The magnificent Corona de Rey (King's crown)

The warm weather during April and May means that the Pyrenees are already bursting with life and lots of species of wildflowers that I wouldn’t normally expect to see at this time of year are already flowering – these are all photos taken on my hikes over the last couple of weeks.

Saxifraga Longifolia are one of the specialities of the Pyrenees. Known locally as Corona del Rey (Kings Crown) they grow slowly on cliff faces for about 4 or 5 years before exploding into flower for just one season before dying. The flower stem can be up to 60 cm tall and is covered in small white flowers.

Spanish Moon Moth - a huge moth with a wingspan of almost 15cm

This Spanish Moon Moth was a fantastic find. It was the biggest moth I’ve ever seen with a wingspan approaching 15cm and had fantastic colours. They live in pine forests and are quite rare so it was a real privilege to see it.

Fly Orchid

Fly Orchids (ophyrs insectifera) are fascinating and highly specialised orchids. Each member of the Ophrys family is designed to be pollinated by a particular type of insect. The flower mimics the shape of the insect that it’s trying to attract and the plant even lets off a scent that imitates the smell of the pheremone of the female inscet. The males insects pollinate the orchid as they try to mate with the flower.

Oreja de Oso (Bear's Ear)

The Oreja de Oso or Bear’s Ear (Ramonda Myconi) is found only in the Pyrenees. It’s leaves resemble an african violet and the other species in this family grow mainly in the tropics.

It’s thought this species was established when the area was much hotter and then adapted as temperatures got cooler. It’s flowers are distinctive with a protuding yellow central stamen.

Elder Flowered Orchid

Elder flowered orchids (dactylorhiza sambucina) are the most numerous in the Pyrenees and in early summer the alpine meadows are covered in these orchids. They can be found with both purple and yellow flowers – both are the same species.

Scarce Swallowtail

The yellow swallowtail butterfly and the black and white scarce swallowtail are two of my favourites. Both are quite large and I’ve seen quite a few in flight already this summer. The peak of Punta del Pacino is a great place to see these butterflies and there always seem to be several pairs flying around the summit cairn.

The insect eating large flowered butterwort (pinguicula grandiflora)

The insect eating large flowered butterwort (pinguicula grandiflora)  is another fascinating wildflower. It’s lime green leaves are greasy to the touch and small insects get stuck to the leaves. A second enzyme then breaks down the insect whose nutrients are absorbed through hundreds of microscopic holes in the leaves.

These holes also dry the plant out so they are always found in damp places – particularly on continually wet rock faces. As the plant is topping up it’s nutrients with insects it can survive on very poor soil and rocks.

These are just some of the flowers currently out in the Pyrenees – it’s shaping up to be an excellent season for flowers. If your interested in flora our Lakes & Valleys walking holidays are ideal and visit some of the best alpine meadows in the area.

The cirque of Rincon de Balsera

Explored the remote Ibon de la Sierra and was rewarded with great views and wildlife including a lammergeier, chamois, kestrels and my first marmots of the season.

It’s an area of the Valle de Tena that I’d wanted to hike in for ages but never seemed to get round to it. It’s a long walk in but really worth it as you get to some really wild valleys lying under the imposing peak of Punta Escarra.

Stemless Gentians - one of my favourite early flowers

The weather’s been beatiful the last couple of weeks and the spring flowers are really starting to come out. Saw my first orchids of the season – elder flowered orchids. These come in both yellow and purple but both are the same species and can be seen in their thousands in June. In sunnier spots gentians were out too – mainly spring gentians but a couple of patches of lovely stemless gentians.Where the snow had recently melted a few alpine snowbells were coming out too – these are fantastically delicate and spring out of the ground as soon as the snow cover has gone.

Alpine snowbell

The marmots have come out of hibernation and I heard lots of warning whistles and saw plenty of them grazing on the fresh grass.

My first marmot of the season

Also saw a group of Chamois – one of which posed silhouetted on a small peak nearby.

Chamois posing on a ridge

When I got to Ibon de Sierra I was quite surprised to find it covered in ice which was a bit surreal as I was hiking in sorts and t-shirts. I was even more surprised to see several fully grown frogs swimming under the ice – they must survive all winter under there.

Ibon de la Sierra

The wildlife highlight of the day was a lammergeier flying close overhead. I could really see it’s colours and get an idea of it’s huge wingspan (which can be over 2.5 metres). Its always a delight to see these vultures.

Great day out and a good new area discovered that I’m sure I’ll be visiting again this summer.

