The Last Leg…
After 12 days on such an incredible trail, we felt a wave of sadness that our adventure in the Pyrenees was coming to an end so quickly.
Having experienced some of our most scenic and best wild camp spots on this trip, and having loved the sheer splendour of the mountains that surrounded us day after day – Spain and our time on the GR11 will always hold a special place in our hearts.
It is a country that we are eager to return to and want to explore more of, both in terms of the magnificent hiking opportunities it offers and for the wonderful local culture and cuisine that we wholeheartedly embrace . So watch this space… We will be earmarking a couple of months in the future for returning to the GR11. Completing the whole trail from coast to coast would certainly be an accomplishment and put our trail legs to the test!
Dramatic skies greeted us on our final day on the Gr11.
Wednesday 23rd August 2017 – Day 13 – River Wild Camp next to Estany de Botornas (Lake) just past Refugio de Llauset to Casa de Sastre Guesthouse, Forcat – ‘Dos Cervezas Por Favor!’
Start time: 07:08. End time: 12:09. Distance: 13.3km. Ascent: 943m / Descent: 1,934m.
Maybe wishful thinking, but we thought the challenge was over and it would be a straightforward hike down from the mountains to the little village of Aneto on our final day on the GR11. But how wrong could we be?!
First, we awoke to heavy raindrops on the tent, which fortunately turned out to be just a passing shower, but there was thunder and lightning occurring in the next valley, so we hurriedly got our bags packed and decided to make a quick getaway rather than have our last 2 eggs for breakfast – huevos fritos style. Instead we made do with 2 mini croissants and some biscuits just to give us that little boost of energy we needed first thing on the trail. It was not what we were expecting on our last morning, having experienced 12 virtually dry days up till now. (And we really didn’t want to have to contend with drying out a wet tent in our hotel room in Barcelona!)
All set to go, we remained in good spirits with the thought of a bed and a home-cooked meal awaiting us later at a guesthouse we had pre-booked in Forcat. (Picked purely as the settlement is on the bus route to Barcelona, which would make it much easier for us the following morning getting to the bus stop in time for a 6am pick up.) Leaving camp, we crossed over the stream and continued following the red and white paint flashes on the GR11 variant towards Embalse de Llauset. The trail once again weaved across a boulder field then continued uphill to a large cairn where there was a bothy – known as the Botornas shelter – perched on the left hand side.
We broke camp in a hurry after being awoken by thunder and lightning.
The rain shower quickly passed leaving beautiful, calm waters for our last morning in the wilderness.
The trail meandered through another rocky boulder field.
Debating what our final day on the trail had in store as rain clouds still lingered in the next valley.
Waymarking remained good. Utilising both cairns and paint flashes.
Up above, the sky looked cloudy and dull, but thankfully the storm seemed to have moved on, though it was still lingering over some distant peaks. From our viewpoint, the moody scene was perfect for some photography, but we were also grateful that it was appearing brighter towards the end of the reservoir because this was the direction we were headed.
Reaching the edge of the reservoir, the trail goes around the left bank. Our aim was to get to the car park at the end before having a rest in preparation for our final descent!
Looking onto the dam that holds back the waters of the Ibon de Llauset, located at 2,182 metres.
Although the trail around the reservoir is generally good, some sections require walking over boulders, which today were a little slippery because of the earlier rain.
We followed the GR18 route to Aneto as indicated on the sign.
Our first target was to reach the car park at the end of the reservoir where there’s a huge tunnel that has been blasted through the mountainside to allow vehicle access. Hiking through the tunnel and taking the road wasn’t the safest option for us however as it was both dark and there was no pathway for pedestrians, so we took the trail marked to the right of the tunnel. Note: This route is no longer part of the GR11. It is signposted as the GR18 leading to Aneto. As Aneto was our end point, we took this route thinking it would be the quickest way to the village. All we needed to do was get to the bottom of the valley.
Reaching the tunnel! We knew it was all downhill from here, but didn’t realise exactly how taxing the descent was going to be!
Wheel chair access leading to a viewpoint at the end of the reservoir. This area is obviously popular with day visitors.
Taking a deep breath as we realised we still had a huge hike ahead to descend to the valley bottom!
But it wasn’t as simple as that. There was a giant mountain ridge in the way! So the GR18 route took us down a steep gully, then across a grassy ridge, switching back from one side to the other. We didn’t know if the route was taking us down to the road that we could see in the distance, as at one point it seemed to be heading that way. Then the route completely went back on itself and instead of going down, we found ourselves heading back uphill following a water pipe that lead all the way to another parking area by the road called El Campament. There was a disused building on the side of the ridge, but we were more interested in the bench and the fuente where we could sit and have an early lunch and refresh with icy cold water. Having set off just after 7am, it was by now 11:30am and we were still at 1,946 metres.
