I am writing this not to make you jealous (much) but to say how you can get to hot rock so cheaply if you have the time to avoid major holiday times. With car hire at £50 per week, flight £109, apartment £35 each, supermarket food and drink £38 and one meal out, we could not complain. Add on a bit for petrol, car parking at airport and coffees after climbing and that`s all.

Benidorm has so many apartments, you are spoilt for choice. It is easy to get to a large number of crags quickly so although it seems an unlikely base, it is excellent , with a splendid beach for jaded climbing feet at the end of the day. Marin is good for warming up on after so much winter climbing. Puig Campana, Echo Valley, Sella, Guadalest, Toix and a lovely new 5 pitch sea cliff climb to the north of Calpe were all we had time for but there is still plenty more to do. Amazingly, there was no one about so we often had complete multi pitch routes to ourselves in ideal temperatures. A kind of heaven!