Gorges de la Caranca

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Geo: 42.576, 2.34445

Yesterday we decided to go for a walk, and the Gorges de la Caranca with the start point at Thues-entre-Valls, a few miles along the road, looked interesting.

From the car park, the initial route is on flat paths beside the river, and in places the rock face is carved out to accommodate passing walkers. Soon the surface becomes a little more uneven with rocks and boulders to negotiate until a bridge is reached. Then there are decisions on which way to go. With little advance knowledge of the routes, we first of all took the right-hand direction for a while which went out of the gorge and back towards the valley. When it became apparent that this was not the inspiring route we thought it would be, we turned back and found a suitably picturesque spot to have our picnic.

Once back at the fork in the path, we took the opposite direction which went up the gorge proper. After fifteen minutes or so, we encountered the first of several 'Indiana Jones' obstacles, a narrow ledge beside a steep drop into the gorge with just a metal cable anchored to the rock face as a hand rail. Further on there were footbridges with grilles through which the rocks and river below could be seen, metal ladders, a suspension bridge and numerous boulders and fallen rocks to negotiate - perhaps the nearest I am going to get to a 'Via Ferrata'! It was a little daunting at first, but after a while I got used to it, not that there is any room for complacency and carelessness - one trip and you could be toppling over a cliff to your death, or at the least, serious injury.

At a suitable point near a waterfall, we decided to err on the side of caution and retrace our steps since we were unsure of the onward path on the opposite bank of the river to complete a circular route. There is an alternative hike over a couple of days which continues up the gorge with an overnight stay at a refugio.

Early on someone pointed out a species of butterfly which was attracted to a riverside plant - there were dozens of them and nothing like anything I had seen before with their distinctive striped wings.

After several hours, we were back at the car park foot weary and aching calves after an exhilarating exploration of the Gorges of the Caranca. Tired out, we were in bed by 9.00pm!

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Photos

High level path with cable hand rail
Notice the cut out path ahead around the next bend

Comments

[lynnib]

Couldn't fathom him out, but David was more nervy than me.

[Barbara]

Looks awfully scary to me!

[David Millington]

Health and safety Lynne ha ha