Our route down weaved from one side to the other around several ridges and was much more demanding than what we anticipated! (And here was us thinking we’d have an ‘easy’ last day!)
With water running off the mountain we wouldn’t be in short supply today.
So near, yet so far. We couldn’t work out exactly which way our route would go.
The lush, wet area was very reminiscent of the Lake District back home in England.
Looking back to where we had walked from. Our route down was through the ‘v’ on the right hand side which was incredibly tough and steep at times, so we couldn’t quite believe how we’d managed to get down in one piece!
Panorama shot looking onto the massif from where we stopped for a rest break. It had been a tough morning and we still weren’t finished!
Now this really was a bench with a view! We were also happy that we still had some bread to keep us going having only had a small, dry breakfast.
We still had a lot of descent to go to reach Aneto at 1,344 metres and our knees felt like they’d already been hammered the past few days. Having set off again down the proper trail following grassy switchbacks cutting across another gully, then seeing the trail go up and over the top of another steep ridge, we decided to take the road. The sign had said Aneto was still 4+km away and would take 2 hours. By road, we could cover that distance in an hour with a brisk pace. Plus, it always helps when you’re going downhill!
It was a good decision as we made it to Aneto by 1pm! Our first impressions – the entire place seemed dead – there was no one around and it was deathly quiet. We followed the road down to where we thought they’d be a main square. We saw a hostel, but what we were really hoping for was a bar… And possibly a taxi to take us to Forcat, thereby saving us a final 9km of road walking. We had no such luck with a taxi, but we did spy a sign saying ‘Bar‘ with an arrow pointing up the next street. So of course we stopped to have those celebratory cervezas we had been dreaming about the past few days. We could quite happily have stayed there all afternoon the beers went down so well!
Still making our way downhill. Once we reached the road, we found it much easier and kinder than sticking to the trail that involved crossing an obstacle course of rocks and roots at a very steep incline.
Looking south along the valley towards Forcat. Not too long to go before we could reward ourselves with a bed and beer at our guesthouse!
Taking the road to Aneto as it was a lot kinder on our legs!
Looking onto the village of Aneto, further north along the valley. It is located on the border of Aragon, whereas the settlement of Senet across the river is in Catalonia.
Celebrating the end of our GR11 adventure with a beer after wandering through the streets to find a local pub that was open!
As we had a phone signal at last, Wayne used the internet to find out about transport options to Forcat, the next settlement 9km down the road. We had originally wanted to stay in Aneto, but the couple of guesthouses available were fully booked for our arrival date, so the closest place we could get was where we would now be heading. Through sheer luck, Wayne found there was a bus from Aneto just before 2pm, arriving in Forcat 10 minutes later. It was a huge sigh of relief from the both us knowing that we wouldn’t have to hike the extra 9km to our guesthouse! So we downed our beers and hot footed it to the bus stop about a kilometre away. We arrived with a few minutes to spare luckily as the bus was on time. The journey cost just €1.30 each – worth every cent to save us a lengthy road walk at the hottest time of the day.
Dragging ourselves away from the bar and heading to the bus stop located a kilometre down the road.
Now where is this bus stop? We were hoping not to miss the bus or we’d have another 9 kilometres of road walking to go to get to the guesthouse!
And so we soon arrived at our lovely, rustic guesthouse to be greeted by a friendly Spanish couple who couldn’t speak a word of English (and why should they?) and with our limited Spanish, thank goodness for hand gestures and Google translate!
After catching up on the WiFi and enjoying long showers, we made use of the courtyard to dry out our tent and charge our phones with the solar panel. We then had a relaxing afternoon in the sunshine enjoying a few more cervezas whilst musing over our Pyrenees adventure!
We both had our favourite bits and are really interested in seeing the Pyrenees on the French side, so we already have plans to return and create our own walking route hopping between France and Spain, cherry picking what we consider are the most scenic spots and trying to stay high to minimise unnecessary descents into valleys unless we need to resupply with food. We’re always on to planning our next thru-hike so we have lots of ideas for another Pyrenees adventure in the future!
Even though we had relaxed for most of the afternoon, hiker hunger soon got the better of us, so we were eager to sit down for our evening meal, freshly cooked by our wonderful host, Alice. It was a simple ‘Platos Combinados‘ – consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, olives, pork loin (lomo) and Spanish tortilla (omelette with potato and onion). We then enjoyed large, fresh peaches for dessert, as well as a carafe of local red wine. (It tasted very strong and with a thick consistency it was more like what the English call ‘sherry’ – or indeed a good, strong home-brew!) The alcohol was included in the price of the meal – Alice only charged us €6.50 per person, which was extremely good value!
