Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 3 Broto and Torla (Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park), Spain

After Alquezar we headed further up into the Pyrenees to the small town of Broto in the Aragon region, where we stayed for three nights. Broto and the nearby village of Torla are two of the main places to stay for visiting the western side of the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park. 

This was a view taken somewhere along the way.

This map of the National Park shows Torla, just outside of it, and Broto a few kms further south.

I took the picture during a very pleasant walk we took alongside the River Ara to the bridge which is where the red arrow is on the map, then walked back along the road. We were lucky with the weather as there was plenty of sunshine which makes such a difference when you are in the mountains. We were just inside the National Park here, but we didn't have the time to go further into it, and most of the walks inside the park are the kind for fit hikers to do, with refuges to stay in along the way. Too much going uphill for my liking anyway!

Along by the river I spotted this lovely Pyrenean Violet (Ramonda myconi), top left. They grow in shady rocky areas in this part of the Pyrenees. What I discovered about this plant is that it is a resurrection plant, i.e. a plant that can survive extreme drought and then come back to life months or even years later once they receive moisture.

The other plants which were in the open near the bridge are: right, St Bernard's Lily (Anthericum liliago) and bottom left, a pink Rockrose (Helianthemum nummularium).

The River Ara.

Top left: Rock Soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides).
Top right: Nailwort (Paronychia kapela), a creeping plant with tiny leaves and semi translucent white flowers that grows in sunny rocky places.
Bottom: Snapdragons of some sort (Antirrhinum sp.).

Another view from the bridge.

Left: Robust Marsh Orchid (Dactyorhiza elata) - according to PlantNet. It grows in very damp meadows, but also in seepages on roadside banks and verges - which was most probably the case here.
Right: Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea).

This is a Flax of some sort, although PlantNet says 84.5% it is Sticky Flax (Linum viscosum) but the leaves are much narrower. Apple ID also says it is Sticky Flax. It looks far more like Hairy Pink Flax (Linum pubescens) which has similar leaves to my one, yet that is supposed to be around the Eastern Mediterranean. i give up!

The church at Torla with the mountains behind.

Torla was prettier than Broto as it was older and more rustic. Also in the collage are a House Martin and her young in the nest, and the plant is Corsican Stonecrop (Sedum dasyphyllum) growing out of a wall.

I love seeing the different roofing materials! Adore those old stone roof tiles with the Sedums growing in amongst them.

More views in Torla.

Mountains from somewhere near Torla.

Same view from further away, from the bridge in Broto. Damn those annoying electric/phone cables which get in the way of lovely views so often.

The old and the new in Broto: the Romanesque bridge next to a modern one.

Close to the village there is a short walk to a waterfall, the Cascada del Sorrosal. The sun was annoyingly in the way for taking shots of this 120m high waterfall.

Looking back in the other direction from the waterfall. I loved the rock strata that look like steps. Mountain water is always so clear, apart from after heavy rain.

The next post is where we went on day two of our stay in Broto.

Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 2 Alquezar Gorge, Spain

I said our trip got more interesting.... I'd seen some photos of this walk at Alquezar online and thought - "I've got to do that!". This walk was the joint highlight of my holiday, along with a butterfly walk at the very end of the trip. 😀

Alquezar is a beautiful medieval village within the Sierra y Cañones de Guara Natural Park. It looked stunning as we walked past to start our descent down into the Rio Vero gorge. By the time we got to the bottom, my knees were well and truly stuffed. I so wished I had thought about using an alpine stick to help me. You know those stone steps which are really steep? We had them both going down and coming up. K has to help me with the worst ones as my knees just aren't strong anymore, ever since having cancer. And this was a walk marked as easy!

Once at the bottom it was fairly easy after that.

The river Vero came out through this cave but there was very little flow and the river was really shallow at this point.

And then, the excitement began! Yes that was what this walk was all about, taking the metal walkway suspended above the river and gorge bottom. I'm saying, I'm OK here, no vertigo!

For a short bit we went back down again until the main walkway started.

The river got more rocky here.

Can you see K taking a photo of me? More to the point, can you see how far ahead the walkway goes?! Here it was much higher above the gorge bottom than before, but I was still absolutely fine, even when we had to squeeze sideways to get past where the rockface stuck out.

Now you can see the path better - always open up the photo to view larger so you can see the sharper image.

Once we got to the end of the walkway, which included a hanging bridge, there was a lookout point - open the picture up and you'll see the village at the top and the length of the walkway in the middle of the photo.

There was a hell of a climb back up towards the village with K hauling me up the steep rock steps with me probably moaning and complaining by this stage. 😀

Unfortunately we didn't have either the time nor the energy to visit the town properly, other than the bit we walked through to get back to the parking area. But I loved this doorway with a door within it. One day we'll come back and see the town, but I don't think I'll do the gorge walk again!

I think it took about three days for my knees to recover! But I am not really complaining, as it was an absolutely stunning and really fun walk and I love that I can cope with this sort of thing now that I've mostly overcome my fear of heights. Ten years ago I would have said 'never in a million years' at the thought of doing a walk like this!

P.S. I have now done more blog posts this year, so far, than I have in any year since 2016! I'm so glad I have got out of my blog slump. 👍

Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 1 Prats de Mollo, France and over the border to Spain

Now we are going back to June and our trip around the Pyrenees. We didn't have the best of weather when we set off but we did at least see the sun albeit briefly! We avoided the motorway as much as possible and headed to Prats de Mollo near the border with Spain.

Here's a map of our route for the first two days, which was mostly just driving. It's one hell of a long way around the Pyrenees which is why we decided it was necessary to take three weeks.

I saw a few orchids at one of the places we stopped at to look at the views and this is an Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula).

This is Prats de Mollo la Preste, close to Spain. It's not the first time we have visited but it's a pretty little place worth having a look at, with a fort up above the town for those who fancy a good workout walking up there. We didn't!

Fort Lagarde showing on the right. It’s yet another fort designed by Vauban, in 1680. In fact, K and I had walked up there years ago, up the underground walled walkway which takes you to near the entrance of the fort, but when we got there, the place was closing! It wasn’t a real big deal, as we have seen so many of Vauban’s strongholds that we knew pretty much what it would have looked like.

The river Tech.

I'm guessing this is a sentry/lookout spot on the old town wall, probably guarding the bridge.

It's only taken my brother about 50 years to start using an umbrella, yes really! I am still amazed every time he gets it out. He used to just wear a hood, or get wet, he was so anti brollies.

Remains of old town fortifications.

This map was interesting showing the French/Spanish border as it has changed over the centuries. The current border is the black one. The little Spanish island in the middle is an enclave called Llivia, which we visited at the end of the journey, so I'll tell you about it then. This is just the eastern end of the Pyrenees.

The following day we had to change our itinerary as we'd planned to visit Nuria, a valley at about 2,000m altitude reached only by a rack railway. As there was low cloud and the temps at Nuria were due to have a high of 12C, we decided to give it a miss and continue on our journey.

We stopped for a short walk beside the Noguera Pallarasa river through the Collegats Gorge, near to La Pobla de Segur.

And here are some pics of us, somewhere. You know how it is when you pull over where there is a view but you never remember where on earth it was. 😀 Keith tells me that's why he uses the GPS on his camera so he always knows where his photos are, but I don't have that function on any of my cameras.

Our trip got a bit more interesting after this. 😀