Sue and Martin's Big Adventure
Day 34 - Saturday 28 August 2004 - Stage 27
Postcard Summary
Orchid
Camp to lake near Colomers Refuge
Journey continues through magnificent
high plateaus with lakes – 8.2 hours, 12 km, 800m ascent
We see no-one until having climbed to and
descended from our first col, to a lovely blue lake, Estany de Mar. An undulating path alongside it, then a
descent through pines to a refuge, Refugi de la Restanca, that looks austere
but quickly serves lovely hot chocolate!
This sees us up to the next col, where we lunch in the Aigűestortes National Park
Diary Entry (by Sue)
Another sunny
day but only 6°C at 7.30 ish.
On dry days, the
morning routine is as follows:
My alarm - 6.50
am - ignored as we enjoy the warmth of sleeping bags.
Martin's alarm -
7 am.
We dress in our
bags, and the inner door is opened to put water on for tea.
We start some muesli
and water in bed whilst the water boils.
Tea is made, and
cools whilst sleeping bags and liners are packed.
Martin usually
gets out of the tent about now' and I pass his things out, followed by mine. Karrimats
are last out and first into the rucksacks.
We pack, clean
teeth, and this morning were ready by 8.15 am.
My toilet spot
was an excellent one this morning - I could sit instead of squatting. We burn
toilet roll, also effective today with a slight breeze. We had seen no one
since pitching camp yesterday, and were to meet the first people nearly an hour
into the walk.
Under a cloudless
sky we climbed to the Collado d'Estany de Mar at 2468 metres on a bouldery path.
(Pictured above)
From the col, a
lovely view of Estany de Mar.
'Estany' is
Catalan for mountain lake, and this one was deep blue. A steep descent to a
sandy beach and a stop to change film, don t-shirts and look up a flower.
 |
| Giant Bellflower |
 |
| White False Helleborine |
The walk along
the lake was very peaceful, although the path undulated. At the end of the
lake, a view of the Refugi de la Restanca on the shore of the Estany de la Restanca,
with pines and a rushing river. The descent was steep and the pines smelled
lovely.
Despite looking
austere, the refuge was welcoming and hot chocolates on the first floor were
made instantly.
 |
| Arnica |
 |
| Part of the reservoir system, seen from Refugi de la Restanca |
Another climb
followed, to the lovely Estany deth Cap
deth Port.
This was another
blue lake with a scenic backdrop, then a further climb to the Coll de Crestada.
In usual weekend
form, plenty of people are out for the day, most moving quickly. This col marks
the entry to the Parc National de Aigűestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, a
national park we leave again just an hour later! Lunch on a grassy slope just
after the col.
With bread gone
we're on to Tex-Mex tuna, a brew, and a bit of chocolate and mountain mix. Views
of the Estany des Monges. Today, high cloud is visible and we don't want to
linger too long over lunch as the wind is cool. Next, another climb to a small
col, then down briefly to the two Mangades lakes, again clear and blue.
Then the highest col of the day (2560 metres) Port de
Caldes, from where we can see the area we've walked from in the last few days.
A delightful
descent on a nice path, near burbling streams, to the Refugi de Colomers, where
two cokes see us revived for a short climb to the lakes we camp by.
Today is a well-deserved
'short' day, and we settle by the lake at 4.25 pm, in the sun. Whilst Martin fetches
water, I enjoy a long yoga session. Soup is made before the tent is pitched (in
Spain
The group enjoying
themselves by the lake leave us in peace to cook pasta. Then we escape the
mosquitoes by going inside the tent, where mint tea and hot chocolate is on the
menu (7.45 pm). We then had the luxury of reading for an hour until the light
faded around 9 pm.
Stats
and route (Viewranger):
12
km, 1000 metres ascent, 8.2 hours
1 comment:
We stayed in Restanca Refgio and I rember eating fresh fish from the lake. Idyllic situation.
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