Wednesday 10 Oct
Up and at reception for 9.00 am for a full day arranged tourist trip. We met Detlef and Ushi a German couple from Munster who had also signed up for the trip. A day of three parts, a 2.5 hour tour off road of the amazing countryside near the Fuente De mountain in a Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4 , in the Posada de Valdeon area, on this car trip we spotted vultures circling. These were precipitous unmetalled rocky tracks we were bumping along on, but Santos, our tour guide, was an excellent driver. We descended from 1800 m drove along a narrow tarmac'ed road to Cain and were dropped off there to undertake a 12 k gorge walk, along a narrow path cut into the side of the valley (in order to supply the hydroelectric dam in 1917). It was simply the most amazing walk. Flat until the last 3 k which was a steady climb/slog uphill for 1 k, a real slog, and a steep rocky descent for 2 k down hill, which made u wish you had cut your big toenails even shorter that morning...as you delicately picked your way down through the rocks and scree. We were collected at Poncebos (Santos had to drive 120k around the mountain roads to collect us there ) We went off road again on the way back, across high mountain pasture roads , crossing the Massif Orientale towards Estenama, where huge Pyrenean dogs guarded the sheep. Very Austrian feel, I felt I was back in the land so well imagined in the children's book Heidi. We went for a drink in the bar with D and U that night and shared family stories.
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| Zoom in to find the dog! |
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| Looking back up the gorge. |
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| View from the top of the pass - 1800 m |
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