GR11 Day 27 Espot to Coll de Montcaubo

 1st July

There had been quite a lot of rain overnight judging by the puddles, it stayed dry all day though with sunny intervals, mainly when I was going uphill.

A good path 

A walk down the path from Espot before turning up the hill to Estais, this is an area of little hairpin roads climbing the valleys to tiny settlements in the hills.

Anyone for a hairpin?

There were a couple of people out in Estais as I walked through to the path that contours round to Jou.

Estais 

Jou is another tiny place, no sign of people but some well tended vegetable gardens as I descended to la Guingueta d'Aneu.

Jou above a vegetable garden 

I could have stopped at the campsite here, as suggested by the guidebook, but it was far too early and the temperature wasn't too bad for the 1300m climb up to the coll.

The church of Sant Bartomeu de Dorve dating back to the 11th century.

I followed the amazing zigzag road up to Dorve,an amazing piece of engineering and maintenance for what seems to be only two habitable houses.

Dorve 

On the way up I passed a couple of people tending a number of beehives, they were obviously annoying the bees as a number of them came to attack me, one of them stinging me on the cheek!

The Church door

Dorve has a number of crumbling buildings including a church as well as the couple of inhabited ones.

Looking down towards Dorve

The path climbs very steeply up behind the village and this, of course, is when the sun came out in full force.

On up through the trees 

Eventually reaching the shelter of the trees I continued up to the col where there is a grassy area dotted with small trees where I found somewhere flattish to put the tent.

Hiding in the trees at 2200 meters

A gusty wind certainly lowered the temperature.