Last Sunday, Lisa and me went on a short but very nice hike in the Andorranean valley "Vall d'Incles". We had slept in the small village of Soldeu, and therefore didn't have a long approach to the point where our route started. The car was parked in the vicinity of the valley's last houses, more precisely at the "Badalosa" Bridge and off we went walking.
 |
| Bottom left: Soldeu, hiking route in red |
The Incles Valley is located at the very North East of Andorra, with some of its limiting mountain barriers directly boardering France. On foot, one can easily cross the ridges via a number of accessible cols and leave Andorranean territory although that was not what we had in mind, because we didn't want to spend too much time on our hike. Our idea was, to just make it to the mountain hut at Estany Primer.
It still was a little cold when we started, especially on the shadowy slopes of the lower parts, but as the path got steeper our body temperatures kept rising.
The route followed more or less a mountain brook known as Rio de Juclar, which we had to cross several times by means of different kinds of bridges. Some were nice and elaborated constructions made of stone, while others were as lifeless and pragmatic as only a concrete tile can be. The view got better and better as we kept gaining altitude, but then, the chilly wind got stronger as well.
Finally we reached Estany Primer, a water reservoir, which as a matter of fact is Andorra's biggest, though artificial, lake. In the vicinity there was the mountain hut which we erroneously had expected to be guarded.
Since there was no guard in the hut, there neither were coffees to be served, reason why we had to eat our homemade panellets without what would have been a reviving hot drink.
All in all a nice hike in a very beautiful mountaineous surrounding. The network of long distance walking routes together with mountain huts and a seemingly endless possibility of activities makes this part of Andorra well worth to be explored more thouroughly.
No comments:
Post a Comment