Tuesday 3 October

 We breakfast in an amazing old room surrounded with antiques then head off in the van a little way up the Zazare valley to start our hike. We manage to park and take the marked trip up the Glacial valley route. It’s very green and fertile with occasional stone houses and lovely scenery of the surrounding mountains and glimpses of the river below. It is still unusually sunny. We basically climb uphill along pleasant tracks for about 2.5 hours until we hit the road and a shady picnic spot at the base of a rocky crag. We meet two coach loads of school children whom we assume are on a Geography field trip. They’re quite noisy but eventually they walk down the valley and we eat our picnic in peace. Down the hill we refill our water bottles from a freshwater spring which is a constant 6C and tastes delicious. Back by the river we venture in for a dip at the bathing area. It is very cold! The immersion is rapid! We’re back at the van  after 6 hours of walking and are quite relieved to have finished. Our next hotel is SerraVale run by an infamously super hospitable host who is very talkative but very knowledgeable about the area. 

Supper back in the village up hill in a Cheese-shop/ Tapas bar where we share a platter of local cheeses and salamis with some meat and cod patties. All very delicious. We’re temporarily locked out of our hotel but get rescued. Maybe we have been in the van too long!