Sunday, July 11, 2010

Day 8 - Baños de Panticosa to Torla

28km, 1000 metres of ascent
My shortest day so far, but still pretty tough on account of the weather and the rough underfoot conditions.

I got away from my uncomfortable mosquito-infested wild camp as early as possible and hiked up the steep zig-zags to the Ibon dero Brazato (shown in the header of this blog). More steep rough ground and snow patches lead to the Cuello de Brazato at 2550m.

The weather wasn't looking too settled, and it was feeling quite cold, so I tried to get down as quickly as possible, using various snow patches to get down past the lakes. Once down in the main Ara valley, there was of course no footbridge, so I had a freezing wade across.

Just before Bujaruelo, it started really pouring down and things became pretty miserable for the remainder of the hike down to Torla. My feet were incredibly painful with blisters, combined with the discomfort of sopping wet socks and shoes.

It was with some relief that I arrived at San Anton Camping just above Torla, and in time to raid the Supermercado just before it shut for the evening. I met the British guys Dave and Alan again who I'd met 2 days ago at the Anayet Lakes, when I warned them about the Cuello de Tebarrai, so they had completely missed out the hike up to Respomuso.

I really needed this relaxing evening at a proper campsite after the past couple of days, and enjoyed watching the World Cup Final between Holland and Spain. The Spanish seemed quite pleased when Andres Iniesta scored in the 117th minute to prevent the match from going to penalties.

Photos from Day 8

Route map for Day 8
View GR11 - Day 8 in a larger map

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