15 walks in 21 days
An eclectic trip, with 2 weeks in Spain, Bled, 1 week in Austria, 1 week in the Orkneys, and a couple of days in the UK.
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The Val de Ordesa is just inside Spain, south of Gavarnie. It's a deep canyon, with a walk east and northwards.
Out our bedroom window in Torla, with our gorge walk at the end, to the right |
Northern wall, early morning |
And the Southern wall, closed, avalanche-prone, in May!? |
The first of four diverse watrerfalls |
Another, further up the valley |
The head of the valley. It was freezing, and we stayed below the ledge |
Soon after starting the return journey |
The northern side, by now in full sunlight |
Spring was very late, the snow-line low, and the skies mostly overcast. So we have only a few shots. We did 5 walks in 6 days (then touristed in the Basque country on the way to the Ossau). The biggest walks were 960m up the Bulnes Gorge and 1000m down from Fuenté Dé.
On Robas, above Cares gorge, E of Arenas de Cabrales ... |
... and looking back W to Arenas |
The Uriellu path on an atmospheric day ... |
... back to the deserted village, Invernales |
Behind Fuenté Dé, sthn side of the Picos ... |
... and lower, cow-sheds |
Going up Bulnes Gorge ... |
... Further up ... |
... Looking back down to the Garganta del Cares ... |
... The isolated village of Bulnes ... |
... Above the village ... |
... Looking down to Bulnes from the Uriellu walk |
The Ossau is a striking valley west of the Central Pyrenees. This was only our second visit, and hopefully not our last. We did two walks. The particular magic this time was that the spring was so late that we saw daffodils, and in quantity by number, and even by species.
The start of the walk with the Pic du Midi |
Up into Linda's Valley of the Flowers |
The first Wordsworth Moment |
Daffodils even on the hillside |
Up another level ... to more daffodils |
Looking towards the snow-covered top path |
Looking back to the Pic du Midi di Ossau ... |
... which we'd walked around |
Valiantly leading o'er the flooding stream |
The other side, and still daffodils everywhere |
Daffodil portrait |
Next morning, above our village of Bilheres |
The upper valley south of Ossau close to Spain |
Forest and waterfall on the way up a side-valley |
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair |
Corydalis and view |
Linda again in daffodil heaven |
Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp Nobilis (Noble self-admiring lady?) |
Oh yes, and again the Pic du Midi di Ossau, from the other side |
D and PdM Portrait |
The view East, back down our valley |
Including, um daffodils |
But also some succulents |
And a rock-protected hut on an avalanche-line |
Debela Pec is a 2000m peak at the northern end of a ridge running north from Triglav, due east of Bled. It's a long-half-day walk from one of several obscure locations in the forest near Planina Javornik. We've spent years trying to find a walk that's as good as this and that has the chance of a good view of Triglav at the end of it (cloud permitting). Andreja Pucihar put us onto it.
To start with, a rise through a forest (Kifer and Tanne?) |
After 2 hours, Triglav appears, 1000m above us. 2 years earlier, we'd walked up onto Male Triglav (left), along the skyline, 40m down, and 180m up to the top of Triglav. It looks almost as scary from here |
First view of the last push up to Debela Pec, with Pinus mugo |
Triglav again (2850m), with Rjavina (2532m) to the right |
The view E towards Bled |
E, full telephoto, with Hotel Toplice just left of centre |
SE, to Planina Javornik, where the car was parked |
N, down the Krma Valley to the Karawanken, last bastion of the Alps |
What the well-equipped walker ... |
... does these days ... |
... is turn their back on Triglav ... |
... and natter with the kids |
Various shots ... |
... of the path ... |
... and the refuge at ... |
... Koca Lipanci |
A glorious week's walking, on the Kitzbueheler Horn, beneath the Wilder Kaiser, along the ridge behind the Hahnenkamm as far as the Schwarzkogel, back and down the Hahnenkamm (a long day), from Pass Thurn up and along the Panoramaweg to Zweitausender, and a final quick half-day up to Blue Lake.
From the Kitzbueheler Horn, WSW over Schwarzsee and Kirchberg ... |
... WNW towards the Wilder Kaiser ... |
... Linda in heaven, at the Alpenblumengarten beneath the Kitzbueheler Horn ... |
... and down near Kitzbuehel,
looking S to Pass Thurn and the Hohe Tauern |
Going up the southern face of the Wilder Kaiser ... |
... South to Kitzbuehel ... |
... the crags above ... |
... a beer looking north to the walk we'd just done |
Up on the Hahnenkamm at the start of the race ... |
... looking NE to the Horn and Steinernes Meer ... |
... along the ridge, looking back NE ... |
... target for the day, the Schwarkogel (2000m) |
... lunching on top ... |
... the return walk, looking at the Wilder Kaiser ... |
... a beer back at the Hahnenkammstuberl |
From the Panoramaweg
south over Mittersill to the Grosser Venedig |
Kitzbuehel, from our balcony |
A bonus walk to the Blue Lake ... |
... which is small and, well, blue ... |
... and close to Schwarzkogel |
A dull, cool, slightly moist week, even though it included the solstice, i.e. 'normal for the time of year'. Not as thrilling visually as the previous week in Kitzbuehel, but as it turned out there were more publication-worthy photos than we expected.
Low cliffs, southern end of Mainland |
Rock-shelves, typical of much of the Orkney islands |
Ring of Brodgar central Mainland |
Skara Brae, beside the sea |
Brough of Birsay, low-tide, so fordable ... |
... Cliffs, fulmars, thrift ... |
... Cliffs, sea-birds ... |
... only two puffins and a guillemot, after a very tough winter ... |
... and still more ... |
... cliffs and birds |
Leaving the quay at Stromness, for Hoy ... |
Rackwick, on the far side of Hoy |
... an hour later, first view of ... |
... the Old Man of Hoy ... |
... unusually, with two climbers on top ... |
... and two climbers half-way up ... |
... the adjacent cliffs were more striking than the stack ... |
... closer up ... |
... immediately adjacent ... |
.. and cropped |
... over the high moor looking back to Rackwick ... |
... Hardwick, Britain's most northerly forest ... |
... viewed from ... |
... three different directions |
Tiny Tingwall wharf, for the ferry to Rousay ... |
... rock-shelves at Midhowe ... |
... yet another quite remarkable neolithic site ... |
... and another, back on Mainland, again beside the sea looking across at Rousay |
This is a page within the Clarke-Spinaze Photo Gallery, home-page here
Created: 15 July 2013; Last Amended: 26 July 2013