The Cares Gorge - make like a goat!

Phew! I thought we'd done all the hard stuff! There hasn't really been a day when I haven't been physically challenged, although yesterday was the least challenging. But today!!!
It was described as a 24km walk with 300 metres of ascent and descent. What they forgot to say was that that ascent and descent happens pretty much at the beginning (and so the end) of the walk!
A 30 minute minibus journey took us to Poncebos, where we started the ascent. Problem was, so did the world and its dog🙄 - quite literally, poor dogs! So the near enough 300 metres of ascent took about 50 continuous minutes. You couldn't stop because the path was pretty narrow and to stop would've caused a traffic jam, and the ground was made up of rocks - both fixed and moveable! I'm pretty pleased that I was able to do this - it was heart-pounding stuff (at my peak my heart was beating at 144bpm) - so it was a welcome change to walk on some flat ground!
The path was only about 1 metre wide - sometimes wider, sometimes narrower - and 12 kms long in all, between Poncebos and Cain. The drop to the side was steep and precipitous and, don't forget, this was 2 way traffic🤪🙄😂.
There were quite a few mountain goats bimbling around, and they liked to lick the salt from your legs😆.
So, 12km in and we reached Cain, where we stopped for lunch. But... an hour later, we were on our way back!
There were some ups and downs, but nothing compared to the approx 300m descent back into Poncebos. That was pure hell 😫😖😂. There were places where I couldn't even find steps for my feet (obviously I did, cos I'm here) but it just seemed to go on forever.
But, 6 hours walking today and a good 24kms, and here I am, in bed, looking forward to a good night's exhausted sleep!
It was a truly spectacular day, but this old nanny goat has had enough😂😂😂
The first photo is of our group, and a vid of a flying Griffin vulture!Read more