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. 😀

Orchid festival at the Abbaye de Fontfroide

Hi guys, we’re back from our travels! We had very mixed weather again, just like our June trip. This year has turned out to be pretty rubbish weather-wise, apart from July and August. Our housesitter didn't even get in the pool, yet she was in it most of October last year! We had a good time anyway.

So, back to home ground. We haven't been to this orchid festival before as we were away in October the last two years, so this year's dates coincided perfectly. The festival is basically a grouping of mostly French orchid growers bringing their best wares for sale in a beautiful historical setting, where we, the public, get a chance to look around the Abbey and its gardens as well as drool over the orchids, and put our hands (deeply😀) into our pockets.

There were two halls this size with stalls selling mostly orchids. There was such an amazing display of colours and shapes and sizes of flowers, from big and blowsy to the tiniest little blooms which you wouldn't even have realised were orchids if you hadn't been told.

I bought a couple of new plants which I'll show you at the end of the post. I have been reading up a bit more about the orchids that I own, as some flower repeatedly and others not at all, so I know now a bit more about what I should be doing with them. I made sure to buy two new genuses as I don't want any more Phalaenopsises!

The unusual slipper orchid above is Paphiopedilum 'Pinocchio' - I couldn't fit it all in the space.

There was also this stall selling carnivorous plants, some of which were quite beautiful. I wasn't tempted though as I have had a few in the past which didn't thrive (probably because I didn't really know what I was doing!).

The abbey which dates back to 1093 is now privately owned. It affiliated itself with the Cistercian movement in 1144 and stood firm with the Catholic church against the Cathars. The abbey, once rich and powerful, declined from the 15th century and was dissolved during the French revolution. Refounded in 1858 but abandoned by 1901, the property was bought by French artist Gustave Fayet and his wife, to keep the abbey from falling into American hands. Thanks to them the abbey was restored and used for artistic projects.

Nowadays as well as being open to the public and having a restaurant and gift store, the abbey produces wine and has a small working farm. It also hosts cultural events such as musical concerts and exhibitions.

A rather interesting sculpture made out out many pieces of metal; I'm not sure what the metal bits are - any ideas, anyone? Click on the picture to see it larger.

The trees on either side are Strawberry Trees (Arbutus unedo) with edible fruit, and whose leaves host the caterpillar of the glorious Two Tailed Pasha butterfly.

Below are the cloisters.

We didn't have a map of the buildings and grounds which was a bit frustrating as we had no idea what there was to see here! That was the problem with pre-buying our tickets so getting to bypass the ticket office - not such a good thing after all. I did find out later that we saw most of what there was to see which was a relief.

We then found ourselves inside the church, which had a stunning display of ... guess what.... orchids!

There wasn't really a lot to see inside so I'm glad we had another reason to go there. If we went again, we would do one or two of the walks that one can do from the Abbey.

Below we are up one floor and looking down over the roofs of the cloisters.

There was a covered walkway with lots of these interesting doors - possibly monks' cells?

The front facade of the church.

Beside the church in the rose garden There were still a few roses flowering but the best time is May and June. Never mind, it was still very colourful here with sages and perovskia all flowering.

We then walked up the terraced gardens where there were a few herb, vegetable and medicinal herb gardens as well as a garden with flowers and bee hives.

Neptune's fountain.

From the terraces we had lovely views over the roofs of the abbey.

Here are the two orchids that I bought. I already have several Phalaenopsises which often repeat flower, a Dendrobium which repeat flowers, and a Cymbidium which I inherited from Mum and which has never flowered though I remember it flowering prolifically for Mum who had amazingly green fingers with houseplants (I need to put it outside during summer - apparently the difference between day and night temps stimulate flowering).

The following is from the Odontoglossum genus, which are known as Butterfly Orchids and come from the high Andes.

I hadn't realised that there was a bloom that had gone over on the left!

This is Ludisia discolor which is a terrestrial orchid, meaning it grows in the ground rather than up in the tree tops and therefore needs ordinary potting mix with added drainage and not the bark type orchid mix. We saw one in full flower and it has little white and yellow flowers. These orchids are known as Jewel Orchids and are mostly grown for their attractive leaves. These orchids come from south-east Asia. I'll take another photo to share when it's in bloom.

Anyone noticed that I seem to have become somewhat smitten by orchids since moving down here? 😀😁😀