Shortly after dawn, I headed up from La Molina and took the road towards the historic village of Castellar de n'Hug, hoping for some decent photos across the valleys and peaks of the south. I pulled over after crossing the Coll de la Creueta mountain pass into the Cadi Moixero natural park.

It was already T-shirt warm, and it wasn't long before I saw six Griffon vultures heading down into the valley on the thermals...

I waited in vain for one of them to circle within sensible range for an aerial shot. Instead they drifted down towards Castellar de n'Hug. I took a few landscape shots of the sun breaking across the neighbouring peaks:

[for more pictures, see the album in the photography area ]

Getting back in the car, I too headed down the valley. On the way, I spotted one of the griffons perched on an outcrop. I wanted the shot of it breaking into flight, so a precarious approach ensued as I tried to get close enough to it without losing focus, or falling off the rock face...

I got the shot - kind of. Unfortunately, I was too worried about focus and it wound up dead-centre which was disappointing. There are some more shots of the vulture in the album.

Castellar de n'Hug itself is an attractive village that has been masively rebuilt whilst largely retaining the traditional style.

There is an interesting walk down to the Fonts del Llobregat - the springs that mark the start of the Llobregat river. I didn't manage to take any interesting photos, but I think it will definitely be worth visiting once the forest breaks out fully into autumnal colours and later on when there's some snow on the ground. Having said that, the 5m snow-depth marker poles on the road over suggest this may not be too easy....