15/09/08 - Our 20th country: Andorra

It was almost disappointing as a clear, cool, blue sky day greeted us
this morning - why couldn't it have been like that yesterday when I
was scaling the peaks above us!! Never mind - A perfect day to visit
the tiny nation of Andorra!

First, Pat had to do some climbing - up and out of The Great Valley
via the French pass of Col de Puymorens (1915m), then down, then up
again to Port d' Envalira (2408m) and into our 20th country on this
trip. It is both our 33rd country in total, so we are about 1/6th the
way round the world now. Who knows when we will do the rest??

It was from the top of the pass, whilst taking in the grand view of
the whole of Andorra (where it would seem, there is a chair lift at
the top of evey hill) that our minds were made up. With such a
beautiful day, we'd bag the tallest peak in Andorra: Pic de Coma
Pedrosa @ 2946m!

Down, into the long winding valley that divides Andorrra, through the
nation's capital: Andorra la Vella, then on to Arsinsal where we would
set off from. With all the information offices closed for lunch, we
took a photo of the map on the board and got climbing!!

The Lonely Planet promised a steep ascent for 1.5 hours to the halfway
point at Estany de les Truies (a lake) at 2260m. While enjoying the
scenery from here, all of a sudden across on the other side of the
lake these very large Bearded Vultures all started swooping down to
one spot where there was obviously something there for dinner. We
never did see the animal as there would have been at least 20 Vultures
ripping it to bits, but a couple of locals who were watched explained
that is was a deer that died the previous day from the cold, and the
poor sighted Vultures have only just smelt the animal now - obviously
it only took one to smell it, and once it swooped down, they all
came!!

At 16:00, after 2 hours and with the number of daylight hours
diminishing, Marea decided she was quite content with her exertions
and the recent excitement and headed back down. With promises to turn
back, should the hour get too late, Daniel continued to Pic de Coma
Pedrosa on his own.

The gradient of the walk didn't let up (I guess it shouldn't if you're
climbing a mountain :-) as the plant life got less and less until all
there was, just rocks and snow and incredible views all around!!
Reaching the top at 6:12pm ment I had 18 minutes to enjoy the feeling
of being on the roof of the Pyrenees - taking in views of France,
Spain and of course Andorra - it was fantastic!!

Then the return trip that almost followed the time schedule that I had
allowed - only the last 30 minutes was completed in darkness ;-). But
to be honest, by the time I made reached home I was quite shattered
and felt like I was coming down with the flu (or in Marea's words -
pathetically exhausted).