Cranky Climbing

Dear readers, let me introduce you to Cranky Mountain. He's the saint of all feisty, gutsy, persistent and of course cranky climbers. From this day forward, you should sacrifice Him some skin from your fingertips each and every time you go climbing. In return, you He will bless you with the push, that helps you to conquer your latest project.


As you propably noticed, I'm feeling pretty exceited about Mr. Mountain and His muscular forearms. To be truly honest, He's actually not a saint, but more like a mascot or a logo. I've been working on Him during the past weeks and hopefully you guys like the way He looks. I know, that He's a bit rough on the edges, but I consider it a part of His charm.

Why do I want to introduce you to Cranky Mountain?  Simply, because I feel like the blog needs to stand up from the crowd a bit better. Cranky Climbing isn't just another travel blog and I want it to show. This blog isn't about me, but about you, my devoted readers and …

Let's imagine, that you're on a road trip and heading towards the world-famous El Chorro to do some climbing. But you're missing a guidebook and a few extra quickdraws would be nice, too. Perhaps you also discovered, that your rope is too short for the lengthy routes. So, where to buy a topo and other climbing gear in El Chorro?


Option number one is to visit the climbing shop in El Chorro. The shop is called Aventur El Chorro and it's located about 3,5 kilometers uphill from El Chorro train station. There's a small selection of climbing gear and clothes for sale. You can also buy El Chorro climbing guidebook from Aventur El Chorro, like we did. Our version of El Chorro guidebook also covers Desplomilandia and Valle de Abdalajis, and in January 2018 the topo cost 25 euros. I consider the price very reasonable, even though some of the photos could be quite a bit more accurate.


In case you can't find everything you want from Aventur El Chorro, there's a climbi…

Hurricane Leslie. The first hurricane ever to hit Europe. That's how they described the big storm, that was heading directly towards us and our RV parked at a cozy spot near Peniche, Portugal. Concerned of the strong wind and stuff flying around with it, we decided to head a couple dozen kilometers inland around 6 PM last night. At the time, the wind had already started blowing quite rapidly and the sea was getting messy around the Baleal Island – the place, where both of us had been surfing just a few hours ago.

We first noticed Leslie on the weekend's surf-forecast.  The forecast looked kind of sketchy with all the red triangles, big swell and rising wind speed. On Saturday afternoon, our neighbors (i.e. a the guys living in vans next to us) also warned us about the approaching hurricane. They were going to move inland later in the evening and suggested, that we would find some shelter too. After that, there were several people asking around about what to do and where to go.



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Ah, the second week of meatless October. It means, that for a couple more weeks there's absolutely no excuse to cook pasta bolognese yet again with that gas stove or Trangia of yours. Instead, you should read on and get inspired to try out some new vegetarian receipes. Me and T actually eat meatless all year round, but I think this is an excellent time of the year to post a few super simple and of course oven-free vegetarian receipes.

But before I'll reveal the receipes, let me tell you something. We climb, surf, hike, go jogging and do all kinds of other excercises quite a many times every week. And we are both in good shape, even though we don't eat meat at all. What we use to replace the meat, is dairy products, eggs, beans, peas, peanuts, tofu, lenses and soy crumble. So far those things have provided us enough protein to keep our muscles growing.

I also want to emphasize, that it might actually be easier to eat vegetarian on the road than it is to eat meat. Why? Simpl…

It's time for some celebration! Why? Because we've been on the road for a whole year now. On 1. of October 2017 we left Finland for the first time with our RV and the trip hasn't come to an end yet. During the spring we slowly started heading back to Finland, stayed there from mid-June to mid-September and now we're back in Portugal. But for the whole year, our loyal Rimor Katamarano 4 has served as a home for the three of us.


About the numbers then. I think quite many of you are curious about some details concerning our little journey, right? Or at least those of you, who are planning on doing a similar escape from the numbing 9-to-5 life. So, let me share these few statistics with you, that we've gathered during the year.
25500 kilometers and 2500 liters of Diesel Whoah. Big numbers, but so is the RV. On it's own, our home weights about 3,5 tonnes and of course the actual weight with all our stuff is a lot more. This pretty much explains why the fuel consump…