Steve Cracknell's Blog
October 20, 2021
Camping in the Ordesa National Park
Góriz hostel above the cañón de OrdesaFrom 2022, trekkers will no longer be able to camp near to the Góriz hostel or anywhere nearby. Last year there were up to 200 tents with consequent problems for the sewerage system.
If the hostel is full, and only if all beds are taken, exceptionally up to 50 tents may be tolerated, but camping won’t be free. [Info from Pyrénées magazine, Nov 2021.]
October 17, 2021
The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees
Brown bear paw print in Ariège © Catherine BrunetWhat do people who live in the mountains think about the ‘wild’? The return of bears and wolves – and soon lynxes – has consequences both for nature and for farmers. New website: www.wildingthePyrenees.com
My new book, The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees, is now available from Lulu [best for me] and Amazon. The editions are identical, the only difference being that the Lulu version doesn’t have an ISBN.
August 22, 2021
Frontier crossing
View from near the Port de Marterat down the Ossèse valleyIf you are hampered by the possession of a car and want to go from the hamlet of Quanca in Catalonia to Ossèse in France, you have to drive 210km. It takes four hours.
Yet the two hamlets are only 10km apart: there are mountains in the way.
If, on the other hand, you have a pair of walking shoes, there are wonderful things to be seen.
Estany de Mariola with Certascan in the backgroundI walked over the frontier this weekend, trying out a...
July 27, 2019
Making connections
Areou estive (above the Col de Pause on the French GR10) On Google Earth, the mountain looks bald. Lower down it bristles with trees, but up here it looks like the bald pate of a man trying to hide his age: covered with fine white hairs brushed parallel. There are dozens of these white lines. Animal tracks?
On Catalan maps there is a real path in there somewhere but none of the lines on Google Earth looks important enough to be a path with a name. So, does the Camí de Aulà really exist? I ema...
June 15, 2019
Beavers know no borders
Reintroduced illegally on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, beavers have crossed into France.
Beaver by Andrea Bohl from Pixabay Extirpated fro...
November 1, 2018
Rewilding in Catalonia: sheep and bears, the official version
Sheep from the Boldis-Àreu flock now back in the valley. In summer they can be seen on the GR11 near the pass between these two villages. Source: Press release Department for the environment and sustainability, Generalitat de Catalunya, in conjunction with PirosLife and EU Life program, 31 October 2018, with additions based on interviews with one of the shepherds involved.
After five months in the high pastures the 36 sheep farms working with the PirosLife project have brought their 5600 shee...
September 15, 2018
The sheep that strayed
Sheep in their enclosure on the Catalan side of Mont-roig (Mont Rouch in French) It’s hard for a shepherd when the bear pays a call. It isn’t a good time for me to visit, but when I set out I know nothing of all this.
Mustaphá has invited me to the Mont-roig estive (summer pasture) on the Catalan side of the Pyrenean watershed. This is good mountain-walking country. Mustaphá’s hut, at 2200m above sea level, is on the Pyrenean High Route (HRP). The Senda (GR11) passes through Tavascan 8km away...
April 2, 2018
Bears in the woods in Catalonia (and France)
Bear cubs photographed on an automatic camera near the Port de Tavascan, July 2017 The French government has recently promised to reinforce of the brown bear population in the western Pyrenees. Predictably this has stirred up French shepherds following an increase in attacks last year. Demonstrations are being planned. But on the other side of the border, in Catalonia, things are much quieter. Shepherds seem to be more willing to accept the new constraints.
So it is perhaps unsurprising that...
March 20, 2018
New Guide to GR11 in Spanish Pyrenees
Revised Cicerone Guide to GR11 Brian Johnson’s revised guide to hiking the Spanish GR11 will be published by Cicerone on 15 April. It includes all route changes and changes in facilities up to September 2017.
February 27, 2018
Walking the GR11 (Senda Pirenaica) in 2018: what is the earliest date to avoid snow?
2 July 2014, on the GR11 above the Estanys Forcats between Baiau and Arinsal, with crampons and ice axe If you want to avoid carrying your crampons and ice-axe in your rucksack see my page on the trekking season in the Pyrenees.
