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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2894 |
13th March 2018 Hiking - Walking: Ruta Senyors de Costuma and Flix. Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered: Tuesday 13th March – Walks **** and travel – sunny periods – Ruta Senyors de Costuma and Flix. Good night by the River L’Ebre at Benifallet but woke to a few spots of rain, cloudy and cool but the to make up for that we had a flock of around 50 black (we think) kites circling up above us having fun in the thermals :) After breakfast I spoke to the English angler who we saw returning in his boat yesterday. He runs catfishing holidays and the biggest fish he has caught is 200 lbs!! He had a big bag of chicken with him and was off on his boat to bait his swims!! We then cleaned the van with water from the L’Ebre and topped the van’s water supply up from a tap at the small quay before heading back towards Tortosa as there are some caves that early man inhabited. We soon found the turning up to the Coves de l’Aummidiella and the scenery was amazing as we headed up into the mountains but unfortunately the road was chained closed and they are only open in the summer:( There was an intriguing road down with a sign saying Ruta Senyors de Cosuma which was worth investigating. This turned out to be a narrow mainly dirt track leading to a couple of really remote houses with old olive terraces everywhere and lovely mountain views all around. We must have walked mainly up for an hour and it was difficult to choose where to turn around and head back but it plateaued out a little just past a beautifully renovated house with freshly planted olive trees so we turned there. We even saw a couple of old boys out on their electric mountain bikes and were only a little jealous! It didn’t take half the time to get back before driving back down to the C12 road which closely follows the impressive River. We saw a chain ferry to access Miravet with its big castle but gave that a miss and carried on. We were due to turn away from the L’Ebre at Flix so headed down to the river for lunch and found a spot by another cable ferry as the river has a huge meander here:) We watched the ferry take a few customers across before the ferryman left the boat in the middle of the river and went for lunch! Flix is built in the narrow part of the meander and we drove up to the castle, parking at the cemetery. We walked the rest of the way to the castle which was closed, of course, but you could go further and see almost the complete bend in the river, impressive too! There was a big weir and it was a little industrialised so we decided against parking here high above the town and moved on. We took yellow roads out of Flix which lead to the middle of nowhere, just the odd small town and mile after mile of olive groves and very pretty it was too with windy mountain roads. There were also several large chicken farms, well someone has the supply the catfish anglers! The highlight of this section was when we had to stop to let a shepherd take his large flock of pretty brown faced sheep past the van! It was looking difficult to find somewhere to stop with all the olive groves and private signs everywhere. Then just short of L’Albages we found a spot on a rocky cliff with nice views and parked up for a cuppa, cake and our overnight spot. As all the tractors have now returned home it is very quiet here in the middle of nowhere! Photo Gallery Here Wednesday 14th March – travel + short walk *** around Balaguer – sunny start then clouded over with light snow. Nice quiet night on our small cliff overlooking the olive tree terraces just outside L’Albages and woke to clear blue skies even if a little chilly. The sun warmed things up so we did our exercises outside before breakfast by which time there was a lot of tractor action as the locals tended their fields. It started to cloud over so went for a short walk along the cliff before setting off at just past eleven. We used small windy roads to reach Lleida passing loads more olive trees and almond trees full of pink blossom and smelly, what we think are, chicken sheds around every corner! We soon found the C13 towards Andorra and stopped by the River El Segre at Balaguer to get our bearings. There was an old section of town by the river with two large churches and a castle on the hill which was worth exploring. We walked along the prom past the workman trimming the trees, across the river and up the Apostle Shrine path to the church which as usual here was closed, not like France where all the churches are open, perhaps they can’t trust the local oafs not to graffiti the inside? We walked down through the narrow streets of the old town with balconies full of drying clothes. If anything, it was a little grubby and scary. Spanish towns generally are - nowhere here as pretty as the hundreds of beautiful Medieval villages in France and are in the main not worth stopping at:( We were pleased to be back at the safety of our van for lunch. The scenery improved again when we reached the C14 and you could see the snow-covered peaks of the Pyrenees. We past rivers, dams making long narrow lakes, some even had water in them and gorges. Then at Adrall we were faced with what looked like just mountains in front but amazingly the road continued passing through several tunnels in a narrow gorge with the dammed el Segre river running alongside! We could have turned right and headed to the Spanish ski resorts we went to last year but we were only a few miles from Andorra so decided to have a look at that as we haven’t been there before. There was a small queue at the border but they waved us through without a second glance and what an odd place Andorra is. Just one 30-mile-long road along a gorge very built up most of the way and with loads of garages selling really cheap diesel, 0.95 a litre. We should have waited and filled up here – we paid what we thought was a cheap 1.03 on the way up! The whole tiny country is all high mountains and a few ski resorts all in a line at intervals up the gorge. We were looking for somewhere to park and check the conditions. The first lift we saw was at Encamp but it was just a cable taking you high up so you couldn’t see the snow. The only parking was up a really steep road which I managed to get up but it was 4.0 Euros to park, I had a word with some French skiers who said the snow was good but the visibility not great and it’s 49 Euros a day, a little pricey for us so we continued. At Soldue a more traditional resort you couldn’t park and it looked very busy so we decided it would probably be better to head for France. Then just outside Soldue as it started to snow we saw a sign for parking for 1750 at Grau Roig which turned out to be a nice little spot surrounded by tall mountains with several lifts. There was even free parking for campers so we parked with a few others as the snow fell and the wind picked up. We looked a little silly - me in shorts, Mag in flip flops! After covering 140 miles today we are knackered so we are relaxing after dinner with the diesel heater on, the first time in ages. If the weather is good we can stay here a day or two, ski or snowshoe or if too expensive can head into France. We are out of communication at the moment as we can’t get Mags mobile to work in Andorra:( |
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