After our boulder climbing trip in Targasonne we planned to meet and climb with our friends Dirk,Katja,Iris ,Long Tom,Alec,Tom,Meggy,acid Tom, Chrisje and Stella in the area between Cevennes and Camargue . On the way the weather was sunny that we decided to stop at the beach near Cap Agde.
Tom rented a beautiful villa http://villa-bellevie.fr/ in Corconne. We were with 15 people in this villa that can house 20 people. We had everything we needed : a swimming pool,3 bathrooms, spacy bedrooms, a dishwasher, a wash and dry machine, an oven, a lot of cooking gear, WIFI connection, a pool table, a ping pong table, a soccer table ,TV, barbecue, a garden, a well equipped kitchen, a large terrace, 2 bicycles,…. For an incredible price of 840 €/week !
First climbing day we went to Saint Bauzille. Ignace climbed a 6c Pollo and 7b Le sacre du printemps onsight and redpointed the 8a Petite grenouille adhesive . Manolo climbed an 7a en 7b .All enjoyed this climbing as rock and weather was excellent .
Second day we went to Claret. Ignace onsighted Hoegaarden 6c and redpointed 7b le bal du sueur .He also tried Macao 8a and 8b Biotop but needed more time and Beta. We also met our friend Gert and his family in Claret. In the evening they joined us for swimming in the pool and dinner. We had a nice evening .
The weather forecast for our third day was rain in the afternoon. Carl, Karen , Manolo and Alec decided to check out a small boulder area in Aubais. Here we found a small cave were you can boulder in overhangs . We found an online topo (http://jptrouillas.free.fr/Pages%20Guilhem/esca_aubais.html) in French that explained the moves of the boulders but we still had a hard time figuring out which holds were the right one. You could also find a Via Ferrata and easy climbing routes for beginners. The others went for a walk or relaxed at the villa.
Fourth day we went back to Saint Bauzille. It was a sunny day and all climbed very well. Dirk climbed his 50th 7b Nicaragua Vencera. Alec flashed 7a En toute innocence.Karen,Katja and Chris climbed 6b Surviwal and 6b+ Mangeur de Lune top rope. Manolo climbed his first 7c Caravanserail. He almost flashed it but needed a second go to finish the job.Ignace flashed 7c Caravanserai and worked a lot in 8a+ Du ciment plein les bottes .In the evening we celebrated the good results with champaign and pizza.
Day five we went back to Claret. The weather was cloudy .Ideal for climbing hard routes but rather cold to belay. Ignace was only 3 meters from flashing 7c+ Makossa . In the second attempt he had to fight hard to top this route. He found it an amazing route. The most beautiful route he had climbed now in Claret. Manolo flashed 7b Travail de Glandes .
Last day we went back to Saint Bauzille. Carl onsighted Abras Cadabras 7a and redpointed Starting bloc 7a+ in a second go. Ignace and Manolo flashed Starting bloc 7a+. Tom,Manolo and Ignace worked in La Véritable histoire de Victor H. 7a+ a route with very small holds and very technical and also worked in Du ciment pleine les bottes 8a+ . They were tired from their third climbing day in a row and need to come back another time to finish the job. The others had fun climbing routes in sectors ecole,Leda atomic and Cryptogame.
We drove back on saterday very early in the morning 6.15 pm and had no traffic jams and arrived 10 hours later at our home in Schelle (Antwerp).
We need to thank Katja for giving us every morning at 7.30 Hr Yoga lessons.
We enjoyed the climbing trip with our friends and made new friends.
Information :
*Nearest climbing shop is Le Yéti http://www.le-yeti.net/ in Jacou, 13 Rue Louis Breguet or Decathlon in Nimes.
* Biological food shop ; Satoriz http://www.satoriz.fr/content.php?page=magasins&mgxml=NIM#map 115, avenue des Français Libres 30900 Nîmes