Prospective members who would like to join a meet please contact the Meet Secretary via meets@climbers-club.co.uk
Easter Rock Meet, San Vito lo Capo, Sicily
Date: Saturday 19th March 2016 to Saturday 2nd April 2016Venue: El Bahira Camping Village, San Vito lo Capo
By popular request a repeat of last year’s hugely successful trip to this fantastic area. Excellent single pitch sport climbing (with many routes actually in the campsite or within easy walking distance), and the possibility of more adventurous multi-pitch routes nearby. Joint meet with the Pinnacle Club. Sat 19th March to Sat 2nd April 2016 (but flexible around these)
The El Bahira campsite is a few kilometres outside San Vito town, and is really well situated for the rapidly developing sport climbing scene there. The site owners are very climber friendly. There are about 50 climbs actually in the campsite boundary and well over 250 within easy walking distance. There are several other excellent crags within a short drive. San Vito has a great beach, and loads of good bars, restaurants, and gelateria!
The guide book is very up to date (last published Oct 2014), available from http://www.gebro-verlag.de/gebro/sicily.htm. The campsite also has update sheets of new routes since the guide.
Flights are available to Palermo, about an hour from San Vito, with Ryanair (from Stansted) or Easyjet (from Gatwick). NB Sicily is a BIG island so don’t fly to Catania unless you plan to incorporate some driving/touristing! If you fancy extending this with a European trip then we are flying from Paris Beauvais with Ryanair – very cheap and with good reasonably priced secure parking. It is also possible to drive but it’s a LONG way – about 2000 miles. The best way is to cut down the actual driving by taking the long ferry (about 20 hours) from Genova to Palermo (around €200 for a small campervan).
The campsite website is at http://www.elbahira.it/ (there’s an option at the bottom to select “Englishâ€). It has apartments and mobile homes available at special low season rates for climbers of €290 per apartment or €270 per mobile home (both 4 people) for a week, with pro-rata daily rates. I have confirmed that those rates will be available over Easter. They do fill up so book early! For camping there are the standard tent/campervan pitches, plus there is a dedicated climbers’ camping area. As well as reduced rates this has covered cooking and seating areas, with cooking utensils, gas burners and utensils provided.
There is a bar/restaurant, shop and pizzeria on the campsite but as Easter is very early this year there’s no guarantee as to what will be open.
You may also be able to rent mobile homes on the El Bahira campsite from Happy Camp at http://www.happycamp.com/campsite/el-bahira-camping-village/, but currently (Oct 2015) their website isn’t showing dates for next year. They can work out cheaper but take note of their Ts&Cs re what’s included in the price (e.g. electricity, linen/towels, cleaning etc).
Most people will choose to hire a car but if not you can access a large proportion of the climbing by foot, and you will almost certainly be able to get lifts to visit other crags, and for shopping/touristing etc. It is also possible to get to/from the airport by public transport but as there are a limited number of flights again it will probably be possible to arrange a lift.
Meet Coordinator(s): Alison and Andy Cairns
How to attend: Contact meet coordinatorIf you have any ideas of venues for further meets please contact the Meets Secretary. If you have never organised a meet and would like to contribute to the Club then you may find it useful to read the Meets Guidance.
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