Wen Way

Dear friends,

Tis the second time I attempt Pyrenees and with strong determination to reach the peak of Punta Acuta (Acuta Top), I marched forth but in a gradual manner this time so the down south part of my anatomy suffers a minimal fatigue. For those of you who need specifics (just in case), I am referring to my legs and specifically the thighs and knees.

Along the way, this contrast in color caught my eyes and I had to capture it.

And after some moments, a break was in order and this was the view from mid hike.

Guess what you can find other than greens? Sheeps!

In the photo, the subject appears to be very relaxed but that is not quite the truth. And was the subject at the peak?

Not quite. What seemed like a 10 minutes’ walking distance to reach the peak was really a 30 minutes out-of-breathe-dragging-of-the-feet.

All was glory and grace of mother nature as soon as I reached the peak, I thought.

But NO. A bunch of flying mountain ants decided to “welcome” me by assaulting my face. What you see in the photo is 0.00001% of the assault. It was such a potong steam moment to reach the peak and running down again to fend off the attack of the ants. Pfffff!

That was not the end, for black clouds from afar away were closing in and the first sane thing to do is to stay clear from trees. So, with my back against a rock cliff…I embraced the heavy downpour. If you think that was it, not quite. The raindrops suddenly felt really hard like small pebbles striking from above, yes…the nightmare of hikers out in the open – a blizzard. Fortunately, the windbreaker had a hood, which prevented PHD. The whole time when all of those were taking place, I was just cursing on one hand and toughing out the ice cold raindrops and ice on the other. What was perhaps a ten minutes ordeal felt like an eternity.

And here you might be able to see a little bit of aftermath of the blizzard on the ground.

Now, it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience to be enjoying sunshine, under rainfall, enduring blizzard and the next moment to have bright sunshine again, all within 15 minutes.

Even a mountain toad would agree…hehe.

The journey down is much faster and that goes without saying. What many people might not realize is that it takes much more to travel down as this is where it really exerts pressure on the knee joints. It is possible to the point which requires conscious focus for each step, failing which may result in the knee giving way and a fall on the ground in front of you (best case scenario) OR possibly down the slopes at the edges (worst case scenario). However, if elderly people can manage it, I can say that anyone else can successfully do it with time and care. Anyway, those are some of my notations on the second hike and here I end this entry with a photo of a shop, which is possibly the most colorful one in Pyrenees.

So that is my tribute to one of the most beautiful place I have visited (twice!) in Spain. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for I would love to visit again in the future. Till then, have a good one!

D Way

The day I left for Spain, it was clear to me that there was no jungle trekking for me for the few good months over here. I knew I would miss all the action back in Malaysia and that maybe when I finally get home, I would be so out of touch with trekking and have to familiarize with the jungle all over again but alas, and very fortunately Spain has the Mount Pyrenees here.

So I went and check the place out. With the cool weather and since I stand to be corrected that it is a forest instead of a jungle (Read: Free of creepy crawlies and wet muddy grounds), I confidently assumed it was going to be a walk in the park and in this case, forest. As I marched on and not even into the fifth minute of the hike, not walk, I knew this trek was a different thing altogether and in a more challenging way. That is simply because it was going up the slope all the way 99% of the time and eventually going down the same way 99% down the slope all the way as well. Even as my mind anticipated all those, reality does not hit as much as when your thighs scream of stress when hiking up or when your knees yell of strain when scaling down the slopes.

What naturally happened was more frequent stops were had the higher the hike as the air became thinner and scaling down took less time but as mentioned previously, the knees suffered much strain and felt like it could give way anytime not careful or moved too quickly. Nonetheless, the view from above was magnificent and breathe taking. For me, it was the opposite ambience of the place I work at and suffice to say it was just pure tranquility and bliss all the way. Such quietness and sense of peacefulness was a first for me and I love it. Now, let’s take a look at the obligatory photos of the Pyrenees and then some. Enjoy!