The rain in Spain

A restful night at a terrific guest house with a lovely room with views.  In oz you'd pay a heap. We paid $55 a night. We woke to the sound of cow bells and rain. Looked out of our window and our golden mountain had changed.

The rain in Spain might fall mostly on the plain but in Aragon it falls as snow. The guy at our breakfast place said that at this time of year, his favourite, the early mist and rain tends to burn off to sunny afternoons. So rather than go up the mountain to the national park we decided to take the Polo off-road. San Nicolás de Burajuelo called and we came running. Apparently there has been a bridge here for a very long time and it's used by pilgrims crossing from France for the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

We decided that as it was raining, well only a light drizzle, we would forgo the hike to France and merely do the hour trek up the river. Some great colours and we shared the lowlands with some local cows. 

 After a while it got too narrow for us so we turned back.

We were fairly wet by the time we got back into the car. We turned the heater up to full and headed to the national park proper. We decided we were too wet to keep walking so we had a cocoa at the bar/restaurant at the main car park. The warmth hit the spot. In fact it was so good we followed it up with a picnic lunch in the car. There were no undercover spots fors us to lay out the sumptuous spread of bread, chorizo and cheese. 

By the way if you really want you don't have to leave the car park. The views are magnificent. It ls in a narrow valley with 700m rises either side. This is one of the best parks we have visited and the pictures do not do it justice. I suspect that depending on the light and time of year it would have many different faces. We got the rainy/misty face of autumn.

Rain or no rain we decided to walk. We had some wet weather gear. So walking boots, rain coats and ponchos were added to my t-shirt and to Marjan's ten layers of clothes, hat and gloves and off we set.

Obviously very different to Australia, obviously very beautiful but also very wet. We had actually thought about doing one of the two longish walks when we planned this. The most challenging, would have seen us climb to the top of those hills and follow the valley along the ridge. However, with Marjan's knee still recovering and the snow along the ridge, we decided not to pursue that option. The second option was to keep on this track for about three hours to the end of the valley. An hour in, with the rain getting heavier and our wet weather gear starting to reach its limits we decided to head back after the next waterfall. On the way there we met some more friendly locals.

There was a whole line of them. It was only by the last one that I managed to disentangle the camera from the sodden rain poncho. Finally the waterfall was reached and we turned back.

We were getting wetter by the minute, but there was still plenty to see. At one point we were mesmerized by the leaves falling from the trees around us, at another we stood transfixed as small birds criss-crossed the path in front of us. But the rain just kept getting heavier and our clothes wetter.

Finally made it back to the car started the motor and turned up the heat. We had to sit there a while for the steam to stop fogging the windows. With a little sadness we headed back to Torla. On the way down we met the cows again all across the road. When they sensed the car behind them they quite simply and of their own volition made a single file along the edge of the road to let us pass. Astonishing.

A reviving coffee and muffin, followed by a hot shower has now set us up nicely for a big dinner. Tomorrow we leave this place, hopefully without dropping off the side of one of the many precipices,and hopefully to return again for a longer visit.

Travelling with Marjan sure is fun, even though she does think we are going to die.