We awoke to a sharp frost on the car today, presumably the penalty for having clear skies last night, and in marked contrast to the 22°C we'd left in Benicassim. The sun was shining, however, and it promised to be a beautiful day so we decided to see as much of the area as we could – and what a good decision that turned out to be.

The sun and blue skies made everywhere look very attractive (not that it needed any enhancement, as its stunning. The autumn colours were well advanced & reminded me of a line from Joseph’s Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat – "Red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and russet and fawn" etc. All the shades were there in the foliage lining the roads & looked fabulous with the sun shining through them.


We headed north up the Tena valley towards the ski area of Formigal, stopping everywhere there was a turn-in or car park just to drink in the views. The day was warming up nicely although there was quite a breeze, and one superb stop was at Bubal reservoir. The trees here really were of every hue imagineable, and looking back down the lake showed the turquoise waters of the reservoir and all those autumn colours backed by stony mountains.


Pressing on northwards, we climbed out of the valley and up towards the French border at the Col de Portalet. The terrain became much more rugged, and the higher we climbed, the greyer the sky got until we reached the Col itself. We got out of the car to have a look and promptly got straight back in again – what a difference: the temperature was a measly 0.5°C, the sky was dark grey and the winds very strong. This was 12 pm mid-day!

We decided to have a look at the road down the French side of the Pyrenees with a view to maybe driving that way tomorrow with the van, and for at least 10km there was no issue with either the road surface or overhanging rocks. The weather was awful though, so we drove straight back into Spain for more of those glorious views, pausing on the way near Formigal to have a look at the ski runs.

The wind was still quite strong and surprisingly the snow cannons on the runs were operating – at least we THOUGHT it was the snow cannons. For the full length of one run fine nozzles seemed to be spraying out water which instantly blew away in the wind and initially looked like smoke. We pulled over to have a closer look and it got more bizarre – a film crew was recording the misty water......no idea what that was all about!

  As we made our way back down the valley, the skies got clearer and bluer by the minute and the sun shone ever more brightly so we turned off into Formigal and took a very small winding road towards Sallent de Gallego so we could travel on the other side of Lanuza reservoir. It was beautiful, with views unfolding at every turn; we bypassed the tiny hamlet of Lanuza and then came across a large cow placidly munching the grass on the road by a hairpin bend.

After a quick photo stop, (me keeping one wary eye on the cow) we continued on our way, then came to a grinding halt 50m before the junction with the main road....the cow was not alone, in fact she had many friends who were being unloaded from a truck and sent off up the road down which we had just travelled. We waited while they ambled slowly past, herded by toothless men with dirty faces & large sticks, then realised that their truck was actually blocking the road. We didn’t really want to confront them but one farmer spoke a little English & informed us we would have to go back the way we’d come as neither cows nor truck were going to move any time soon. Hey ho.

Never mind – the sun was shining, the blue skies were reflected in the lake and we had no deadline, so we retraced our steps then decided to turn into the village of Tramacastilla de Tena to find some lunch. Its a very hilly little place, and most of it seemed to be shut, but after a short wander round we came across a bar serving food. I did a double-take at the tower of the church – it seemed to be leaning over, and the second glance confirmed that it really was; I’m not sure quite how it held up the bells at the top, but it did.

We had more places to explore, so we carried on southwards to Gavin then turned E and down the valley towards Torla, the gateway to Ordesa National Park. The views were lovely all the way, but got even better as we approached the town. The visitor centre was closed until 4 so we headed off up the valley into the park; the road was narrow and uneven in places, but there was virtually no traffic and it felt like we were going to the ends of the earth all alone. Eventually we emerged from the narrow access into a large car park – and were stunned to see at least 200 vehicles parked there. Not alone then!

It was such a lovely afternoon that we went for a walk along the trail towards the head of the Torla valley. However, being quite high up and late in the day made the temperature drop quite noticeable, and there was a strong wind blowing, so we made the walk a short one. We paused on the bridge for a passing German guy to take our picture with the sun highlighting the rocks of Monte Arruebo, then returned to the Torla to see the visitor centre.



Its a very modern building on 2 levels with a circular ramp wrapped around a colour-changing sculpture between the floors. It was very quiet visitor-wise, so the ranger on Reception agreed to show us the English version of a film all about the park. It was very interesting to learn about some of the places we’d just seen plus a lot more besides, then we browsed the displays in the basement all about the geology, flora & fauna of the area. It was an interesting end to a lovely day.