Anyway, the story starts with me getting some funding to attend a international conference for fish and shellfish immunology in Vigo (which is in on the northwest coast of the country just above Portugal) to give a talk and present a poster, as well as visit immunology laboratory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The overall venue and talks at the conference were actually really good, and I got to make a few new European connections as well.
Following the conference , we drove across the north coast and then down the western side of the Pyrenees to do some rock climbing near the province of Lleda - one of the best and most popular limestone sport climbing areas in the world. On our way we made a few tourist stops, the first being to see the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It was a pretty cool building, but some of the construction work did detract a bit from my picture taking.
After that we spent an afternoon in San Sebastian eating at some delicious Tapas and checking out the old fortress,
followed by a nice drive down along the foothills of the Pyrenees.
Once we reached Lleda, our fist (and longest) climbing stop was at a place called Rodellar. I had been looking at pictures of the climbing in Rodellar for the last 10 years in climbing magazines and on the internet, and had heard some pretty amazing stories about it so I had pretty high expectations. They were not disappointed. This place was absolutely amazing - really quite and relaxed atmosphere, lots of good quality limestone, and some super steep yet climbable rock features that I've been really missing since my move to Tasmania.
I was severely out of climbing shape as a result of a finger injury and a complete lack of motivation for the climbing in Tasmania. So was Leanne (minus the finger injury part), but we still managed to have a really good time and climbed a good number of things. Unfortunately, I don't actually have any pictures of either of the two of us on the rock, but in my defense I had tired to set up the gopro on multiple occasions only to have the memory card completely fail about halfway through our trip. A bit aggravating particularly because I'm pretty sure I had some nice footage of me doing a climb called El Delfin, which is one of the most iconic in Rodellar and for good reason. I've included a couple photos of some other dudes climbing it to give you an idea.
It's technically not that hard on the grand scheme of things (7c+, although most people would still find it difficult) and I've heard some complaints about the sharpness of the holds, but for me and I would assume others who enjoy this climb it's all about the position.
After our stay in Rodellar, we checked out two other climbing areas: Paret de les Bruixes in Terradets and the main area at Tres Ponts. Both were amazing.
Then we finished our trip off in Barcelona. My lab visit at the AUB took up a couple days, but we still had a day to tour around the city. As we were a bit short on time, we did a quick walk down La Rambla (a very turisty strip), hiked up to Montjuic castle, rambled through the Gothic quarter, and finished off at the monster cathedral of La Familia.
As neither Leanne or I are really that much into city tourist stuff, we took our last morning before our flight home to drive up a mountain (Monserrat) not far outside the city to have a look around (there is suppose to be some good climbing up there, although we didn't do any) and see the old Benedictine Abby.
All in all it was a really good trip. Since I've been back, I've been trying to finish this damn dissertation but also have found a good bit of time to get out paddling on some of the really incredible rivers that Tasmania has to offer (at least when it rains, which it's been doing a fair bit of). I've taken out the Gopro a fair bit on thise excursions, so maybe that will be my next post. Till then-
