Anso … we find a gorgeous gorge and Zagan has a bump
Zagan the motorhome is a tad shaken and a tiny bit dented, sitting in the free car park in the town Anso (N42.75623, W0.82592).
Last night Jay cooked up a storm of risotto as we sank a bottle of Asti that Matt and Jo had brought back from Italy, then polished off the last of our, now seemingly expensive, French wine. We chatted about travels, people we’d met and plans for the future – it was a great night.
This morning it was a misty cold start. It still hadn’t burned off by 11am when we said a sad farewell to Matt and Jo and took our still thick heads over to the local petrol station. After much faffing and head scratching we couldn’t get the pump to work so I went to the shop for help, only the shop was shut. We then spied a machine that looked like a cash point, but it was an payment point. Pay for your fuel first – telling it how many Euros worth you want to put in – and it will release the fuel at your pump. A topped up tank and a cleaned windscreen and we were ready to go.
This has been needed for a while!
We have no idea if we should use diesel A or B, but B seems too cheap so we’ve gone for A!
The first few miles were completed with Zagan’s fog lights blazing as we drove through the low cloud. As we reached the valley floor we were finally under it, then making our way over a small pass the cloud stayed behind and we emerged into bright blue skies.
Looking at my map I spotted that we were going past a ‘Hoz’, the signs said it was a ‘Foz’ but either way it was a gorge. We love a gorge so spun Zagan into the side road up to the viewpoint over the Arbayun gorge.
They are serious about watching out for deers here
I stepped out and walked up onto the viewing platform while Jay gave Charlie a quick leg stretch. Our fearsome little pooch didn’t want to go anywhere near the viewing platform and I can totally understand why, it gave me the heebeegeebees when I first stepped on it. Once pooch was safely back in Zagan I guided Jay across to the edge of the platform with his eyes closed. When he opened them he could see why I was so excited – we were hovering above a river which had carved out a 100m deep gorge into the earth.
After we had finished gawping for a while we retreated into Zagan for a spot of lunch while a large group of French motorbikers took over the platform, laughing joking and having a great time. It’s crazy to think they are probably here on a day trip. With full tummies we headed back out again, this time armed with the binoculars. A sign said that you could see where the birds of prey lived by looking just above the white patches of bird poo on the sides of the gorge, unfortunately they were all out having their lunch too. That didn’t stop them flying along the gorge every few minutes. I really want to see a golden eagle, it seems they are around here, but today was a day of Griffin Vultures.
Life-sized birds are painted on the viewpoint floor so you realise how big that dot in the distance is!
I could have happily stood there all day and watched the birds soar in one by one, but we decided to head off and follow the green-lined road on my map (scenic views) to the small town of Anso – cue many ‘and so’ phrases such as ‘And so here we are in Anso’. The route took us up many twisting hairpins and along roads narrow roads with huge drops off to one side calling for fingers and toes to be crossed in the hope that no one is travelling in the opposite direction. As we reached the top of one pass the jagged grey teeth of the Pyrenees gnarled at us from the horizon.
The top of the pass marked a change into a new region of Spain but unlike in the UK where you don’t notice as you move between counties, here the road degraded considerably and the lovely safe feeling given by the armco barriers was lost as they were replaced with concrete posts and chicken wire.
Lovely life-saving crash barrier on a drop off bendy bit of road
The award for tightest road for today goes to the village of Navaescues
We made our way slowly down towards Anso and parked up as we entered the town, I nipped out to find out where satnav was trying to take us as Zagan doesn’t fit down most cobbled streets. Standing on the edge of the town I heard a wooshing noise, I looked up to see a Griffin Vulture flying just a couple of metres above me. It was an amazing sight to see, gutted I didn’t have the camera though.
And so, we reach Anso!
Finding a nice flat place to park we backed into a space then headed out for a look around the town before the sun set behind the mountains. Many of the houses had boards outside their doors ready for the snow – gulp!
