Skip to main content

Bujaruelo and Valle de Otal

By popular demand we returned to the Bujaruelo valley and the campground at the head of it. This is tucked under the western side of the Monte Perdido massif, the highest in the Pyrenees.

It is a special place, accessed by road only from the south. This gravel and stone track which takes about 20mins to drive is very bumpy in the Land Rover but at least it is made for it. Last time we visited in 2018,  we were surprised at how many cars and campervans make it here. It must be a bit of a risk as there are some hard, stony lumps and gravelly looseness, which must be hard to handle carefully with a low slung vehicle and road tyres. The river is glacial!





There’s a walkers’ hostel here with good food but we didn’t eat here this time.



At night it was very dark and cold. There’s nowhere for the cold on the mountains to go, other than fill the valley. It’s a little like Buxton in that respect.

The book of walks showed one directly from the campsite and the next day we had the delight of an easy tramp over the beautiful stone bridge, along the river past the cows and up a gravel road to the north west. This somehow got us up the valley side and onto the alp, which is the sloping pasture above the steep valley walls.







From there we walked over the lip into a geologically perfect glaciated valley, hanging above the main one. This is Valle de Ota and it is in total contrast to the valley below.

It is a classic U-shape, with a wide, flat bottom through which a river runs, meltwater direct from snow still on the north-facing crags to the side.

We walked along here to the refuge, Cabin de Ota, a two ‘room’ building with and open window through which a robin flew to a nest on the window cill.

A little further along was a nice waterfall, almost the headwaters of the river and there we had lunch, looking back from where we had come.

It was yet another 16Km / 10 mile walk but this one was easy.





















On the way back along the high valley we kept stopping, trying to see Marmots. These look like beavers crossed with badgers and live in burrows usually under a rock. They whistle very loudly but each one sounds identical to the others. This means that they appear to be one animal or bird that’s flying around. They are hard to locate and in actual fact keep very still, blending into the background, looking like a rock!

No photos but we did see some.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The empty map of Macedonia and into Greece

Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?" However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border. Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"? The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy. Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PL...
9 comments
Read more

Remote mountains and how not to behave in them

Prior to the trip I had read somewhere that there aren’t any mountains in Portugal - at least I thought I read it. My preparations had, as usual, been focused almost totally on getting the Landy ready and Dawn, who had been doing all the other jobs was much better informed. “What? You are kidding aren’t you? Have you even looked at a map?” were some of the words she used when I told her this vital piece of information. As it became clear, there are mountains in Portugal - not massive peaks but high elevations are common and the extent of the ranges is quite large. The most remote and wild are the Serra da Peneda Gerês which rise to 1,440m but there are three others “Seras” in the Parque National da Peneda - Gerês, in which wolves roam free. First stop on they way there was the town of Guimarães, the day after “Portugal Day” and the castle and buildings were in tip-top condition. A Polish guy from Katowice who’s lived here for twenty years was selling bilberry jam in these c...
8 comments
Read more

"I'm the dog"

El Berro and  Camping Sierra Espuña  are nicely positioned for walking in these 'low' Sierras and of course the obligatory GR XYZ  long distance path crosses the village. The campsite people gave us a couple of short walk suggestions, written on A4 and translated by some English guy, Michael Ball. We waited until the end of the afternoon, so that the temperature was somewhat manageable and then picked one of the ~1 hour walks that start at the campsite. The walk is so simple that there's no description, just a small diagram that's well annotated with the type of path (wide main track / footpath), other markers (gate, incorrect route, fence). You can't go wrong, can you? Well the first part was easy. Follow the path out of the village, up a valley, through woodland, up and up. Then reach the ridge and the marked ring of stones. Don't turn right, carry on straight across. Then wander through a few trees and down to a dry riverbed, at which point you walk the (ve...
6 comments
Read more