Silver-washed

After due consideration, I decided not to join the others on their walk this morning. By the time we got back to the car yesterday, my twangy thigh muscle was so sore I had difficulty bending my leg to get in. So I decided I didn’t want to be a nuisance, trailing along at the back. Instead I wandered along to my favourite butterfly spotting spot, where I saw five different species, including Erebus aethiops (Scotch Argus) which I haven’t seen before (thanks Google Lens!). A not very good photo in extras. But this main blip is a silver-washed fritillary.

We’d arranged to meet after the others finished their walk in order to go to a bar in the middle of nowhere for lunch, recommended by Tom and Rosa. This involved a hairy ride up a single-track mountain road in the Vall Ferrara, luckily only meeting a couple of other cars. Gorgeous views though — none of my photos do them justice.

Eventually we reached the village of Farrera, where the road looked so hairy that we decided to park and walk the last 1.5 km. In fact, after a brief hairy bit, it was a well-appointed concrete track that we could have driven on. So we were a bit gutted to find on reaching the bar that it hadn’t opened this year. And it was nearly three by then. We walked back to the car and found a bar en route home for beer and cheese sandwiches, arriving just before it closed. At least we didn’t get rained on.

Home, rest, dinner. More walking tomorrow!