with a few short breaks, 40mins in woodland descent before Dorria and 20mins on ridge section before Planoles
A pretty bad sleep was met with a pretty slow morning. It also started with more climbing, as usual, so we felt extra slow. By the time we reached the col we had woken and warmed up though, and enjoyed nice views of the town as the sun also warmed up. There were also old border stones which was fun to step in and out of France from. What there was not so much today, was good waymarkers. They had slowly less frequent since returning back into Spain, but today we really noticed how bad they had particularly after Coll de la Creu de Meians, where we soon realised we had so off the trail in the woods. This resulted in some animal track following, getting increasingly bushier and tricksier to get through. Eventually, we made it out alive and back on the track.
as we noticed less and less markers and weirdly timed signposts. The sun also felt hot today, and so we soon lacked enthusiasm for this tedious section and were happy when we finally reached Camping can Fosses. We were not so happy when we realised wed arrived halfway through their siesta time! Still, a nice bench in the shade and some good signal meant we could do some family catching up which was good.
Once checked in, fed icecream and cold drinks, tent up and drying, showered and caffeinated, we were back to feeling great. This was made even better when, the other Dutch friend had taken a week out earlier and wed not seen for ages) turned up. A great evening catching up over drinks and our camp dinners was had, thankfully allowed inside the bar due to a brief heavy rain&wind and storm passing, before settling happily to sleep.
to Queralbs with only a couple of short breaks followed by 120mins in the town, then the 20min mountain train to Nuria for 14:30.
tasty breakfast of prebought pastries (we are not having much luck in making decent porridge on the trail) was followed by.an immediate incline of course! Steep in parts, it was actually a good track up through woodland where, despite Paul & Rose having to wait for me to catch up at points, we still beat the guidebook time to the picnic area near the top (beating the book time does not happen often for us!) The last little bit of up is easier on road to reach the flat col before starting the gentle winding track down.
A little like a rollercoaster, the trail meanders up and down, through wood, along ridges and over open sections with good valley views. The waymarkers remained poor but appeared more often then the previous day helping us not wonder off track too much today. Reaching Queralbs, we wondered down the cute town of cobble/slate paths and houses and found the small but decent shop (basic essentials) where we found a tasty sugar donut which Paul was very happy about.
Stopping for some food and drink at the bar nearby, Rose soon left us to continue walking, heading up the next big
ascent of the day. We however, had recently discovered Queralbs (where we were) and Nuria (where we were going) both had train stationsand would you believe itthere was a regular little mountain train that ran between them. Well, we all know Paul and I like to work smarter not harder so who were we to miss out on this experience?! With the train line steeply running up the beautiful gorge we chugged on up (often alongside the GR11 trail) and through a long tunnel cutting through the mountain, speedily reaching Nuria within 20mins; maybe touristy but worth it.
A huge odd looking hotel building greeted us, sat in a plateau and not fitting in with the mountain landscape, along with a big lake, enough people, pony and horse rides, snow tubing, odd museum / exhibitions, small shop, tourist shop, mini golf and a controlled camping zone; an odd but nice vibe. Having arrived during their siesta yet again, we waited with an ice cream before checking in and pitching up.
