Day Three The Big Hike

Woke up at 6.30 am so at least it was light. Perhaps all the exercise might cure me of getting up before dawn. It's Sunday, and I have the door to the balcony wide open. The air is fresh but not cold and the sun has not yet appeared over the peaks of the mountains. All is quiet outside except for a few passing cars. I can hear the river from here and it's just perfect. There is no problem here with slowing down and feeling no real stress. Not having to be at any particular place for a particular time is wonderful although I have to say that while I complain about the ubiquitousness of mobile phones and how intrusive they are, it's very unsettling not to have that ready contact. So far I've been unable to get in touch with Alex – looks like it may be a postcard by which time I'll probably be home anyway!

We set out from the hotel at 10 am armed with drinks and cameras. As soon as we were over the Arans bridge the only way was up, flat ceased to exist. The first part was a steady reasonably steep incline up a path made up of shale and other assorted rocks. The path gradually became steeper and the views more spectacular as we progressed. Barb struggled and we had to make frequent rest stops which was no hardship as sitting on a convenient rock and looking out at the view was wonderful. It was amazing at each stop to see how much higher we'd climbed. The worry then became the fact that we would have to descend the same steep slopes. Finally we reached our limit, not quite certain how much further we would need to go to reach our goal. I made a short reconnaissance trip while Barb waited but it was just getting too difficult; very rocky and steep. As Barb could not go further and we wanted to enjoy ourselves not prove our endurance, we sat and rested for a while and then retraced our steps back to the hotel. The round trip took us 2 hours exactly: 90 minutes to go up, 30 minutes to come down. We stopped to get some cans of drink from the machine outside the Restaurant Font D'Arans across the road and noticed a sign saying “English spoken”, so we might just see if they can tell us when the buses run.

We're now running out of toilet paper! The rooms don't seem to be serviced and we started out on Friday with less than a full roll. Glad I brought tissues.

Had lunch on the balcony. Cheese and tomato sandwiches with potato chips and a glass of Bacardi and Coke.

I spent the afternoon writing and then we watched a few DVDs on the laptop. Had couscous for tea, some chocolate brioche to finish the evening. It started raining in the late afternoon so tomorrow may be a wet day. If it's fine we shall hike to Llorts, if not it will be a long day indoors.