Sunday 14th Puigmal to Nuria

The weather for the last few days had been perfect and Albert suggested a better plan for getting to the Santuari de Nuria instead of a 2 day walk south around Puigmal (2910 mtrs) through Planoles and Queralbs, he suggested climbing to the summit of Puigmal and then down the other side directly to Nuria, a much more interesting route and , with the good weather, more scenic. So sunday morning we set off in Alberts 4 wheel drive (Luxury!! After spending the last few weeks having to climb the entire distance up a mountain on foot, to get driven halfway up the mountain is amazing!). After we parked the car, Albert accompanied us on the 2 and a half hour climb up to the summit, the last part of which was snow covered. Amazingly when we reached the summit, there was a party going on. It was a holiday weekend and there were more than 20 people on the top. The view was fantastic. Puigmal is right on the border with France (we had climbed up on the french side) so we were looking over France as well as Spain. We could see as far south as Montserrat and even Tibidabo, the high point just above Barcelona. After a quick lunch on the top we said goodbye to Albert (Moltes gracies!) and headed down the Coma de l'Embut valley to Nuria. The Santuari de Nuria is owned by the catholic church and I guess was originally a place for religious devotion by monks. Today it is a holiday place for visitors in the summer and ski resort in winter run by the Generalitat, the Catalan government. Apart from walking, the only way into this high alpine valley (1900mtrs) is by the "cremallera", a train that uses a cog drive system to get up the steep incline. Unfortunately for us, the resort was undergoing major renovations and so everything was closed leaving us nowhere to sleep (we had left our tents with Albert to reduce weight for the last section thinking that we would no longer need them). At this altitude the temperature would drop below freezing during the night so we needed cover. We sat at picnic tables by a water fountain and cooked soup and pasta on our little camp stove for dinner as the evening closed in. We were wearing every bit of clothing we had. A security guard walked up to find out what we were doing there and I explained our problem and told him we were doing the GR11. He immediately sympathised and said that he too had done the GR11. It was like being part of a brotherhood. He took us to a large storeroom below a ski station with blankets and mattresses and said we could sleep there. Fantastic! (muchas gracias Javier).