Tuesday 9th Encamp to Refugi de L'illa 16 kms

A 16 km walk that would take us up 1300mtrs right next to the Andorra/Spain frontier. Just as we finish breakfast in the cafe in front of the hotel Riu Blanc, the worst hotel with the most depressing room in which we have stayed in the entire trip, CB realises that he left his camera behind in last nights restaurant. With more than 1000 photos of the trip this is a disaster. It is 8am and we go to the restaurant. It of course is closed but also the sign says it will not open again until tomorrow. Big problem. We go to the police station and explain the problem. A very helpful women sets to work on the telephone and computer and within 20 minutes locates the owners of the restaurant. Even though it is their day off they kindly offer to come from their home and open up the restaurant. The camera is inside. Relief all around. We set off climbing away into the forest away from the noise of Andorras main road, distracted a little as we pass through an area where dog owning Andorrans obviously take their pets to go toilet. After 2 kms (and 350 vertical mtrs) we arrive at Estany d'Engolasters, a pretty lake and then we climb into one of the few valleys in Andorra that has no road and therefore is not full of buildings. We walk up and up beside the river Madriu. The sun shines intermittently and it really is a pretty valley. We arrive at the empty refuge at 5pm. The day has cooled right down. At 2500 metres the solid stone refuge is a cold place. We cook dinner and with no electricity and no fire its into the sleeping bags as the sun sets.

Monday 8th Ordino to Encamp

Chris Bennett has a hangover. Not much to report for today. The usual climb in the morning then over the top and down the other side. We lost Chris Jackson on the way down. He went the right way, we the wrong. We all ended up in Encamp but with CJ at one end and us at the other. Armed with instructions from the local police we found CJ and went in search of accommodation. Nothing much else to report except we went to a restaurant for dinner and CB left his camera there.

Sunday 7th Arinsal to Ordino 10 kms

After a good brekkie (Andorran breakfasts are the real deal) we put the giant packs on backs and walked up the road to find the GR11 track. Andorran hills are SteeP and whoever made todays track didnt bother with zigzaging it up, it just pointed straight up through the pine forest. The achilles tendons and hamstrings on the backs of your legs get a real workout. Climbing takes time. Even though it was only 2 kms in distance to the top, the 500 meter height gain took nearly 2 hours. From the top it was a steep drop down of the same distance and height into the next valley. At the bottom was the village of Arans. We didnt stop though, our objective was Ordino, further down the valley. By road only 3 kms but the GR11 takes you up over the hills in a 6 km detour. CJ and self took the road trip but CB was feeling like extra exercise (that boy has got energy to burn) and took to the hills. We headed off down the road. Andorra is small but very mountainous. In fact there are no flat bits. With a population of 80,000 (20,000 andorrans and 60,000 immigrants) and several million visitors every year, most of the valleys are built up with apartments and roads. The hills are filled with ski resorts. So walking through this part of the Pyrenees was quite different. We had decided to make our walks shorter and traverse Andorra in 4 days instead of 3. Our bodies were showing signs of the constant pounding and we had to ease up a little. On arrival at Ordino we sat outside a bar in the town square to await Mr. B. I took off to find a good cheap hotel and a place to have lunch. Of all the towns we saw in Andorra, Ordino was the only one worth visiting.

back 2 the blog

OK. Back in contact with the web again after being shut out by the Andorran govt monopoly. I have uploaded a weeks worth of entries and a few fotos so u may need 2 look back through "older" pages to read it all. I still hav 2 write up the last 5 days to get this thing right up 2 date.

CJ & CB Port de Baiau

CM & CB Port de Baiau 2757mtrs

Freezing at nearly 2800mtrs

Saturday 6th Oct Refugi de Baiau to Arinsal 11 kms

Up early to find it had stopped raining but a complete white out. We decide to go ahead with an attempt at the high pass anyway as it is early and we have time on our side. It is really cold so we all put on our full on gear. The way is clearly marked which gives us confidence in the mist. As we climb the cloud begins to lift and we see glimpses of blue sky. The path disappears as the terrain becomes more vertical and rock covered. Eventually we are just scrambling vertically on the loose scree towards the top. We suddenly hear shouting from above echoing from the surrounding cliffs. 3 young spanish guys had reached the top before us. They had climbed up from the other (the Andorran) side. As they come down toward us we stop and share information. They are doing the GR11 like us but in the other direction. I wish them luck but i think they may have left it too late in the year to get through the high peaks of Aragon. Half an hour later we reach the top. 2757mtrs. The Port of Baiau. We cross from Spain to Andorra. Its very cold but it looks like some sun is coming and we know that as we climb down into the valley and lose height it will get warmer. Its a relief because we had been waiting nearly 3 days to get through this pass. We drop steeply (1500mtrs over 8 kms) through lightly wooded country filled with waterfalls and the colours of autumn. We arrive in the village of Arinsal in time for a late lunch, book into a hotel and find that, unlike Spain where the rugby world cup doesnt exist, Andorra has french TV so the rest of the afternoon is spent watching the brits beat the aussies. Later we then watch the french kill our hopes too.

