GR11 Day 31 Estany de Baiau to Arinsal

 5th July

A warmish night, considering the altitude. I woke about 01.30 and the stars were just incredible, no need for a tent door.

Beautiful morning 

Away fairly early to tackle the ascent to the Portella de Baiau, as I thought from yesterday's view it was as nasty as expected.

Nasty scree slope

Boulders at the bottom and a very steep scree slope at the top with a few snow patches to keep the interest.

It only got worse!

I was glad to climb it in the shade as I think if it had been hot as well I would have given up, although the descent could have been worse.

The top, looking easier the Andoran side.

Once the top was reached it was a straightforward descent, although very long, about 1300 meters.

Descending 

The trees gave some shelter towards the bottom and I suddenly arrived at the ski resort of Arinsal.

Shady trees

To get to the village required walking through a road tunnel under the avalanche wall before arriving at the mass of hotels and bars which is Arinsal.

Road tunnel through the avalanche wall 

It was hotter today than it has been and after the climb and descent in the sun I was quite happy to take a short day and stop here.

Arinsal 

GR11 Day 30 Areu to Estany de Baiau

 4th July

The day started well, it was cool and shaded in the valley and the climb up through the trees gave some shade as the sun rose.

Up the valley 

I didn't need the extra climb up to the Refugi de Vallferrera but I fancied a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich.

Refugi de Vallferrera 

Back down to the main route and out of the woods into an open valley which climbs steadily above the river past some excellent campsites, with the restriction that you can only camp between 20.00 and 08.00 above 2000 metres in a national park.

Beautiful valley 

The Refugi de Baiau looked interesting, a purpose built bothy tied down to the rocks high in the valley.

Refugi de Baiau 

This was my target for today but when I got there it was full of kids who appeared to be staying. 

Estany de Baiau 

Dropping down from the Refugi there is a beautiful lake and I found a good campsite beside it, 2500 meters.

Camp by the Estany de Baiau 

Tomorrow's climb up to the Portella de Baiau and the Andoran border looks rather brutal!

The route up to the Portella de Baiau 

Sort of obeying the rules I didn't put my tent up too early so sat in the sun for a while until that got too much, dangled my feet in the lake for about two minutes until I couldn't feel them then climbed up a bit to find some shade and write this.

A magical spot, I was glad the Refugi was full

GR11 Day 29 Tavascan to Areu.

 3rd July

A really good breakfast including fried eggs before I started up the hill, a good breakfast and a steep hill being ideal to work off the bottle of wine that came with dinner last night.

Looking down to Aineto 

Good weather again, getting hotter but again a nice northerly breeze to keep it pleasant. Sitting on a sun heated rock could be interesting however!

Looking down 

There had been many signs of wild boar all the way so far but today was the first time I saw any. Two adults crossed the path ahead of me and later a large piglet came round a bend, squealed when it saw me and vanished into the bushes .

High-level path 

I looked up an interesting white butterfly and it is an Iberian Marbled White, there are lots of them about. 

Vall de Cardos

The path today climbed up the opposite side of the valley to another excellent high-level path to Boldis Sobira a little place I had seen yesterday from the path on the other side.

Boldis Sobira 

A steep climb up through the trees to reach the Coll de Tudela at 2243m before the descent through ancient pine forest to Areu.

View from the Coll de Tudela

Looking back up the path

Camping Pica d'Estas is a delightful campsite with the best showers of the trip so far, shaded pitches between trees and a swimming pool, I didn't try that!

Camping Pica d'Estas.

GR11 Day 28 Coll de Montcaubo to Tavascan

2nd July

Woke up at stupid o'clock feeling cold, put on some extra clothes and then didn't wake up until 8.15, so much for an early start! It was a beautiful morning and I wasn't long eating my porridge and getting packed up and away fairly steeply down the hill.

Wooded slopes

The descent is then on an ancient path to drop gently down to Estaon

The roofs of Estaon

I arrived in Estaon at the right time of for a nice cup of tea at the Refugio and to fill my water bottle which was the first chance since Drove yesterday.

Estaon

Track by the river 

The track continues up through a beautiful wooded valley with loads of butterflies in the sunny spaces to arrive at the abandoned hamlet of Bodres de Nibros, still looking reasonable but with  access only by a quad bike at best unlikely to be resurrected.

Bodres de Nibros

A stiff climb up the hillside which is covered with Broom, it would be a great sight when it's all flowering.

Coll de Jou and the broom covered hillsides 

Over the top and a long descent that turned into a track after passing a water trough surrounded by cows and a bull.

Hogging (cowing?) the watertrough

At Lleret there seems to be not much more than a water point and about two houses but a fine zigzag road to get there.

Water point at Lleret 

I didn't take the road but took the spectacular high-level path that traverses the side of the valley to Aineto.

Path traversing the hillside 

Looking down from the path at Lladorre 

An 'ordinary' path then continues to Tavascan where I had found a good price for a hotel room.

The old bridge at Tavascan 

The maps that I attach are pretty useless but you can download the map of the whole route here and zoom in on the bits you want to look at.

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.