Iter Facere

Sunday July 15 - Val d’Aran and Aiguestorties Again

The plan for the day is to drive up to the Val d’Aran and then complete a circle back to Pont de Seurt. The guidebook has us prepared for the worst drive in history, saying that we’ll need to break halfway through and stay the night in order to survive. Not quite. The road was fine.
We first drove to Vielha, through a five kilometer tunnel. That was a bit claustrophobic. We drove north to just short of the French border to say “Hello” to France, and then turned around to head over the mountain pass at the head of the valley. The scenery was once again dramatic. We stopped at the pass, Bonaigua, which is 2702 meters high to enjoy the scenery. Its also a ski location, where the king skis apparently. In the town below there are hotels across the road from the foot of the lifts, and they take yo all the way up, and you can ski back to town. I wish I could ski, this would be nice.
We headed on to Espot where you can enter the other side of Aiguestortes Park. We hadn’t planned on stopping, but it sounded like you could take a nice walk there, and the book was right. After we fortified ourselves with lunch (Sean and Kathy had wild boar, I had rabbit, both excellent) we took a taxi up to the park. There we found a lovely lake and another pleasant walk around the lake to a waterfall and back.
Back to the car and an uneventful ride back to Pont de Suert.

posted by Jim @ 7:46 AM