14th century romanic church Àreu

Friday 5th Oct Areu to Refugi de Baiau 15.5km

Today the plan was to put in a big effort and get over the Baiau pass (2757mtrs) and walk through to Arinsal in Andorra, a total distance of 25 kms. We got away to a good start at 8am, skies overcast but no rain. It was a long uphill hike. We had to climb up 1500mtrs over the first 15 kms just to reach our first objective, the Baiau refuge (2517 mtrs), 250mtrs below the pass. We made it to the refuge in good time, 6 hours. It was 2.30pm. We had decided to break for lunch there and check out the weather before doing the push up and over the pass. There was some big stuff coming our way and as soon as we got into the tiny hut the temperature began to fall. Within 30 minutes it had dropped 10 degrees to about zero and it started to hail heavily. We were really cold, so much so that I cant feel my hands. With the hail hammering down carrying on over the pass was out of the question. Getting warm was the main priority so we pull out the sleeping bags and bunk down. I start to tap out this message and realise immediately that my hands are frozen. We snooze and slowly warm up over the next couple of hours. As evening arrives the snow and hail turn to rain (a good sign, it means a rise in temperature). CJ cooks the evening meal and by 7.30 we are back in the sleep bags again trying to keep warm. The rain pounds down most of the night. The refuge is tiny and made of aluminium.

Baiau refuge

A tiny hut at 2517 mtrs above sea level. Normally surrounded by mountains, they are all covered by cloud in the foto.

Thursday 4th Oct Àreu rest day

We are up early to discuss the plan of action. The next 2 days walking take us over a high pass into Andorra and we are advised that it should only attempted in good weather. The sky only has a bit of cloud but the forecast is bad so we decide to wait a day. We have a lazy day with nothing to do in the village we dry out our stuff and sleep, the body and feet asking for a rest. Typically the forecast is proved wrong and the sun shines all day, taunting us. As the evening arrives it finally rains promising wet weather tomorrow.

Wednesday 3rd Oct Tavascan to Àreu 16.5 kms

After one of the great breakfasts of the trip, a real hotel buffet brekkie, we walked 20 metres up the main road, crossed a small bridge and straight into a vertical climb. No warm up this morning, within 20 paces the sweat was beginning to pour out of my forehead. Within 1 km we climbed 450 mtrs and then relief, a nice level track that sidled around the head of the valley passing through groves of autumnal birch with views to small villages. We stop briefly at the village of Boldís Sobirà to fill up with water and to put on our wet weather gear. The rain hits as we climb above the village and the temperature drops the higher we go. We climb another 800 mtrs over 6 kms, the last 2kms very steep and slippery. We pass the skeleton of a recently dead sheep, not a morsel of meat left on it stripped bare by the huge vultures. We dont hang around on the top, its too cold. We drop into the forest to get out of the wind and have a short lunch break. We need to eat but not moving chills us down. Another layer of clothes, beanie and gloves on Im still cold for the next half hour. We have to drop 1000mtrs over 5kms to Areu and do it in record time. The village is dead but the bar is open. We find an apartment to rent with a kitchen which is lucky because the bar doesnt serve food and the village restaurant is closed. The weather forecast is very bad for the next 3 days with the TV showing scenes of flooding in various parts of Spain. All our gear is soaked so there is a lot of activity washing and hanging clothes, tents, packs, etc.

Our photographer

Boldís Sobirà

Bridge into Tavascan

Tuesday 2nd Oct Estaon to Tavascan 11.5 kms

An "easy" day. Good weather, in fact the warmest day we've had for weeks. We have a 600 mtr climb over the 1st 4 kms through mountain pasture. Its interesting to note how over the course of the walk the geology and ecology, even human architecture, have changed. We are now closer to the Mediterranean, a warmer, drier climate, and now pines predominate. The treeline closer to the Atlantic was about 1200 mts altitude, now we have forest up to 2000 mtrs. As we are walking we come across a herd of mountain horses. Strongly built, they race down steep slopes at impossible speeds. We reach the top with me soaked in perspiration as usual. Its always interesting to look down into the next valley and look eastwards towards the next mountain ranges we will have to face. From these high viewpoints I try to identify where the next day's challenge is, though it pays not to work it out, everything looks incredibly steep and high. After a brief rest we begin the descent. Quite steep, we drop 450mtrs in the 1st 2kms. The narrow path then edges around a high, vertical bluff for another 2 km. I don't look over the edge, just focus on where I am placing each foot. I'm glad the weather is fine. I would not like to be doing this section on a bad day. We then drop another 200 mtrs to Aineto, a tiny village, fill our water bottles from the village spring. The water from the mountain springs is generally clear, cold and delicious. The stream water usually looks clean but with so many animals around its not safe to drink. I carry a water sterilizer for this. We walk on a km more to Tavascan. We front up to Hotel Llacs de Cardo. The hotel people know our host from Estaon who told me to tell them to take care of us. They give us a discount and 2 nice rooms with a bathroom each. CB immediately claims a room to himself muttering about smelly boots and socks. CJ and self take umbrage but open windows.

