Sunday 16th Panticosa to St. Nicolas de Bujaruelo 22 kms

A long day today but the weather gods were no longer with us and we had heavy cloud. First breakfast at the hostal. Spanish breakfasts leave a lot to be desired. As I have said previously, we have been eating very well (too well, despite the exercise my waistline does not appear to be diminishing) but due to the Spanish feeding timetable the early morning breakfast does not figure highly on their food agenda. The average spanish working person typically gets up just before heading off to work and grabs a quick cup of coffee to get the brain into action. Breakfast for most here usually happens at around 9.30 to 10 oclock when they get a half hour break from work and they have a large sandwich with another coffee or even a beer! Lunch is taken at around 2 pm or later with a 2 hour lunch break (lunch is the main meal of the day here so is typically 2 to 3 courses with wine and coffee to follow). Back to work in the afternoon at around 4 to 5 pm your spanish worker doesnt knock off until 7 or 8 pm, and having dinner at around 10pm. Bedtime is usually between midnight and 1 am.
The problem we found was, the breakfasts that we were being given were mainly comprised of coffee and a sweet roll. Hardly enough to go and conquer mountains on. Being up in the mountains we couldnt buy a lot of provisions so we were always looking to supplement the breakfasts with something extra. Not always possible.
As usual we walked out of the hostal and straight into a hard long climb. we slowly climbed up the side of a mountain and into the clouds. Fortunately the rain held off and it was like walking in very heavy mist. We passed a high mountain Ibon (glacial lake) and soon were at the top of the pass (Cuello Brazato 2600 mtrs above sea level).
Climbing down from there alongside the rapids of a crystal clear mountain stream, we saw a herd of wild Chamois deer nearby. we had also been seeing Marmots and suddenly the little, chubby, furry animals were everywhere. Chris Bennett almost stepped on one as he strode along. We stopped for lunch and wrapped up warm as the wind had a cold chill. directly in front of us was the huge face of Mt. Vignemale (3298 mtrs) with the top masked by grey cloud. As we got ready to push on the clouds parted to give us a view of the high, craggy peak. Awesome.
Then it was off to St. Nicolas de Bujaruelo, a long down hill walk over rough farm land being grazed by absolutely huge Pyrenean cows. Bujaruelo is, like everywhere around here, beautiful. With high waterfalls and wide, clean rivers with transparent swimming holes.
We stayed at a camping ground tonight. It will go down in our memories as having the best hot showers of any place we had stayed at. We ate wild rabbit at the camping ground restaurant and drank rose wine. I dont remember climbing into my sleeping bag inside my tent that night but I do remember walking up in the wee small hours to the sound of rain falling.