Monday 2 July 2012
Trip to Aiguestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park continue
At around 7.30am we arrived in a town of Espot. Espot is the gateway to Aiguestortes and it's located in the Pyrenees mountains in Lleida province. It's a rather small and quite town with few hotels and restaurants, yet it's a tourist area because just outside of Espot you will find one of the two entrances station can to the National Park Aiguestortes. Ski station can be find nearby, it's called the Superspot and it's located about 8 miles from Espot. In a winter it allows a practice of all kind of winter sports.
This is a beautiful area worth of exploring if you are a
nature lover, or if you just wanna relax and have fun for a few days. It's a perfect place to see unspoiled nature, wildlife, lakes and enjoy the fun of winter sports during winter months.
There are two main access location to the National Park, one could be found in northern part of Espot, the other which is the main entrance, could be found in the southern part in the valley of Boí-Taull.
There are two main access location to the National Park, one could be found in northern part of Espot, the other which is the main entrance, could be found in the southern part in the valley of Boí-Taull.
Our trail was starting from the
car park at Prat of the Pierro, which is the northern entrance. We’ve got a bit
lost at first, but soon we found the right signpost for the above mentioned car
park. From Espot we drove following the route for another 10 minutes to our
destination. Once we reached the car park, a local person from the small
tourist office stopped us at the very entrance, directing us as where exactly
to park our vehicle, and providing us with maps of the trail. She also asked if
I’m going to hike alone, not taking notice of Nero at first. Once she spotted
him, she just smiled and requested me to come down to the tourist office, once
I park my car.
I did as she said, parked my car
and walked down to the office along with Nero. She couldn’t stop smiling at
Nero, asking me if she could stroke him. As always the little Belgian Casanova
had to put on his charms, making himself being all cute and cuddly. She asked,
if I’m planning to complete the entire route all the way to the highest peak of
El Pic del Portarro. When I said yes, she gave me few extra maps, and just
noted that the walk takes 10hours return, and it could be a difficult going for
the dog. Then she smiled again, and wished us a good luck!
Back at the car, we both got ready.
On this hike Nero wore his socks, boots and a backpack with his water supply,
electrolytes and K9 first aid. At the easy sections of the route, I’ve let him
walk on the retractable lead, but for the more difficult and steeper parts I
packed in a special climbing rope leash and harnesses. Not knowing the terrain
that lay ahead, it’s always better to be prepared well, just in case. The
weather was beautiful with prediction of all day blue sky and 30 degree Celsius
in the valley, and around 25 degrees on the peaks with only slight breeze blowing. But still, mountain weather can’t be trusted, so I packed in extra
layers of clothing!
It was just after 8.30am, when we've set off on a trail from Sant Maurici to Portarro d' Espot. I will add description of the trail in the next blogpost....
To be continued....
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