Hiking to Coma Pedrosa (26 August)

The Coma Pedrosa hiking day started cheerfully. We slept in (totally), but it did not bother us much, because we thought that the 7 hours trail would probably be a piece of cake. The guy from the information center at least left us with such an opinion. So we started the hike around 10.30. Already the beginning of the trail was quite steep. We learned from an elderly lady who passed us quite quickly that if you zigzag than it is much easier to walk. So we started zigzagging as much as the road allowed us to do it.

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The first goal was to reach the Refugee which was almost halfway to the top. The Refugees are small mountain houses where people can eat and stay overnight if they want. We had a long lunch, sandwiches made with Estonian black bread Kaija brought along from Estonia and some fruits, to keep the sugar level high.

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The first part of the hike was extremely challenging for Kaija – may be because of an empty stomach and not having a decent breakfast, but at least after lunch, she got her energy back. On the opposite, after lunch when the hights got over 2200 m, Jaanus lost his energy totally. We do not know whether it was the altitude disease or eating too much Estonian bread, but Jaanus certainly did not feel well. He had a headache and was feeling dizzy. So we made a lot of stops. At some point, Jaanus was so breathless that we had to stop for a few minutes after every 5 minutes. Jaanus was also sweating like hell – sweat was literally pouring out from the sleeves of his windstopper jacket. It was like there was a hole in his body which was leaking. After every steep part, we were praying that it would get easier, but it certainly did not…Several times we played with the idea to turn around and go back, but somehow we still found the power to go on… Probably the views did give both of us strength and willpower to go further. Soon we also started to see the end goal and the top of the Coma Pedrosa.

We were also greeted by the most beautiful mountain lakes with the clearest water we have ever seen. These lakes got their water from the snow glacier.

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Having passed the two small lakes, the road was getting so bad that we hardly could notice the trail marks on the stones. Luckily there was a family ahead of us, so this indicated that there must be a path up. Both of us put on climbing gloves because walking was not possible anymore. When we had still 20 minutes to go up, a family with 3 dogs came down the hill. It was just sooo impressive how the dogs just run up-and-down and around their owner. It was so easy for them and you could see how much fun they had… when we were almost dying :D.

Jaanus made a great video when we reached the top. The last steps he was like flying and there was no trace of being tired. He jumped up and down and was just unbelievably happy. As you can see from the video, Kaija was obviously not flying, but still also happy to have made it. The family who was ahead of us was also glad to see that we made it because they had seen our struggle on the way.

You can see other videos we made in our YouTube channel by clicking here

When we reached the top, it was 16.30, in total 6 hours. We certainly were exhausted, so we had a meal to regain some strength. Jaanus was so happy to find a chocolate that someone had probably left there for someone like us :). When we were eating, we also saw an eagle flying by. It was impressive – the views, nature, and the funniest thing was that we could even see the place where our car was parked and where we started the hike.

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We certainly would have wished to stay for longer, but the time was not our friend anymore. We wanted to be back before it gets dark so we needed to start going down. Since there are 2 ways up or down from the lakes, we decided that we want to take the other path down. The family we made friends with said that the other path might be too dangerous and steep. So we were doubting whether we will risk it because the views on the other side were extremely picturistic. Since Jaanus had seen people coming down from there earlier, then we still decided to take the risk and it was worth it. We would say that it was not much more difficult than the way we came up, but we could enjoy for longer the amazing views from the top of the mountain range.

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Coming down was certainly not easy as well. If you go up, you are more out of breath and it is physically challenging, but you have better balance. Coming down puts a lot of pressure to the knees and the balance must be good while hopping from one stone to another.

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Soon Kaija realized that running down is much easier for the knees. One needs to take this into account in our age 😛 On the way down, though, we still needed to do some breaks, because Jaanus still had a headache and was feeling out of breath.

 

When we arrived back to the refugee where we had left some of our stuff and food, Jaanus’ shirt and windstopper were basically soaked. Only then he admitted to Kaija how sick he had felt the whole way. He did not tell before, because he would have known that Kaija would have made us turn back… At the refugee, he started to feel better. So we took some last pictures from the mountain, horses, landscape and took the direction downhill. It was just one hour more to go. But at that point, Kaija’s knees and feet were already hurting. So we continuously switched roles, when one was feeling ok, the other had trouble and the opposite :).

We arrived back at the car around 8.30. So in total, we were up in the mountains for 9,5 hours. We certainly are weaker than the average Andorra hiker, because everybody passed us and we didn’t pass anyone. It took a lot more than the 7 hours we were told the previous day. However, we also made several stops. Despite being physically quite challenging, we still were extremely empowered and happy that we conquered that peak! Andorra is certainly a great place to explore the Pyrenees. There are hiking trails suitable for everyone and at least the park we went to, was free of charge. It was the first hiking trail during our travels so far, has no entrance fee. We were also lucky to notice that the trail was not crowded at all. There were much fewer people we had seen in Poland Tartas, 5Terre, Slovakia etc.