Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 11 Andorra

As we had a few days to spare due to bad weather changing our plans, we decided to visit somewhere new - Andorra. We spent a couple of nights at the campsite in the capital town of Andorra la Vella. At first it seemed an ideal base for exploring Andorra, but traffic was horrendous and the noise was awful. We were not impressed by how built up Andorra was, and how ugly those built up places were. Think ski resort equivalent of concrete ugliness on the Spanish costas from the 1960s.

However, once you get away from the concrete, the landscape is amazing. Just peace and quiet and mountain scenery everywhere. 

We drove up to Port de Cabus, a dead end at 2,302m altitude. There is a rough track down the mountainside to Spain, but it's only accessible by 4wd vehicles.

This bird was perched quite close to us - it's a Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta).

There were a few wildflowers - the pink flower is Moss Campion (Silene acaulis), but I found very few due to the usual grazing....

...and here are the culprits!

I couldn't mind too much as I love horses too.

We then drove down the mountain looking for somewhere else to go. I saw a nature reserve marked on the map, but just after we turned off the main road into the road leading there, we saw a No Motorhomes sign. A bit stupid not to put it before the entrance to the side road, we thought. When we got to the car park, unfortunately there was a ticket office or info booth. As we sat there wondering whether to risk it or not, a knock came at the door. "You can't park here" we were told. It's so frustrating when this happens as we have no interest in camping there for the night, we just want to go for a walk in the nature reserve like all the other people there!

I found somewhere else marked as a walk on the map and on the way we stopped by this bridge to have a look. It's hard to know if it is an old bridge or just done in the style of one, as it looks a bit too freshly done, but whatever, it was cute.

A bit further on beside the same stream was our walk, the 'Ruta del Ferro' (Iron Route) where there is an old iron mine that can be visited, but we gave that a miss. Near there is this place where there is iron in the ground as can be seen by the rusty orange colour on the rock.

An interesting legume plant (Lathyrus laevigatus).

We walked along beside a stream where this damp meadow was absolutely full of this attractive Bistort (Bistorta officinalis) with an umbellifer of some sort behind.

The Valira d'Orient stream.

We then found ourselves in a large wildflower meadow up above the stream with a strange group of sculptures, which were rather amusing.

I found the wildflowers more interesting though!

Below we have a Speckled Yellow Moth (Pseudopanthera macularia) on the left and a Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) caterpillar on the right. I've never seen a Large Tortoiseshell so this was quite exciting!

It's been a long time since I saw a Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae) and this one was so interested in nectaring that I was able to get some reasonable photos (I wasn't using my 'butterfly' camera though so I couldn't get really close up shots).

Below left is a very tatty Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) on Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) and on the right is a Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus).

The wacky statues from beside the stream.

A bit further along we came across this bridge situated in a strange place. Did the river change its course, we wondered?

Nope, it was another piece of art! I loved the metal kids pushing the big rock up the slope. What a great bit of art.

Below is a map showing from Lake Sant Maurici to Andorra and the places in Andorra that we visited on this day.

Well done if you got to the end, I know it's a bit of a long post! 😀