Climbing at ‘All The Universe’, Manikia

Ahhh! After a week in Greece, we finally got the climbing kit unpacked and clip some fresh bolts while hanging off a steep sunny cliff, at the sector called ‘All the Universe’. Excitement levels were running high!

And I got to tie into our new rope for the first time – always a nice process. It’s still just as blindingly bright as when it arrived.

The climbing was fantastic. Plenty of bolts, steep but slabby and well covered in positive holds. And most importantly, bathed in sunshine below a deep blue sky. At 80m in length, our new rope is the longest we’ve ever bought, so we made sure the routes we did were 40m to justify the purchase! There are loads of routes all packed into a small area, which makes them a bit ‘samey’, but also means that you can pretty much just look up and follow any line of bolts to the top. Which is exactly what we did!

But before all that, we enjoyed our morning ritual of watching the sunrise from the roof top terrace over a cup of coffee and breakfast and generally taking things slow.

I walked down to the village bakery at lunch to pick up some bread, and was delighted to ‘re-discover’ the little Greek Christmas cakes that we’d enjoyed (and probably overdosed on), on previous winter trips to Greece. They are like soft cookies that are oozing with honey and generally dissolve in your mouth.

The tiny bakery only had a few loaves of bread to purchase, but was absolutely packed with cakes! (Most of which are either dripping with honey or smothered in ‘snow’ icing sugar). And somewhat bizarrely, they also sold a range of spirits?!

With a bag full of goodies (and no alcohol!), I returned home and we enjoyed a very sweet lunch on the front balcony while being entertained by some workmen who were climbing a telegraph pole over the road. Health and Safety are certainly viewed differently here as the man seemingly only secured himself on reaching the top of the pole. The then snipped a few wires at full stretch, which dropped over the road! It was unclear if this was intentional!?

It was around 15:00 by the time we actually got up to the climbing area. Clare is still a long way off normal, but wanted to make the most of the good weather. As the sector ‘All the Universe’ is only a 5 minutes walk from the car, it provided a perfect venue for a quick and easy visit.

The shadows were chasing me up the route and although I reached the top while still enjoying the warmth of the sun, 40m below, Clare already had her jacket on. At this time of year, the sun leaves this crag at around 15:30. (The sector higher up called Rainbow has another hour of sunshine!).

We were very happy to have finally gone climbing in the area – I led the routes, but Clare decided that she still didn’t yet have the strength/energy/mental function to get off the ground just yet. We walked back to the car and watched the shadows fall across the crags and soaked up the ambiance of the valley.