Spain is next!

This has been in the works a long time now.  Dreaming for four or five years, actively considering for half a year and planning for two months now. The original thought was fairly straight forward:
 Home -> Spain _> Home
A bit of planning gave a timeframe and the rough destinations ...and it was at once obvious that direct flights were not in the picture. Mucho dinero! ...thus the plan was modified:
 Home -> London -> Spain -> London -> Home
Once the hotels were finalized the plan became:
 Home -> London ->  Malaga -> Ibiza > Alicante -> London -> Home

Right! So now you are in Europe and all you have to do is get from England to Spain. No problem, everyone knows that to get the best deals you should wait till you get there to make internal European flight bookings...? The falicy of this logic became very apperent once I checked what next day ticket prices were. Yikes! Like ten times the ten day advance price! ( Notice it is not a week in advance - those are still expensive too)....and of course at this point knowing that you're getting into London at 6AM would it be expecting too much to hope for a connection to Malaga that day? As it turns out, yes, it would be too much. ...oh, and it would be too much on the return flight as well... Many permutations of airlines, cities and airports later and we now have: one migrane, two lost days and a new plan... :

Home -> London -> Seville -> Malaga -> Ibiza > Alicante -> Madrid -> London -> Home

Yes, as it turns out, some of those internal flights were very cheap... well, until you pay for your luggage....and then they are just really inexpensive.

Yea!, I thought I was now good to go. The Spain internal connections should be the easy part - just wait for the day and walk up to the plane/train/bus/ferry counter and say "One ticket to Alicante, please."  ...um, no.   The ferry doesnt run in winter...only on Tuesday... the train doesn't go there then...its an overnight flight...bus? who knows, maybe, but how long will it take? So rush, rush check four different airlines two ferries and two trains and lose another day, and voila more schedule.

Home -> London -> Seville -> Malaga -> Mallorka -> Ibiza > Barcelona ->Alicante -> Madrid -> London -> Home

Well, the original schedule was pretty basic -  it was just a matter of being able to meet it. Well now I'm pretty sure I will. And in the end I get to go to a lot more places than I had originally planned. All said and done, I only needed four different airlines and one train. Simple!

Next time I think I might try it without a schedule.  ;)

So here was an interesting choice - would you, given the choice, save $$ and go way off course spending an extra 2 hours flying with an 8 hour (daytime) stopover in some new place, or would you just take the more expensive direct flight to your destination?

St Lucia - Gros Piton Day!

Getting there is half the fun - or so it is always said! Well in this case it certainly is true. Knowing that we were going to be climbing Gros Piton one day, we tried looking for the start point a couple of times in advance, but never quite found it. Got within a couple hundred meters one time... found sign posts north and south, but all the signs closer in have 'fallen down' - many still exist, but they are on the ground, which makes them really hard to see... On the day of, we came across some locals one of whom said he was headed there and would be happy to direct us - in exchange for the ride. A most agreeable arrangement.... Ten minutes later we arrive, and although I could go into great detail about the trek, it seems someone else has already done a much better job than I would.  So have a read of:

http://www.naturalbornhikers.com/GrosPiton/GrosPiton.htm 
The details are all very similar - even the guide Lucien was the same! - though he carried a banana this time instead of the rum (water) bottle.


Our GPS track and elevetion plot

 
 I notice the above link does not always function so you may have to use the trail search page and select 'St Lucia' and 'Pitons Managment Area'.




at the top!

Starting out at around 200 meters elivation, you climb to just under 800 meters. We made it to the top in 110 minutes at a relatively leasurely pace including 3 or 4 rest breaks. Coming down was nearly the same. 

In these pictures the yellow lines are hikes and all the others are driveable roads. For those that were there, N and S mark the north and south facing viewpoints,  A is a viewpoint where you get a great closeup of Gros Piton , B, another washed out bridge (under repair), C is the start of the hike near Fond Deux we didnt have time for, D a fabulous unmarked roadside/cliffside cafe. 

Viewpoint S - south -Vieux Fort in the far distance



Viewpoint N - north - Petit Piton in the forground and St Lucia's highest peak is in the clouds