A short walk

More textured in large.

We decided to do a proper walk today, a circular walk that G and A had done recently, when it was officially inaugurated by the tourist office. It was good conditions for walking, not too hot, and after parking in Lleret the first part was a climb through the woods before we came out onto open pasture. Here we sat down for a coffee break, and then S decided to extend his walk with a there and back to the Roc de Ferral. The rest of us continued along the ridge and then joined the GR11 to walk back down to the village. This took us a long time, as we kept stopping to look at the clouds of butterflies. See a small pearl-bordered fritillary (boloria selene), front and back, in extras. Stats: about 6 km, 400 m climbing, 3 hours 20 minutes. I told you we were slow, S arrived from his longer walk just five minutes after us. He had also correctly identified the many small fresh mushrooms we saw as puffballs, as I suspected he would, and collected some. Back at the car, P, who works at Bordes de Graus and lives in Lleret, spotted us and promptly dashed out of her garden to present A with a crate of freshly picked vegetables.

Back at the ranch S lit the barbecue, and we refreshed ourselves before concocting lunch (again at the Spanish hour of 3 pm) of salad (partly courtesy of P), grilled sausage, sautéed puffballs, baked potatoes, green beans (another garden gift), and left-over ratatouille. It was delicious, and then we finally finished the pear cake I made a week ago and brought with me.

Lazy (remains of) afternoon, and eventually at about 8 pm we were peckish enough for wine and French cheese and crackers. Wound up the day with herb tea in the bar, then bed.