Enjoying more beers after checking in at our lovely guesthouse in Forcat!
Having zero hiker rations left, and with no amenities to purchase any supplies in Forcat, we were thankful that our host offered us an evening meal. It didn’t take us long to devour our ‘Platos Combinados’ after 12 days of trail food!
She was the loveliest woman, just like being at home with your own mum and she couldn’t do enough for us! We conversed in broken ‘Spanglish’ with the use of Google translate, told Alice she had a beautiful home, thanked her for her gracious hospitality and showed her some pictures on our camera of us camping in the mountains. She looked impressed! She was so accommodating that she then phoned her daughter to speak to us in English to explain that she would drive us to the next town in the morning to enable us to catch the bus to Barcelona because the bus stop in Forcat isn’t lit and Alice was worried that the bus wouldn’t see us and simply drive past. Then she proceeded to hand us a bag of two giant ham and cheese bocaderos to have for breakfast on the bus! We explained that we had purchased tickets already from Forcat, and that we had head torches and would flag down the bus to make sure it saw us – but she ignored our protestations.
Later back in our guest room, we had a sporadic sleep as there was a huge thunderstorm in the night. We could hear the heavy raindrops battering the roof like pellets and flashes of light filled the room for a split second. We were so thankful not to be out camping in the mountains right then.
With the alarm set for 5am, we were up quickly and ready to leave by 5:25am. With backpacks on, we tiptoed down the wooden stairs armed with head torches to guide the way. On the dining table there were 2 cups and saucers laid out for coffee before we left. Another wonderful act of kindness. We left them and headed for the bus stop – but were then stopped in our tracks outside by Alice who was dressed and ready with her car to take us to Vilaller – she said she would not settle until she knew we had caught the bus! So with our packs then loaded in the back of her car, off we drove a few kilometres down the road to a well-lit bus stop, where she said she knew the bus would be sure to stop. No sooner than we got everything out of the car, a bus was pulling up. It wasn’t the bus due on our timed ticked but it was the ‘rapido’ direct bus to Barcelona with only one stop en route. And bonus – the driver said our ticket was valid!
With our backpacks safely stowed in the luggage compartment, we then bid farewell to a pleased Alice – mission accomplished to get us safely aboard – and we were then rapidly Barcelona bound!
No more mountain walking for us for now, but city walking for 4 days/3 nights before our return flight to the UK! We swapped the tent for an apartment on the Gran Via, ending our trip with a bit of luxury after another successful hike – all 185 kilometres of it!
Our next ‘big’ thru-hike will be the Pacific Crest Trail, in the USA. We will begin at the southern terminus at Campo on the Mexican border, starting April 10th, 2018. It’s less than 6 weeks until we leave England and fly to San Diego and we’re very excited for our upcoming trip!!! Updates to follow…
7 Comments
Well, your final day had a little of everything. Magnificent reservoir, rain, sunshine, steep descent, road walking and the incredible kindness of your lovely hosts. A fantastic finale to your 12 days of hiking. Seemed much longer, waiting with bated breath.
Now so excited for your PCT adventure and only 6 weeks away!
Hi Helen, thanks for your patience – it’s seemed an age getting to the final GR11 blog post!
We are very, very excited too!!!!! PCT here we come!
Looking forward to you following along the trail with us 🙂
I’m looking for a five day hike in august…Which stages would you reccomend?
From the 185km section of the GR11 that we hiked over 13 days, Days 3-5 and Days 7-9 were our favourites! Wild camp locations were particularly scenic and the mountains are just incredible! You’ll find more info and links to each day on our GR11 page.
https://www.treksnappy.com/the-gr11
All the best, Danielle
Hi Danielle and Wayne
Many thanks for the last installment of your Pyrenean adventures. As usual, your diaries and photographs are fantastic and I always look forward to reading about your new adventures.
Really looking forward to reading about your Pacific Crest adventures. This looks like a nice stroll!!
So are you planning to do the whole 2,650 miles ?? That’s what 5-6 months??
Wow – I’m jealous – but that’s silly as I am just about fit enough to walk 3-4 miles around our local village right now!!
Best Wishes
Hi John, thanks for following along with our journey and your continued support with such positive comments!
We are indeed aiming to hike the entire PCT, with a target to finish mid-September. We’ll try and blog from the trail with weekly round-ups of our progress.
Wayne is also going to vlog each section and post video updates on YouTube.
We are mega excited right now as we only have 19 ‘work’ days left and we are on the big count down!!!!!
Best Regards,
Danielle & Wayne
HI Danielle and Wayne
Many thanks for your reply.
19 days to go? So you won’t be busy then!!!!
I wish you two a wonderful time and may all the very best of great health and happiness accompany you on your journey.
Looking foward to follow you on your journey.
Best Regards
John