Kilometres walked: 20km / Total distance: 232km/ Elevation gain: 940m / Elevation loss: 694m / Time walked: 5h39mim
Yesterday, when setting up ‘camp’ in the picnic area, I suddenly really felt like staying in a hotel for a night. A room, a shower, WiFi. I wasn’t in need of a rest day, but for some reason I was really feeling like being indoors for a bit. Fortunately there was cell service at our campsite so within a couple of minutes I booked a hotel room for one in Formigal, the next town over.
“Next town over” still means 20km and almost six hours of walking though, over a majestic route at that! We couldn’t see yesterday’s mountain lake because of the fog, but today we had a second chance with Lake Anayet. Even the walk up the valley was beautiful, and although the climb at the end of the valley was a bitch, the views down were magnificent.
Once at the lake we basked in the sun and ate snacks for an hour, dipped our feet in the water and enjoyed the spectacular views.
The descent was fine, following a river down. Not particularly remarkable. Nicole’s knee was complaining, so we took it easy. More ski slopes, more asphalt parking lots, more breaks in the shade and ultimately a very boring roadwalk into Formigal, where I checked into my hotel and Nicole walked onwards for another half hour to Sallent de Gallego.
The hotel was everything I needed. A chance to be alone for a bit (although it’s really nice to walk with someone else), a sink to rinse my stuff, a long hot shower, and a huge salad in the restaurant.
The next few days will be exiting: more high mountain passes. Unfortunately the weather doesn’t look great, with forecasted thunderstorms. I’ve been low-key stressing about it the whole day, coming up with plans and possible alternatives. Now that I’m in my hotel bed, alone, I half make up my mind to just skip the section. But I’m meeting Nicole in Sallent tomorrow morning. Maybe the forecast will improve. We’ll see.
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