Cares Gorge

On Nigel’s advice we left early (7am) for Cares Gorge. It gets quite hot when the sun is shining so we wanted to get in (some of the way) and out before the hottest part of the day. Because we left early there was no breakfast at the Posada so we had to stop on the way. We actually had breakfast in Poo! After extricating ourselves we set off for Cares Gorge.

The gorge is a massive cleft more than 1000m deep and about 12km long. The walk is carved on the mountain side along the channels to service them as they feed a Hydroelectric Power Station built in the early 20th century, carrying water from Poncebos on the north side to Cain on the south side.

The initial part of the track is the hardest part as it climbs quite steeply for around 3km. Along the way you can see derelict buildings of the workers that stayed in the gorge while the channel was being built.

We got past halfway before stopping for lunch at 12:15. After a team meeting we decided that it was only going to get hotter from then because we started lunch in shade with cloud and finished in full sun. With no shelter in the gorge we headed back.

Thankfully we avoided the heat of the day as it was still quite a steep climb to get back over the col. This was followed by the long downhill stretch back to the pub – and toilet!

The scenery was spectacular but Sylvia thought it was somewhat spoilt by the amount of human poo, soiled toilet tissue and areas that had become informal urinals. Seems like the Grampians National Park isn’t the only place with issues relating to the inappropriate disposal of human waste!