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I took off on time in a 737-800 in a big heavy hail shower. The vortices of the jet in front were impressive. Once in the air and clear of the shower the cloudscapes were impressive. Lots of showers and cumulus. Much of France was showery too. Meanwhile the flight was as expected where we were kept in our seats while they tried to sell us snacks and perfume. There was a big shield of cloud over the Pyrenees. Then nicer weather followed in Spain. We landed at 3:50PM GMT+1. We taxied past a load of F15 fighter jets (Zaragoza is a military airfield it seems) before parking up at the terminal.
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| Surrounded by spectacular clouds after we clear the hail storm at Stanbsted. | Large hail shower. | Spectacular unstable cloudscape. | ||
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| More spectacular clouds as we escpe Southern England. | Cumulus over Northern France. | |||
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| Cumulus over Northern France. | Clearing a cloud shield over Southern France and the Pyrenees into clearer air over Northern Spain. | ||
I was through security quickly and my luggage was first off. Cool! I was out by 4:10PM and obtained a Fiat 500 from Hertz. I had a smooth drive to Santa Cilia with a borrowed TomTom effortlessly guiding me out of the confusing Zaragoza road network. After Huesca the road was fun as it traversed a small mountain range to drop into the Jaca valley. Here it was much colder (4C according to the car's thermomester) and I saw snowflakes as I drove under a light shower. It was lovely to see the snow capped Pyrenees to the north. Soon I passed Jaca and arrived at Santa Cilia for 6:30PM.
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| The Fiat 500 waiting for me at Zaragoza | Looking around the apartment in Santa Cilia after checking in. I had a single room on the end while another expedition member had one of the other double rooms. | ||
A quick look around the square where I had parked overnight before heading to the airfield for the first time. Luckily the sun was rapidly melting the frost as I had no ice scraper.
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| The main square in Santa Cilia and its statue. | Looking South to Cuculo. | Looking North into the narrow streets of Santa Cilia. | |
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| The main square. | Taking another look at a frost covered Fiat 500 which is a rather fun dinky little car to drive. | ||
I transferred to the airfield to register and for the briefing. I had a headache so I let Richard and Ayala go first. Meanwhile it was steadily clouding over. The gliders soon came back and I had a go in 775 with John. By now it was raining over the hills and we released at 4500 feet (airfield 2250 feet so 2300 feet up). There was no lift and poor vis but it was great to have a sighting flight. I took no aerial pictures as there wasn't really time. By 13:15 it was raining at the airfield and gliders were away.
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| Looking South to Cuculo and North across the runways to the main hangar as I arrive for the first time. | Looking South from the main hangar. Cuculo looks spectacular with the cirrus clouds above. The clubhouse buildings put Cuculo into context. | Looking Southeast to the Western end of Oroel. | |||
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| A kite soaring over the airfield. | Looking Northeast to the Pyrenees. I think the peak to the left is Tendenera. | Preparing for first launch. | Vultures flying overhead. | Richard and Bob ready to launch. |
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| Richard and Bob on tow. | Ayala and John ready to launch. | A millipede crossing the Alpha taxi track. | Bad weather arriving around lunchtime. | |
After a quick visit to local supermarket Mercadona and a rest a couple of us had a wander around the village.
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| Narrow Santa Cilia street. | Church tower and fountain. | Looking back at Santa Cilia from the Rio Aragon to the North. Cuculo now partially covered with cloud. | A large mural inside the entrance of the apartment building. | |
We met at 7:30PM in the bar and went to the restaurant Biarritz in Jaca for dinner. Then at 10:25PM we went for a wander around Jaca. The weather had now cleared. Then we went back to base by about 11PM to retire for the night.
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| Jaca cathedral. | Further wanderings around Jaca in challenging conditions for the iPhone camera. | |||
It looked nice outside early on but bad weather was moving in fast on the satpics. We set off at 10:50AM for Santa Cruz. It was a nice drive with clouds hanging low over the hills.
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| Driving West from Santa Cilia to the Aragon Hotel where the road to Santa Cruz starts. | The road to Santa Cruz. The cliff tops above shrouded in cloud. | ||
It was a beautiful location. We were shown around the village by Javier, the farmer with Clive translating for us. The weather started off with sunshine but it soon started raining again and was getting heavy by the time we stopped for coffee.
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| Parking up and looking around. | 360 degree panorama of Santa Cruz. | ||
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| Looking upstream towards the mountains. All part of Cuculo. | Did I mention Santa Cruz is pretty? | Javier giving us a tour of the village. | Javier and Clive demonstrating how a ledge was used to mount a donkey. | Exploring Santa Cruz. | |
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| Bob and Ayala looking out over an apple orchard. | Exploring Santa Cruz. | Santa Cruz church. | Macro shot of some local wall plant life | Donkeys. | A little bridge over the stream (which is dry in the summer time). |
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| Another panoramic view upstream and tree lined view downstream. | Exploring Santa Cruz. | Closeup of a wall covered in moss and other plants. | Apparently this plant is deadly poisonous. | Visiting the donkeys and a tame bull as the heavens open. | |
After coffee we took a look at the sheep, goats, pigs and chickens in the yard in the pouring rain before returning inside to warm up again. Soon after 2pm lunch was served. Black pudding, ham croquettes and snails were inedible to me. But they also made a potato and egg tortilla that was delicious and vegetarian flour and mushroom croquettes too. That was much appreciated! Plus some toasted bread made a nice lunch. But that was just for starters! Then I was given a creamed courgette soup while the others had a more meaty soup with some pork based stock. The others then had meatballs. I was happy to skip as I was actually quite full. Then a custard like dessert with a biscuit on top was served. I was happy to skip that too. I was handed a banana instead. Then coffee (tea) and cake was served as it approached 4PM. Meanwhile a layer of snow had settled on the mountain tops not far above as the weather cleared. So it was getting pretty cold outside.
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| Visiting the animals in a rather pretty yard. By now it's bucketing down. | |||||
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| The animal yard. | A demonstration of shearing a sheep the old fashioned way. | A look inside the farm house. The bathroom in particular is spectacular! All custom built by Javier. | |||
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| All of us ready to eat. | The farm house from outside, | Fresh snow on the mountain tops. | Vulture passing overhead. | One more view of the scenery before we leave. |
After lots more conversation we left at 4:40PM. Mike N, Richard and I decided to take the road up to the monastery and back before returning to base. It was quite snowy up top. A lovely drive and a great view before heavy snowfall obscured the view. We returned to base around 5:30PM.
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| Climbing above Santa Cruz. | The road to the monastery is a pretty one! | Higher up the snow is settling on the road in places. | ||
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| Looking out to the main valley, the Rio Aragon dominating it. | The ruins of the old monastery built into a rock face. | Continuing to the top. | The new monastery at the top. | |
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| Passing the old monastery again on the way down provides another angle. | The view starts to disappear as the snow gets heavier. Now seems a good time to get off the mountain. | ||
After a walk through a soaking Santa Cilia to a creek to wash mud off our shoes the evening was spent resting. No dinner was required tonight! As it got dark the rain turned to snow as it cooled down, and it started to settle on the cars and get slushy on the ground too by about 10:30PM.
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| Soggy Santa Cilia. | After dark snow falling heavily (The FZ200's flash is great for catching the flakes) and settling on the car. | ||