Good grief!😂

So... yesterday was a real challenge - we walked approximately 19km and ascended/descended 780m both ways. Today's walk was 'different ' according to Juan, our guide. No further details 🙄, although we knew it was an 800m ascent/descent in about 17km.
We began with a car journey of about 30 minutes to somewhere remote - every time we passed a car park I said a prayer of thanks - not so far uphill for us, I thought. Ha!!! Ha indeed!🙄😅
From our car park we walked across a beautiful meadow - well, it was across and up, all in one. The meadow was where the Moors and the Visigoths had fought in AD718.
We then passed the refugio that would welcome us with a cold beer on our way down 👏👏👏. There followed a rather strenuous hike, mostly uphill (although there were a few flatter bits of the path), to a 'saddle' where the huge monolith of the Naranjo de Bulnes stands. The last hour or more's walk, cos I was slow, was entirely uphill 😱. It was one of those "it's just around the corner" walks, but it was never just around the corner apart from when it was, of course😜😊. It was an amazing walk and I sort of loved it!
The huge monolith thing will host the World Championship Mountain Climbing Competition next year, so I'll definitely be watching out for that!
On the pic attached, there are actually at least 2 climbers - challenge to find them!!!
After a very nice lunch, it was off downhill, and I mean downhill! The first part was the steep gradient it'd taken me over an hour to walk 😱. I managed to slip/slide and land on my bottom a couple of times, but no harm done, I have plenty of padding 🍑😅. We continued like this for ages until we reached the refugio for a well-earned beer 👍. Oh, and we were overtaken by mules on both legs! Apparently, daily supplies are carried by the mules, and once a year a helicopter delivers all the non-perishable! Poor mules!
Our journey down was a lot quicker than our journey up, believe it or not, and we arrived back at our hotel in plenty of time for a beer👏👏👏.
Tomorrow's pretty much all downhill. We'll just have to see🙄😅🥰. Hope the pics do the day justice!😘Read more