Tella : La Ruta de las Hermitas

It was a glorious day today. After lunch we headed off to Tella, which is high up in the mountains at the end of a very long and winding road that goes nowhere else and must be impassable for half the year. Despite this, the village is well cared for. There's a large car park, an immaculate public toilet, a "cyber centre", a Pepsi machine installed outside the church, and a project to restore the church and the three hermitages on the outskirts of the village. We did the short and very pretty circular walk around the hermitages, and when we got back to the village a man from the National Parks was just opening the visitor centre, so S was able to ask him about good places to spot quebrantahuesos (bearded vultures).

The statuette in the first hermitage reminded me of some of Freespiral's Irish shrines. Apart from the bracelets adorning the BVM's wrists, people had left piles of little ex votos (notes of thanks)  -- you can see one wedged behind her hands -- and, in one case a plastic doll arranged in an interesting yoga position; it appeared to be preparing to yank its foot behind its head. A couple more photos of Tella and its hermitages in the extras.

After this we stopped off in Bielsa for a beer, and at the end of the afternoon I dropped S off at the refugio de la Pineta so that tomorrow he can do the bit of the GR11 that he didn't do in 2013 because there was too much snow. On that occasion he met someone coming the other way who said he'd had to wade knee-deep through the river, so we went to see if he'd need a spare pair of boots. Answer, no -- the riverbed was bone-dry. Then I headed home, pausing only to buy bread and ham for a supper of pan con tomate, jamon de Teruel, cold tortilla, and a glass of wine. Perfect! And later ... GBBO final! Go Nadiya!