The Pyrenees Articles

Wallcreeper - Tichodroma muraria

Spotlight on the wallcreeper: bird of the year 2025

The wallcreeper, with its bright scarlet wing patches, is one of the Pyrenees most famous birds and prized sighting for ornithologists. It’s being celebrated as the ‘Bird of 2025’ by SEO/Birdlife to highlight the dangers it faces and why this small bird is so special.

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The Peaks of Ordesa

From the Monrepos pass you get a superb vista across the Pyrenees including this fantastic view of the Ordesa National Park. You can see ten of the 3000m peaks, the cliffs of the Ordesa Valley and even the Faja de las Flores. Click on the photo to get a larger clearer...

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¡Guerra! – the Spanish Civil War

Recently I read ¡Guerra! by Jason Webster – an excellent, very readable account of the Spanish Civil War and highly recommended to anyone wanting to know more about this devastating period of Spanish history. The book alternates between historical accounts of...

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Hiking in the Valle de Acumuer

Beautiful weather in the Pyrenees last weekend after a week of rain and cloud. On Sunday I went to explore the Valle de Acumuer which I’d looked at lots of times but not walked in before. We started in the village of Acumuer which is in a lovely location with a...

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Summer 2011 Stansted to Zaragoza flights on sale

Ryan Air have just released their flights for summer 2011. Zaragoza is the most convenient airport for the Aragonese Pyrenees and Ryan Air has flights from Stansted on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. Hike Pyrenees transfers meet the Sunday evening flight....

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First snowshoeing trip of the season

It’s been snowing heavily in the Pyrenees for over a week now but the weather cleared on Friday and Saturday and it was time to dig the snowshoes out of the back of the cupboard for the first snowshoe outing of the season.The ski resort of Astun was our...

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Spain’s saffron harvest

Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and sells for more than $4000 a kilo. Production is hugely labour intensive with the delicate task of removal of the stamens only possible by hand. Good report on the BBC on how Spain is hoping this years saffron...

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New Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry service

Brittany Ferries have announced a new Pourtsmouth to Bilbao service starting March 2011. There will be twice weekly sailings and the service will operate alongside it’s existing Santander service from Portsmouth and Plymouth. The ferry is a great way to get to...

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Tour de France visits Pyrenees in 2011

The Tour de France stages for 2011 have been announced and once again the Tour is passing through Laruns – just over the French border from us. It’s a fabulous experience to see the riders and on the 15th July we’ll run an excursion to see the Tour...

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Pic du Midi d’Ossau (2884m)

Pic du Midi d’Ossau is one of the iconic peaks of the French Pyrenees. It´s a fantastic looking mountain with rocky walls guarding each of it’s twin peaks. The ‘via normal’ is a pretty exciting scramble to the summit and another route...

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