This is the VANlife: Wildcamping with friends in El Chorro 😍

The previous week was spent with a bunch of friends who came to Spain to visit us. We had an incredible time with this stampede of 10, but now was time for a more intimate visit; Cyrille and Martina stuck around with us for another two weeks. The group of ten close friends from the previous visit had rented a luxury villa with a swimming pool. We parked our van next to it, slept in our van but could use all the facilities and comfort of the house. This was ideal for the group size and the limited time we had together.

VANlife: Wildcamping with friends

Now, was completely different. Cyrille & Martina were in a tent on a campsite a 5-minute drive from the wild camping spot where we parked our van. This was a very different experience! Now we shared all our breakfasts and dinners at the wild camping spot. It was so nice to have real visitors in our van! Since we have so many seats inside our interiors, this is really easy and comfortable. We also played many games like Unstable Unicorns & Peppers of the Caribbean. Awesome!

Climbing of our guests

A few days into Cyrille & Martina’s visit, Carlos also arrived, so much fun! We mainly climbed in the smaller areas in the vicinity of El Chorro, such as Turon and Poza de la Mona. Beautiful quiet areas of very distinct styles. Martina has climbed a 6b on lead. I think it was her first? So dope! And Cyrille managed to climb his very first 8a. OMG!!! Carlos mainly impressed us by the routes he chose. He is widely known for his fear of leadfalls, but still he pick the scariest 7a’s to lead on. Impressive!

Our climbing

Martijn managed to climb a 7a route, Manzanilla Madness, in his second attempt in Desplomilandia. What a beast! The route had everything. The first part was technical and tricky with pockets, then a very good rest. After that it was torture in an overhang, it was tough there, but not difficult. Finally, the last part was a slab with very small footsteps. Unfortunately, this route also had a very high undercling, which you have to grab on the left, and then lock-up on it. This move cost Martijn a lot. Later on, we found out he tore his biceps slightly doing this move. He has suffered from this for a long time. Very shitty, that right when Martijn climbs a route of his previous level again, he immediately has a new injury… meeeehhhhhhh.

I managed to climb a few very nice lines these days too. I climbed another 6c onsight – Captain Sardina – hurray! Super happy with this progress. I nearly fell near the top but managed to control the pump and clip the chains cleanly. I also climbed this iconic 6a called Blade Runner. You climb on this giant flake with quite some bolt distances if you ask me… But damn does this route look good. Check out this awesome picture Martina made of my ascent.