Aneto 3404 pt.2

2.day- Bioska - La Pobla Segur

Tm 4;20 / Av 20,6 / Dist 97,1

Previous night was warm, so it was enough for both of us to use only one sleeping bag to cover with it. We had some oats with dryed apples for breakfast, and off we went! Back on the road we caught a tractor and were hiding from the headwind behind it, going with the average speed 45-50 km/h for about 10km, when we arrived in village called Ponts.

The whole city was covered in fog and there were some threatening clouds hanging above our heads. We could feel humidity all around us.

The first serious climb was taking us away from the city and reservoir, which seemed to get smaller and smaller with every curve we made.

At that point fog was already so thick, that we couldn’t actually see any further than 100m in any direction. It smelled like ozone all around.

After pedaling 10km only up, there was brief downhill, and then all the way up again.

Stas even managed to collect some fog on his sunglasses (hmm, now it seems strange why he even was wearing those glasses in these foggy and blurry conditions…)

...Ok, now it’s understandable to wear sunglasses-it’s already the middle of the day and sun had eliminated all the fog. It was pretty hot at that point and the heat made going up hill even tougher. But it was worth it! Soon we were at the edge of the mountain, from where we could see all the valley down there, with some bigger and smaller villages spreaded all over it. In the distance we could distinguish  the city which was considerably bigger than other ones, and that’s where we were heading-to the Tremp! All the fabulous way down and straight in to the green valley.

yes!

panorama

The sun was still generating a lot of heat, so we got dehydrated soon, but there was no water to be found. We hoped that maybe these juicy fruits will save us from thirst, but they appeared to be so sour, that it only made us want the water even more.

…until we found a gas station on the way, where we had lunch. And the water, of course. With freshly picked peppermints.

Road goes along empty fields.

On our way to Poble Segur, we were passing by very impressive lake,  which obviously was result of the hydroelectric power plant.

Here we found really nice place for the night-it had beautiful panorama, but the most important-the ground was flat there, and considering the altitude which at this point could be around 1000m we were really lucky to find this place.

Some small accident happened, though:while trying to wash myself into the rushing river, i some how managed to sweep our photocamera off the rock (which i assumed was safe place enough to put it) straight into the water… Luckily I managed to catch it before the torrent took it, but anyway, we’re not able to share with you following day’s photo material. Well, that’s a pity.

3.diena - La Pobla Segur - Benasque

Tm 5;36 / Av 17,1 / Dist 95,8

That morning we woke up early, because we had to make it until Benasque that day, so we could be there before sports equipment shop closes and we can rent crampons.

We were climbing up and going down a lot. But mostly going up. We could already see rocky peaks in the  distance. At that moment we had arrived to the kingdom of autumn, where smell of apples and colorful leaves were filling the air.

We decided to make the last shopping in Pont De Suert, as we didn’t actually new if there will be any shops in Benasque.

So we bought some stuff, but we also were lucky with recycling-we found some eggs and grapefruits in the container next to the shop.

We kept going up, but our batteries were going down with every climb. Right now we had crossed one  more climb, this time 1400m above sea level. After a while we were out of Catalunya and rolling into Arragon-another region of Spain.

Having lunch on viewing platform. Time was getting worse- rain started to drop and it got colder.

After a lunch there was small downhill, but then mostly climbing up again. Until we finally reached  downhill which in great speed took us to touristic village called Castejon de Sos. It seemed that everything is designed for tourists there. You could find anything for activities in fresh air there, starting from MTB and skis, ending with parachutes and climbing equipment.

The last 7-10km had left until Benasque-we made a lot of effort to make them; we were already exhausted from all the climbing-up and even after we would finish cycling, there still would be some kilometrs walking until first refuge. It gave us little stress, because we were not sure if we could do it until the darkness falls.

We got to Benasque, found the shop for crampons, and went towards Parque Natural de Posets - Maladeta.

Still, it was not the end of the day. We should find the place where to hide our bicycles, so we went into dense forest to hide them there.

We left our bikes and went deeper into the mysterious forest.

It was getting dark really fast, so we were worried about finding refuge, because in that darkness it wouldn’t be hard to miss it. Road was going up all the time and we were really  tired. We were surrounded by huge mountains,  and we could hear water rushing  somewhere in distance.

When we finally found refuge, it appeared that there were some people already, so there was no much space for us, and also one of the guys was  ill, so we decided not to disturb them with our presence (or the other way around) and continued our way through dark night to the next refuge, which supposed to be not far from first one. It started to rain and we were hoping to get to that refuge as soon as possible, and despite tiredness we pushed ourselves to go faster and soon we reached a hut. It was much bigger than previous one, and also there were people  already sleeping. But luckily there was space for us. Refuge didn’t offer  much amenities, but however we were happy . There were still some things to be done before going to sleep-we had to prepare dinner, so we went to pick some wood for making fire, but after rain it wasn’t easy thing to do. It was even harder to cook on that wet wood. But we managed some how and after delicious food we finally went to sleep.