A national park dominated by two spectacular gorges. We called off an impromptu attempt on the highest summit in the park but had a fantastic two days exploring the Mala Paklenica and Velika Paklenica.
Our first trip onto the granite of Lofoten after catching the afternoon ferry across from Bodø the night before. A couple of routes to warm up and then I got hauled up Svenske Diedret behind Ross, the first of many Top 50 routes for the week!
Erinna and I did our best Kate and Will impression in the heavy rain as we hiked to Paro Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest Monastery, on our second day in Bhutan.
Taktsang Palphug Monastery, the Tiger's Nest, is sat 900m above the town of Paro in western Bhutan. In the 8th century, Guru Rinpoche flew here on the back of a tiger from Tibet and mediated for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days & 3 hours. Now it's a prominent Buddhist sacred site, and a beautiful pilgrimage spot 2 hours trek up from the valley. For the lazy tourists, a horse ride will take you half way.
A weekend at Bamford & Millstone with WillB, removing the skin from the backs of our hands on routes which we could lead with ease a decade ago.
Our morning began on Gabriel and the Pearly Gates at Stoney Middleton. A tremendous downpour meant we beat a hasty retreat which pleased Blackmore, whose intolerance for jagerbombs the night before had turned the polished limestone from solid Type 1 fun to very sketchy Type 2 fun.
The weather soon cleared so we nipped across to Stanage for a trip up my last remaining Peak Classic Rock. Quite a contrast in rock from the morning's route!
On a dry but breezy weekend we backpacked the Pembrokeshire coastal path from Castlemartin to Tenby, choosing not to carry on to Saundersfoot so we could watch the World Cup Final! No good coastal backpack is complete with a tank, impressive sea stack and ancient church nestled into the rockface, so fortunately we got all three. Spent the night in Manorbier, which provided endless wordplays.
