Santa Engracia

We pottered around in El Cogul for a couple of days, getting some climbing done and enjoying the warmer weather.  We had been discussing trying to squeeze in some sport routes , when the rain hit. We thought we could head to Tremp, visit a friend and get some sport climbing done over the weekend before returning to El Cogul. However, we took the rain with us!

We arrived in Santa Engracia at the Casa Mauri guest house owned by Jayne, one of Paul’s climbing friends, and we were treat to a tour around this fantastic building, the house is superb and situated in climbers/hikers heaven. We spent the next couple of days chatting, catching up and eating! Whilst the weather never let up, the rain was so constant Ivan developed a leak, right above my side of the bed 😦 but nothing a strategically placed piece of gaffer tape couldn’t solve.  When we set up to leave on the Monday morning the weather had cleared and the views from the village were incredible, definitely worth a visit.

Jayne had suggested acouple of walks so we dropped down into the valley to Pont de Montanyana in order to do one of the shorter gorge walks. We spent most of the walk stopping to take in the views, and due to all the rain the days previous we had to battle our way through quicksand mud. All the extra weight on our boots made for a good giggle and a hell of a work out!

The walk featured a thin suspension bridge and paths carved into the shear face of the cliffs, definitely not for those with vertigo.

When driving back to El Cogul Ivan came face to face with a mountain lion, just stood in the centre of the road on one of the passes! It took us a few seconds to focus into this giant cat thing in front of us, and it just stayed put, we carefully drove round it and it just slowly padded about the road. If it was not scared of 3 tonne Ivan, I will definitely be rethinking jumping in and out of Ivan in the dark!