As a change from our routine of a stop in Burgundy on the way south we decided to sample the climbing in another famous wine region – Alsace. We found a lovely campsite in Eguisheim, near Colmar, surrounded by vinyards and beneath three ancient chateaux on the hillside.

We planned to climb at Guberschwir, about 10km away. After an hour tramping through the wooded hillside we had completely failed to find the crag (embarrassing as we’d been before! ) and settled for a different sector “Ancienne” This turned out to be a gritstone quarry, reminiscent of Hobby or Millstone but full of shiny bolts. A bit of a change from the usual French sports climbing

The next day we retraced our steps to find the original sector we’d been looking for – “nouveau”. This is heavily featured sandstone in a very pretty setting.

We finished the day off with some traditional Alsacian fare – sausages and sauerkraut.