The cliffs of Peña Oroel

Peña Oroel at 1769m stands just outside Jaca and it’s cliffs are home to dozens of Griffon vultures. Being slightly south of the main chain means that you get fantastic views across a vast number of peaks. In fact Aneto, Possets and Perdido – the three highest peaks in the Pyrenees can be seen from the summit. I was surprised to hear that our friend George whose lived in the area for almost 30 years and climbed more peaks than I can name hadn’t been up there so last Friday we took a quick trip to the summit.

The walk starts at a lovely restaurant and bar called ‘El Parador’ and the views are already pretty good from here and it’s a great place to lunch outside on the terrace. From here the summit looks pretty imposing and fairly impossible to reach but in fact a well graded path snakes it’s way through the woods and it only takes about an hour to gain the summit ridge. Spring has arrived to the lower altitudes of the Pyrenees and the woods were full of Hepatica as we wandered up.

George on the summit ridge

Once you reach the ridge it’s about a kilometre walk to the highest point which is marked with a large cross. The views on this section are fantastic both to the north to the snow capped higher peaks and to the south to the cliffs of Riglos.

Views north to the main Pyrenean peaks

As you walk you can peer over the edge for a 500m vertical drop to the woods below. It’s a popular vulture roosting point too and you’re almost guaranteed to see Griffons there. On the southern side of the ridge the weathers quite warm and you get some flowers that aren’t seen so often in the main range. There were some lovely wild daffodils out with really large flower heads – usually we get the much smaller narcissus only 10 cm or so high. Crocus Nevadensis is another flower that you get here and further south but rarely in the higher mountains.

Wild daffodils (narcissus pseudonarcissus)

Crocus Nevadensis

As well as all of the peaks you get great views down onto the town of Jaca. The pentagonal citadela is really obviuos as is the bright shiny new ice skating rink.

Looking down onto Jaca

We sat and had lunch on the summit taking in the views and the sunshine before making our way back down. Complete route is around 7km with 600m of ascent and takes about 4 hours.

Peña Oroel is just one of the many routes that we have route cards for on our self guided walking holidays – why not come over and see the views for yourself?

Walking in the Valle de Ordiso

The walking season is in full swing here in the Pyrenees and we’ve had a couple of great walking holidays already this June with a Lakes & Valleys and a Discover Ordesa walking holidays. We’ve had some fantastic hikes visiting high alpine pastures, abandoned villages, the Ordesa and Anisclo canyons and some superb summits.

Walking up to the Ibon de Piedrafita

Walking near Bujaruelo on our Discover Ordesa walking holiday

The flowers have been superb and we’ve seen a dozen types of orchid including a couple of rare parasitical orchids – the birds nest orchid and violet limadore. Other orchids we’ve seen are bee orchids, woodcock orchids, fly orchids, elder flowered orchids, sword leaved helleborines, early purple orchids, marsh orchids, common orchids, pyramid orchids and dark vanilla orchids (and probably a couple of others that I’ve forgotten….).

The semi-parasitical violet limadore orchid

Bird lovers have not been disapointed either with the highlight being two lammergeier which landed about 100m away from us and then were joined by a juvenile as they soared off.

Thanks to all of our guests for making June a great month and we hope to see you again in the Pyrenees.

The fort at Coll de Ladrones

Yesterday evening I went climbing at a venue called Coll de Ladrones north of Jaca near the French border. There has been a fort there since 1751 and before climbing I went for a bit of an explore.

The original fort was built to defend the pass from France and had a horseshoe design. It was finished in 1758 but was promptly abandoned due to poor construction. The second fortress was begun in 1888 but not finished until 1900. This new fortress had 5 gun emplacements hewn from the rock to guard the approaches from the north-east and north-west. A spectacular gallerty leads down to sixth emplacement which guards the road.

Moat dug out of the solid rock

I noticed the building that housed the officers quarters is in a nice, sunny, sheltered spot while the soldiers barracks that houesd 150 infantry and 50 gunners is in a cold exposed part of the fortress.

Soon after it’s completion the fort became obselete and was decomissioned in 1961. In 1990 it was sold to a private enterprise and you can visit the fort on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the summer.

Unexpectedly around the fort I found lots of flowers – meadow and livelong saxifrages, spring gentians and elder flowered orchids. Best of all were a huge number of fritillarys – a beautiful flower that’s pretty rare in the Pyrenees and I’d only seen before in the Valle de Otal. There must have been well over a hundred in the area.

A beautiful fritiallary - one of my favourite flowers

Close-up of the fritillary flower - the colour of the flowers is quite variable

Eventually I left the flowers behind and started climbing. Really nice rock – limestone of course. There are about 24 well bolted routes ranging from 4+ to 7a. Several of the routes have three pitches right up to the base of the fort although we just stuck to some single pitch routes. Handily there is a crag map with the routes and grades marked at the base of the wall. Beautiful evening and we didn’t finish climbing until almost 10.

The climbing crag at Coll de Ladrones