Its probably many folks idea of paradise, 30 degrees every day, sea warm enough to swim in, hotels right on the beach, amazingly cheap - what more could you ask for? On the other hand a different perspective may see it as a sweaty, barren, over-crowded holiday camp in the sun! Having said that, as a mid-winter break from the UK - it certainly makes a change!
The hills are something different, over 6500′ it is 20 degrees cooler up there, with swathes of pine trees, masses of cliffs and small towns with shady corners. I suppose its good that different folks like different things of the hills would be as crowded as the beaches!

I managed to track down what look like the four main climbing areas;

1) Fataga: - a bit like Arico on Tenerife - accessible and about 70 decent looking sport routes with afternoon shade.

2) Ayacata: nice roadside crag, not many equipped routes, but the ones here look worthwhile and quite high. LOTS or rock in the area.

3) Roca Nublo: the 80m spire of rock visible from much of the island. About 20 routes, some quite large. Cooler than the other cliffs.

4) Tamadaba: supposedly the main climbing area on the island - but - two hours from the coast and a huge and utterly confusing area. It is basically a high plateau with the cliffs around the rim and approached from above. Very difficulty to find you way around - could do with a decent guide!

Sad maybe (must be a generational thing!), but getting a ‘new’ motor is always a milestone. The last one took us to Lofoten three times, and all the way to the Costa Blanca - so I wonder where the new (bigger - room for more grub, camping and climbing gear) will get us! A weekend up in the North York Moors will do for starters.

The Impreza was a great but brutal car and the lack of whistles and bells always irked - mind you simply hanging on was usually top priority most of the time.

Getting back from the garage with satnav was a revelation - a kind lady told me exactly where to go (in the nicest possible way!) - I may even chuck the scabby old road atlas away.

Isn’t it strange how you forget? After several superb summers in Lofoten we decided to break the journey south with a couple of days in Aurland, in the heart of the fjords. We had forgotten what a majestic part of the World this is, the aquamarine fjords pinned between high tops already sprinkled with the first snow of the season.
The area was still quite busy compared to the north, especially considering September is just around the corner, but the steady steam of coaches, camper-wagons and cruise-ships make you realise that we are back in the heart of Tourist Territory!
Highlights were an amazing glass-fronted viewpoint (above) and a short walk to a modest summit (4670′) overlooking the old mountain road, the car thermometer read a steady zero degrees!

A chill northerly wind and the disappearance of all the tourists, can only mean one thing, the short Arctic summer is coming to a close and it is time to think about heading south and get stuck into the Lofoten guidebook - though one year we would love to stay on and see the winter arrive. It is amazing to think, four short weeks ago it never got dark, and now the autumn is almost upon us.
We had a last tour of a few of our favourite spots, the normally busy Kalle beach was deserted, not a tent or camper-van in sight - and of course its Bank Holiday Monday at home and a sunny one too, with all that entails!

Colin’s three weeks went quite slowly - but then suddenly it was time to deliver him to the the tiny airport at Svolvaer for his return trip (which will include spending the night at Bodo airport because of the connections).
We decided to visit Eggum out on the north coast on the last day, a recently developed sport crag with about 20 routes - mostly in the harder grades. Colin cracked of three of the easier ones - up to Norwegian 7+ (about F7a) in good style, then we had a wander out to view a sculpture (a strangely intriguing head on a plinth) on a foggy headland before heading for home. The shot is a montage of the sculpture from two different directions told you it was intruiging!

The two weeks of grey weather followed by the wettest June ever (wettest MONTH ever according one report) have stopped me getting back up north for the final bits of checking. Grabbing the odd day in the Peak has had to do, though at least I have all the shots I need for the new guide.

Today was the wettest yet, it rained from dawn to dusk, sometimes light, sometimes heavy - but it kept on coming. News reports suggested chaos in downtown Sheffield so at 5:00 we decided to pop to the park to see what was happening - impressive stuff!
I returned a couple of days for a look to compare what had happened and the place was back to normal! The solitary silver birch is a useful reference point. All clear at our end of town but it still sounds rough in the lower Don valley and further down stream - ans there is more rain on the way.