The valley of the Anisclo on foot and by car

Our Torla hotel recommended that we take a detour via the Anisclo Valley on our way to Ainsa and the Vall de Boi in order to walk into the Anisclo canyon and enjoy a more scenic drive down the river gorge.  Unlike the Valle de Ordessa, which was formed by a glacier and has a typical U-shaped valley, the Canon de Anisclo is a deep river gorge in a more remote area of the Ordessa National Park, with, we discovered, some very minor roads.

Our walk was at lower altitude, so the only snow was on the distant peaks. The gorge is quite narrow with spectacular orange and red limestone cliffs. The track follows the river as it cascades along the gorge in a series of waterfalls.

There were several notable features, including a hermitage built into an overhanging cliff	Also lots of bridges.

Beautiful forest	and in protected spots, African violets growing wild on damp overhanging rocks

We would have loved to have walked to the end of the gorge but we knew that we had a long drive to our next booking in the Valle de Boi.

However, before that, we had to negotiate the road out of the Ordessa Park. We had been told that this was a slow road along the bottom of the gorge and to just take our time round the cliffs and bends. What we didn’t know was that the road was barely wide enough for one car as the road was literally along the very edge of the fast flowing river. At times, the road was cut into the cliffs or through the rock. Indeed, one of our maps showed this section as one-way – the other way!

M was worried about meeting traffic coming the other way, as there were few places for a car to pass and reversing would have been tricky to say the least. What was really freaky though was that our GPS couldn’t locate our road, so every now and then, it would pipe up with, “sharp right” (into the cliff), or “turn left now” (into the river below)! It really was an amazing section of road. We spent 30 mins in second gear!

After that, getting to the Valle de Boi was a breeze. Our hotel for the night was right next to one of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Romanesque churches.

This one had a tower 6 stories high. And the view from our bedroom window was equally impressive, of the snow covered mountains in the Aiguestortes National Park.

Another big day of walking planned for tomorrow, up into the National Park.