Team Geared Up

KILDARE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Haven’t times changed when I can just jump across to the Mediterranean for a four day weekend of sports climbing?

Flight (Ryanair): €70
Car rental & fuel: €42
Accommodation: €30
Food & drink: €60
TOTAL: €202
When you think about it, it’s absurdly cheap! Still though, not that I was complaining :)

Originally, it was only meant to be myself and Nigel C, however by the time we left a team of six were preparing themselves for some bolt clipping.
Weather forecasts before we went were reporting highs of 16 degrees. Pleasant but not exactly tropical so I took the decision to not even travel with any shorts in the bag. What a mistake…..

Some info on Sardinia: an autonomous region of Italy, Italian is largely the predominant language, however there is the local dialect of Sardinian. It’s about a third of the size of Ireland, however much more mountainous! For more info, check out Wikipedia here.

As ever, the flying bus service (aka Ryanair) transported their plucky herd, sorry customers, into Alghero airport on the northwest of the island. A quick dash for the rental cars with the obligatory free upgrade (rule of thumb, always take your time queuing for the car after collecting your baggage so you’re last in line. They’ll usually have run out of the micro models and supply you with a free upgrade - we ended up in a Peugeot estate for three people :). It’s a two and a half hour drive across the country so you get a pretty good idea of the landscape on your first arrival. Much of the west of the island is agricultural, large swathes of green fields and hillside, however as you traverse east, it grows rockier and more mountainous (up to 1800metres) .
There’s climbing everywhere from what I can see, however a large proportion of it is focused on the eastern side around the village of Cala Gonone (Google Maps link), a small peaceful holiday village set at the bottom of a steep and winding switch-back road (read: I wish I had a sports car!).

Anyway the important bits, what’s the climbing like?!?! What variations! Every crag we visited felt like it had a different style, varying from sea-worn polished limestone coming straight out of the sea, to slabs to short-and-steep pocket pulling covering every length of pitch from 7 meter micro routes to 35 meter whoppers. There’s even the choice of large muti-pitches or trad routes to whet your appetite if you’re keen. The large proportion of the climbing is in the lower grades of 5a to 7b (5.9 - 5.12c), but there is harder stuff for those inclined although not as much, say in comparison to Siurana or any of the other well known crags in Europe. For those strong-armed folks, you’ll have a great trip but if you’re looking to tick some big grades, there’s better places - it’s not that sort of location. In short however, you’ll have a great trip and won’t be disappointed.

On a side note, I mentioned the mistake of not bringing shorts earlier. It was 24 degrees on Saturday and we were climbing right beside the sea on some rock that still seemed to have winter dampness in it. You can guess that one or two people were looking a little red by the end of the day - Irish skin just isn’t used to the sun :)

John H enjoying the 30 meter-plus pitches of the crag, Bucchi Arta. Just for the drive-in over about 15km of single track (poor rental cars :) is worth it alone.

Still though, the whole trip was a success and bar forcing Angela, the other driver to take her car down some of the roads that the Italian Job was filmed on (barely wider than a Mini), the whole group got on fantastically well. John H was proving that there are loads of Irish climbers that have the potential to climb hard if given the opportunity (bolts in Ireland anyone?), Eamon & Matt proved that Westwood climbers are getting stronger and stronger, Angela proved that height really doesn’t make a difference when you’re strong enough, and Nigel was looking ominously strong considering he’s only back climbing again after surgery on his shoulder - watch out for some great news from all the Irish climbers this year I think!

Angela getting to know the local wildlife. Very friendly!

Info:
Getting there: We flew Ryanair. Cheapest price we saw from Dublin was €60 return
Car rental: Relatively similar across all the companies and slightly more expensive than mainland Europe. Still cheap though. You’ll be charged more if you’re under 25, unlike in Spain.
Accommodation: There’s lots of choices from apartments to hotels to eco-farms (help out while you’re there). We paid €188 for 4 days for a 5-bed+1-person-on-the-convertible-couch. Functional with large fridge, tv (not that you’d use it), cooker, hot shower (although the tank was only large enough to support 2-3 showers before having to wait for it to re-fill and re-heat).
Food & Drink: It was late February so off-season meaning lots of shops and restaurants were closed. Supermarkets open 8am-1pm and 1pm-5pm, and closed Sundays. Very laid back! Many of the restaurants were closed but it looks like there’s quite a few choices. There’s the equivalent of the irish chipper but serving pizzas (And good ones at that) if you’re stuck with all the shops closed. Food is cheap, with a pizza costing at most €7. We drank the tap water, didn’t show any bad effects. Main-stream beers are the same price as Ireland, although I’m sure the local brews are much cheaper.

If you’ve any other queries, make sure to post them in the comments!

- Neal :) -