Wednesday 18th June, Escalona, Aragon

Hello! Today is the first day since Elisondo that we have had access to the internet, so we can update you on our progress.

After three weeks on the path we finally have a very warm, sunny day! We have been up in the high mountains (up to about 2,500m) and there is still a lot of snow around and the weather has been very changable (with more than enough rain). We made it through the Ordessa canyon and up to the Goriz refugio overnight and then accross to the Collado de Anisclo. However, despite traversing quite a few tricky snowfields, fording rivers, climbing a few crags and getting hit by a heavy hail shower, we could not get past a large snow cornice on the top of the pass - so we retracked our steps and headed down the Anisclo canyon. The canyon is absolutely amazing - waterfalls and rapids and a very precipitous track along the cliff edge! This went on for quite a while and involved hanging on to steel chains above long, long drops to the river below. This was the easy part... then we had to climb over a few rock falls, damaged bridges, ford more streams that didnt have bridges (you get the idea). By this time it was getting dark and we were still in the canyon - we didnt fancy walking along precipitous cliffs with rockfalls in the dark so we set up camp on the only piece of flat ground between some large boulders and cooked some pasta and went to sleep. We were so wet, exhausted and tired that we all slept in the same tent to keep warm. Pictures will be posted asap!

The next day we were up early (as camping is not allowed in the National Park) and set off walking again... more canyons, landslides, waterfalls, water, mud, rocks etc, etc. for a few more kms until we reached Puyarruego - a lovely small hill top village which has a CAMPSITE!!! We quickly made ourselves at home in their outdoor restaurant - drying our boots and eating their menu del dia. We also found that they have BUNGALOWS so we booked ourselves in and did our LAUNDRY and lay down!