Parking spot for the night
I’m not happy about the list of things to do here in Anso
Back in Zagan we settled down to watch a movie, we’re still recovering from last night. Every time we moved Zagan would let out a grunt of indignation from his rear suspension. In our movie there was a huge storm at sea which sank a boat (no it wasn’t Titanic, but along those lines), between the roaring waves I could hear a grinding noise, turning to Jay I asked if it was on the movie then suddenly Zagan began to rock from side to side. Throwing the curtains back to see who was rocking him, the world outside was moving – we were rolling backwards. I leapt up grabbed the handbrake up to stop us, as I pulled on it we stopped with a crunch.
Both visibly shaken we looked at each other then out of the rear window. We were firmly planted in among some conifers up to our habitation door, our only door. Jay managed to push it open a crack to see what had happened, behind the space we had parked in was a drainage gully and we’d rolled into it. There was only one thing to do, drive Zagan out of the ditch and pray we didn’t cause any more damage. Pulling us loose from the foliage we crept over to the other side of the car park. From a quick inspection it looks like we have gotten off very lightly, the only visible damage being a broken rear light (we have most of the parts so should be able to glue it back together) and some dents on the corner of Zagan where branches scraped him – we may have snapped off a bit of tree or two as well, sorry Anso.
And so…. we set about trying to work out what had happened. We think it might have been a combination of me guiding him right onto the edge of the gully as I was too busy watching the trees above, and the handbrake not being fully tight as we were on a nice big flat car park. It doesn’t really matter what caused it, we’re all ok. It’s ironic that I always worry about the drives, but in reality when it turn out to be something silly that causes a problem. We’ve jumped around in Zagan a lot since parking up again and the grunting has stopped, it must have been him trying to warn us that he couldn’t hold on any longer.
Jay’s rustling up pork chops in a cider sauce for tea, so time for a glass of cider to calm the nerves.
Ju x
Gas oil B is red diesel only for agriculture lol enjoying the blog
“Flat” always seems to be a bit deceptive – glad you had trees behind you for a softish landing.
Us too Robina. Eyeballed the trees this morning and lady luck certainly shoneth on us last night. Either side of our butt-landing spot were decent-sized trees with branches pointing out at angles suitable for popping through the fridge vent or rear window. Phew. Another lesson learned… Cheers, Jay
Hi guys,
I think the lower priced diesel is the equivalent of our Red diesel for agricultural vehicles.
John
Thanks John. Tempted as we are to run Zagan on tractor diesel, I suspect he might object. Especially when we’re requesting him to haul ass up switchback-infested forested mountain roads. Nah, we’ll give him the good stuff :-). Cheers, Jay
Oh no! That’s bad news about Zagan, but glad it wasn’t worse. It’s a good idea to always park in gear (1st, or reverse if pointing downhill) particularly in a big heavy van. It holds better than a handbrake, I do it without fail in any vehicle.
That gorge looks great though, I think it’s the same one the lady in the tourist office in Sanguesa was highlighting to us on a leaflet yesterday. One for another time.
Matt
Cheers Matt, will pop it in first in future! Biggest crashing noise as we landed in the trees but somehow minimal damage. When I pushed the door open against the branches the step appeared to be bent at a 45 degree angle, but after driving out it was perfectly straight, huzzah! Clearly a bit of stress-induced myopia! The light cluster which got a bit mangled was already bust and glued back by a previous owner, so not too fussed about replacing it and other than that we got a few pea-sized dents, which I can live with. The party goes on! Need to wash the poor thing though… Have fun guys, cheers, Jay
Hello
Yes, ALWAYS leave your “home” in gear, reverse is the best to act as
a break and also stops anyone trying to push your home!
Enjoy your blogs, have a nice trip.
Cheers, Robert
This happened to our sons friends van, his was because they had been using the brakes alot in the hills which had heated them up and caused them to swell slightly, as the brakes cooled down it now meant the handbrakes was not so tight. He was parked next to a garage and had rolled back into one of the pumps, luckily just slowly so no damage.
Loving the updates keep up the good work
Hi Tracey, that could well explain what happened to us, as we’d just come off a small col, so loads of braking went on. That’s for that, much appreciated! Jason