Day Four - Restanca Refuge to the Amitges Refuge

The day was not without some drama, and it was a weary and grateful couple who arrived at the Amitges refuge that evening. But what a place to arrive! The day had unfolded vista upon vista. Five valley crossings, each different. Each challenging. It was today that we first really missed OS maps. It was not the last. Back home there had been little indication of the terrain that we could glean from them. But in reality it was far more blind, far more undulating, far more challenging to navigate. We had discovered that we undertaking part of a circuit that seems very popular amongst the Spanish, French and Dutch - though we'd found only the very briefest of mentions in our studies of English guidebooks. This circuit is the 'carros de foc' - chariots of fire. Nine huts taking a route around the encantados and bessiberri. We seemed to have been rather ambitious - discovering that we were leap-frogging huts - effectively combining two days into each one. The huts had previously seemed very close together - the days pointlessly short. However, the heat and terrain made us soon see the reason for this! Nevertheless we had some brillliant long days in spectacular mountain scenery - the hard work only adding to the experience for me. But back to the drama - somehow both couples had become separated fairly early in the the day - the result of a navigational misunderstanding. This led to a certain amount of panic and running about up and down hills in the heat of the day, taking in an extra hut in the meantime to leave messages. However, fortunately each couple was more than competant at finding their separate - and by this point quite different - ways to the next hut. It was a relieved reunion that evening!