El Cau

El Cau is one of the mountains siding our Spanish valley. I don’t really know the pronunciation but given the way this walk began, El Cow would be appropriate; it started heading upwards immediately and that’s the way it continued.

We were out once again with our Monday walking group and El Cau was our target. The initial section on an inclined stony track was not the most pleasant but once we hit the mountain path proper, consisting of classic Spanish rocks, the climbing was at least more enjoyable. I’d have been better without quite so much wine on Sunday evening but social occasions do tend to involve that. Eventually my lungs settled down but not before requesting a transplant into another more sedentary body.

There were three summits on what was apparently our 600m ascent, though estimates vary. My lungs say they are in the 600m camp. The weather was sunny but hazy so distance shots were not greatly successful. The weather was very windy, too, and I had to abandon my trusty Tilley hat in favour of a more secure Buff. Just for the record, given the conditions, here’s what we ended up looking at from the final summit of El Cau: the ridge in the distance is the Bernia.

For something a little different, I tried snagging a plant looking precariously positioned and dwarfed by the landscape beyond. Precarious it may have been but it seemed to be surviving the gusty winds up top.

Our descent was a bit a of a scratchy slog along a narrow track lined with what we suspect is Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera), A decidedly prickly oak which seems often to be quite low-level. It was made worse by one patch of ground depositing a few of those infernal tick creatures on a couple of our number. Underhand little blighters but having spotted them everyone was vigilant. They didn’t lighten the mood on the way down, though.

We made it and seem to be tick free. Our lungs may have recovered but beer was definitely needed to help the throats recover.