Day 25: Estaon to Tavascan

12km, 900m elevation gain.

After letting our tents dry a bit in the breeze this morning, we started walking, quickly passing the cute town of Estaon for a water refill before then starting a gradual climb through the forest. We passed a few small deserted towns which were interesting to explore. As you can see, over the last day or two the landscape has changed a lot - gone are the high Pyrenees and here we are in the rolling hills and steep valleys in the foothills of Catalonia before the big ascent in a few days into Andora.

Although we are not up in the high mountains, the elevation change is sharp and difficult, and often just as big as previously. The lack of breeze here in the valleys and the fact that there are few streams makes the going tough.

Often there are storms in the afternoons and by the time we reached Tavascan after a fairly gruelling ascent earlier in the day, we decided to call it quits and get a hotel room - especially when it started bucketing down with rain (still falling 2 hours later as I am typing this). Although it is a shorter slday and we finished walking by 1430, the next stages make sense to commence starting afresh tomorrow - one more night camping before a fairly big day up into Andora. I cannot believe it is so close!