Tuesday 18th October 2022

Today we deviated slightly off our westerly route to travel north west to visit the sensational sandstone conglomerate crags known as Los Mallos de Riglos.

When I was young enough to do climbing at a reasonable standard I always aspired to visit here to climb but unfortunately I never got round to it! Or perhaps I never thought I was good enough?

The climbing routes up these sensational buttresses are about 300 metres long involving eight to ten pitches each and then a similar number of abseils on descent!

There were a couple of parties climbing today.

These buttresses are incredibly steep but with plenty of good holds and mostly bolt protection so if you're unfortunate enough to fall off you're most unlikely to hurt yourself.

We got the impression that this was fairly unfriendly territory however on closer inspection we discovered there was an area where vans were allowed to stay overnight. 

Anyway we decided to move on, however as we were leaving, we stopped to look back and photograph this incredible 300 metres high pinnacle known as Fire.

From the same spot where we photographed the Fire pinnacle there is a memorial to two of the climbers who pioneered the routes on Los Mallos but who subsequently died climbing on the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland in 1963.

We travelled west on a minor road through wild sparsely populated and forested country.

We passed a few isolated settlements. This area is known a Cinco Villas.

We stopped for the day at the Aire at Layana. There is another van here this afternoon..

The village here looks like it was once very poor and has now been gentrified.

There is a high tower in the centre of the village.

Here's the village square. There are fantastic views in all directions.

The village cemetery is nearby.

There was a nice sunset.

Today we travelled 81 miles (130 kilometres). We are at: N42.2947 W1.2434

Layana   Street View (before the Aire was constructed)