The morning went as most morning. Up, eat and away. It was a two up day. With a planned stop in the middle of no-where. The book kindly plans a 31km day which even he suggests to divide into two. So we did. But why offer it in the first place?
The start was easy enough, a nice little road. But, once we started up we entered a weird forest. A bit like a rain-forest but luckily today without the rain. It was hot and damp. Not the prettiest forest we have ever been in. Everything was covered in moss. Even the moss had moss on it.
It looked like a fish tank badly in need of cleaning.
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| The moss forest |
It was weird.
Eventually the forest got normaller. And the hills around became much more Karst like. Magnificent rock formations rose above us. The whole area was at some odd angle where weathering had won in some places but not others.
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| Angled rock layers |
As we climbed higher we got views from all angles. It was different to anything we'd seen so far. It was limestone on a grand scale. (Destined to become annoying pavement in a few hundred millennia).
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| Layer upon layer |
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| More |
We climbed up through the layers to eventually get to Talaixa, where an old church was looked after by an old man who also tended the un-manned hostel. He was there and had cold beer and Lemon Fanta (#Why?).
Our arrival and mere presence seems to bring in a hoard of quiet walkers. It was a beautiful spot. We ate our sausage, drank our drink and moved on.
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| And more |
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| And more |
Now it was just down but of varying quality. The goal was not the place itself (Sant Anio; d'Aguja) but the swimming hole that was nearby.
There was also a canyon but we had seen enough canyons for one trip and opted to give the detour a miss.
Walking through the forest we could hear the sounds of people playing in water from many places below us. But all out of our reach. So we walked. Eventually we reached San Aniol d'Aguja.
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| Inside the old church |
Our timing was perfect. There was a fund raising event to collect money to restore the refugi. They served us with beer, Fanta Lemon (#Why?) and cake.
We took the cans back and they said we should carry them away. Normally, a reasonable request. But I pointed out we are walking and have been for 38 days so they kindly took them for us. With a smile.
We found our own spot in the river, far from the madding crowd. The crowd was dispersing anyway as it was a hike back to any accommodation other than the tents that we carried. We swam and sunbathed and swam some more.
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| The old church |
Only the sun dipping out of sight put an end to our antics in the river and we headed to the campsite we had scouted earlier.
It was the little bit of a little field that the wild pigs hadn't dug up. Wild pigs are diligent little diggers.
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| The bridge over our swimming spot |
We put up our tents and were joined by a hyper enthusiast Spanish walker.
We ate and slept.
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