I always like arriving somewhere new in the dark, as we did last night. Waking up and heading onto the hotel balcony, this is the view that greeted me on my first morning in Spain.

I’m back here in Spain, this time with a group of students, and we spent our first day just south of Malaga, acclimatising by dipping our toes in the sea before heading inland and up to the climbing area of El Chorro.

We’re staying at Finca la Campa – the classic climbers hangout. Things have been upgraded since last stayed here. There’s a swimming pool these days, so I volunteered to do a health and safety check before letting the students loose in it! Sometimes this expedition work can be a real chore! Ha ha!

Beautiful sunset and 20°C as we packed our bags end of the day, in anticipation of the next days climbing…

Sunrise is at 07:40 here, so it was still pitch black when I got breakfast going at 06:30. The early start was necessary in Pryor make the most of the day before the rock got too hot. It was a stunningly peaceful start as we approached Roccabella Crag.

Sarah and I had been up to the crag the night before on a quick recce. The road is rough for UK standards, but pretty good by Spanish ones. The routes at Roccabella were perfect for my team, as they are dramatic but not too long or committing. It’s also ‘double sided’ so we climbed in the sun on the south side until it got too hot, then switched to the north side of some shade.

Plenty of impressively large Griffin Vultures were circling overhead all morning…

Later in the afternoon, we walked down by the Lake at El Chorro to admire the cliffs…

Roccabella Climbs:

• Trick, 4a
• Track, 4c
• Nora’s Stiege, 4c*
• Loved Grill, 6b+*
• Spaghetti Carbonara, 4c**