Jaca to Santa Cruz de la Serós

I had a diversion option today intended for people who want to visit the Monasterio Nuevo de San Juan de la Peña and the Monasterio Veijo. The route is long, challenging with very steep ascents and descents, and in places sounds as of there is some technical scrambling. I was not up for it but I was curious about the monasteries especially the old one which is built into a cliff, extra. I used the cycle route, on tarmac after the first 14km, and a fair bit longer than the Camino diversion. My garmin watch ran out of battery at 34 km, I still had another 1.5 to go.
It was nevertheless a wonderful day. In hindsight I should just have visited the monastery in a cliff but I couldn’t resist continuing up the hill to see the new one. It was a disappointment, the frontage is covered in scaffolding and protective mesh so there was little to see. I could have waited for a guided tour but the last thing I wanted was more more walking. On the plus side it had excellent toilets and I was able to refill my water bottles for the walk back down the mountain road. Going up took just over two and a half hours not including stops, I made it back down in just over the hour with a mixture of fast walking and intermittent jogging.
Tonight I’m staying in Santa Cruz de la Seros, one of my favourite places so far. My accommodation is delightful, a bath, a balcony and in the communal lounge a good selection of books including an English one on birding in the North of Spain.
Some interesting human encounters today including 2 vets from the university in Zaragoza. They are studying the distribution of ticks, very few it seems, on account of the hot weather. I asked them about desman, the aquatic mole. They said that just this week their threat level has increased from highly vulnerable to near extinction. So I was probably far more likely to see a bear.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow which after today’s temperature is quite appealing. And I have an easy walk, although I am probably going to take the short challenging way out of Santa Cruz on the basis that I can turn back if it proves too tricky.
Main blip is the beautiful church here, once a monastery inhabited by Benedictine nuns.