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. 👍