Dorve church belltower

Monday 1st Oct Espot to Estaon 17.5 kms

Well we started this walk 1 month ago during which we have completed 25 walking days. Now that we are into October I am getting concerned about the weather and the shortening days. We have some big mountains to get across in a few days when we cross from Spain to Andorra and we dont want to get caught by snow again. The GR11 section we will do today is usually done over 2 days but the weather is good so we want to push on. A pleasant level walk out of Espot is soon followed by the usual uphill grind to gain altitude. Halfway up a bit of excitement when a large fallow stag erupts out of the forest above and thunders down the hill towards us. It jumps the stone wall beside CB and almost runs into CJ coming up a section of road below us. Quite amazing. We carry on climbing going through a couple of small mountain villages. Walking this way you really come to appreciate how isolated these villages were before roads existed. Most transport back then involved mules and a lot of the tracks we are walking on are the original mule tracks. What is even more astonishing is that mules only stopped being the mode to transport goods between these high mountain villages about 2 generations ago. Now most of the people have disappeared from these alpine valleys and the grazed land is reverting to forest, the old farm buildings are deteriorating, and the villages are being converted into weekend and summer retreats for city dwellers.
We arrive at La Guingueta d'Aneu at 10.30am and for the first time on the trip we have the opportunity to stop at a cafe and have a "morning tea". We order a sandwich each with the local sausage, botifarra. A cup of coffee and a glass of the best mineral water in the world, Vichy Catalan, and we are ready for the 2nd half of the day. A 2km climb lifts us 400 mtrs higher to the village of Dorve. It appears completely abandoned but road works have begun to push a road through so a couple of the old stone houses look like renovations have begun. The sun is out and we have a 4km climb out of Dorve which will lift us another 900 mtrs to the top of El Calvo and then a 3.5 km downhill to the village of Estaon 1000mtrs below. It is a village of 20 old stone houses and the only place to stay is in the house of Señora Rosa Feliu Torrent. I had called her from Espot and she was waiting for us. Her husband had converted the ground floor of their house into a self contained flat. She gave us 3 cold beers which disappeared immediately much to her astonishment so she brought 3 more. She and her husband had farmed these hills for 40 years. She told me that her son lived in Barcelona and her daughter had met an Australian and lived in Sydney, since 1975. We had a story in common. After we had a hot shower (bliss!!) she cooked us dinner, an excellent tortilla de patatas with botifarra and salad, all of the ingredients including the eggs out of her organic garden. Delicious. After a good nights sleep and an excellent breakfast we agree that it has been the best nights accommodation so far on the trip.

Oooops. tech problem

Hi guys,
You will have noticed a lack of updating of the blog over the last week. Unfortunately, as the TV people used to say, this has been beyond my control. First of all, at the beginning of last week we were in a valley in the Pyrenees that did not have Vodafone coverage. Then we climbed over a high pass into the country of Andorra which of course is a separate state and appears to have a state monopoly on cellphone coverage. This has meant that I can receive calls to my cellphone but as I have no data contract with the Andorran cellphone company I cannot send emails. I update the blog by sending emails to the blogsite and no email means no blog updates.
I am writing this from a cyber cafe so you will have to wait until we get back into Spain before I can continue with the blog.
We crossed into Andorra in the northwest of the country through a high pass called the Port de Baiau (2757 mtrs). We had to wait two days for the weather to be right and even then we almost froze and got caught in a wild hail storm but managed to overnight in an emergency refuge up near the pass.
We have been 2 days in Andorra (in Arinsal and today Ordino). Tomorrow we make the climb through to the town of Encamp and then we will go overland for 2 days without seeing any civilisation until the town of Puigcerda in Catalonia. We will be meeting up with friends, Olga and Albert who have a house near there and staying the weekend of the 12th Friday / 13th Saturday with them. From there it will be 10 more days of walking to the end, Cap de Creus. I think that by now we have had enough of struggling up vertical climbs of mountains only to get to the top and see...more mountains that we have to climb. All 3 of us are looking forward to sweating our way up to the top of a mountain and seeing...the sea. We have been at it since the 1st of September and it has been bloody hard work. Fantastic views, great experiences, but we are all looking forward now to the end. We still have many more hard days to go and the weather could still close us out with winter coming on, especially in the higher altitudes. But we are now determined to finish the damn thing.