Saturday 6th January 2024
We again spent the day travelling northwards to cross the Pyrenees. The plan was to overnight on a large Aire at Aínsa, then in the morning, setting off to Bielsa, on the D173 and taking the tunnel just beyond, to emerge in France at Aragnouet. We had planned to stay the night near Lourdes, but more of that later.
Ballobar
The small town of Ballobar, was a place we just passed by, but it did look interesting, especially the church tower on the hill-top, mirrored by the one in the valley.
This was the start of a stretch of road which passed in the shadow of numerous cliffs…
…with layers of rock near the base, which were very brightly coloured and that could be seen, mile after mile (or kilometre):
El Grado
El Grado, was where we stopped to have lunch. There is a small motorhome aire (for just 3 units, with services) on the main road as you approach the dam. It looks a great place to explore further as there appears to be many walking trails.
The road continued on both sides of the reservoir, but we needed to take the left hand route, which gave some fine views:
We stopped at a viewpoint near Mipanas, where in the layby, there appears to have been considerable attention on the trees, from those wanting to leave their mark:
Aínsa
Aínsa is a small, charming walled medieval town, mostly built on a flat-topped hill, requiring a low-gear ascent around hairpin bends. Before making the climb, we had a look around the lower part of the town.
After negotiating the road up to the old town, we found that like many other places we have visited, many of the fortifications are visible.
After parking up, we visited the town, including the bird sanctuary, which is the building on the right in the photo above. Here, they have rescued birds of prey, including an Eagle Owl, two Bearded Vultures, which are breeding, and a Short Toed Eagle, which we saw having its lunch:
The sanctuary is called: “Ecomuseo de la Fauna. Fundación para la Conservación del Quebrantahuesos” and is well worth a visit with its very realistic multi-layered landscape over the three floors of the tower.
Beyond, is the town itself, which is based around a square:
After our brief exploration of the town, we returned to the camping-car park to have a meal and plan our following day’s journey.
Looking at the journey over the Pyrenees, we checked out the web-cams at each of the tunnel in addition to the detailed forecast. Heavy snow was present and further forecast, so a change of plan ensued, with a turn to the north west, back towards Pamplona, going around the mountains, rather than over/under them.
"See-u-Later" 