Refuge de Respomuso to Banos de Panticosa

16 August 2022

Today was supposed to be the trickiest day on the GR11.

It involved hiking across scree and then up through a narrow crag which involved some scrambling. I had imagined a very hard section and was happy with how manageable it turned out to be.

The hardest part of the day was walking through the thunderstorm which started in the afternoon and doing the descent to Banos de Panticosa tramping and scrambling down a path that was now a river. All whilst the river in the gorge thundered down with the added water.

I managed to get a room at the hotel in the valley and dried out. Amazing how a hot bath and dry clothes is enough to turn a day around.

I visited the spa to see how this compared with those of Japan. Clearly this one has seen better days, but the outdoor warm water pool was quite something with the views of the mountains. A very close second to the onsens of Japan.