it since 2002 ..read more

Climbing at Oberried - nice  The drive from Rotterdam to Austria was as unpleasant as expected with horrendous traffic and pouring rain, but we made it after two days on the road. Ten days in and it has been as pleasant as we were hoping. We are stopping in the small hamlet of Burgstein on a jutting shoulder above the main Öetztal valley. The place is a busy working farm with lots of cattle (and kids) so a bit smelly and occasionally noisy but otherwise very pleasant. Most places are still very warm but up at 4,500' the days have been warm (low/mid 20s) and the nights have been s ..read more

Mucky weather across Europe It in nine weeks since we got back from Croatia and it has definitely felt like kicking out heels waiting for the autumn to come. We have had three trips away, a couple of weeks in the Yorkshire Dales, ten days at Rhyl on the North Wales coast and six days above Holmfirth, just sixteen miles from home. All were very pleasant, but it made us realise that the flat in Sheffield is certainly a quiet place to be - no tractors, seagulls, cows or sheep waking us at the crack of dawn.  Anyway it is mid-August and we decided it is time to go - ferry Hull to Ro ..read more