CEUSE

At the beginning of the summer I went on my first real outdoor sport climbing adventure. Mum, dad, Olivia and myself flew to Marseille in France and then drove to a place near Gap, which was also near Ceuse. We met Eleanor and her dad at 6.30 am the next morning to drive to the campsite and meet Natalie and Robbie. Martin drove into a high kerb and got a puncture and so we took Eleanor to meet them. First of all we went to the bakery to buy some baguettes. We met Nat and Robbie and started to climb up the the crag. After about 1/8th of the way up. I was asking if we were nearly there, it was very steep and very hot.Mum and dad ended up carrying all the gear. Halfway up we stopped for a rest and more water, over an hour later we reached the top.
It was amazing, the view was fantastic, I was very excited. We looked for some easy routes to start on, I had been given a guide book for my birthday. Natalie and Robbie put up the quickdraws and we all tried the routes, it is so much more difficult looking for footholds and handholds, but also more fun. By around 6 we walked down the hill, we had been invited for an aperitif (don't know what that is) by the French owners of Martins gite. It took an hour to walk down and then we rushed to martins. When we were there Neil Gresham called and came to our gite for tea. We arranged to meet the next morning at 7am to walk up the hill. I slept well that night and couldn't believe when my alarm went off. We climbed the hill and Neil helped my choose some routes to climb. He put up the quickdraws for me but he also used some slings and put extra quickdraws up , because the runs between the bolts were really long and I wasn't confident enough to climb that high above the bolt. I mainly tackled slabs which were quite tricky. It was very hot and we followed the shade round the crag. The next day we had off and went to Sisteron to swim in the lido which was great fun, later we met with Neil and Nat and Robbie and went for the biggest pizza ever!!
Neil suggested we went up later in the day which meant climbing in the heat but enjoy climbing when it was cooler in the evening. The walk up was very hot, but I was beginning to enjoy the walk and it became easier each time we did it. My best grade that I climbed was 6b+, Harley Davidson and also Mary Lou, I was really pleased with this. Unfortunately on my last day when I was climbing up the hill I felt very unwell and was sick and had to turn round and go back, I think I had sunstroke. I loved my trip and can't wait to go back.