This place will blow your mind

Sometimes, an unexpected surprise comes into your life and changes your predetermined path forever.  This is pretty much what happened to the Garonne river…  Born Spanish, the Garonne runs mostly through France.  Thus, waters that were meant to discharge into the Mediterranean Sea, flow towards the city of Bordeaux, ending up into the French Atlantic coast instead…

But if you think about it, this is not that rare when talking about people.  After all, who hasn’t had this sort of detours that completely turned our plans upside down?  For me, for instance, I confess I wasn’t meant to be a trail runner at all.  Maybe a fencer, if any sports.  Until the day I fell into my particular Forau de Aiguallut…

The actual Forau de Aiguallut is in Benasque Valley, near to the Aneto peak, the highest of all Pyrenean peaks.  This natural pothole features a karst formation that is the result of the slow but steady underground erosion in limestone, shaping a huge colander-like occurrence.  This colander filters the snowmelt coming from the several surrounding glaciers.  This runoff turns into a waterfall dropping into the Forau (pothole).  And, as is if it were magic, water disappears below the surface!  Only a much smaller flow remains, running down to Benasque under the name of Ésera river.

Aigualluts waterfall

It’s understandable that this evasive nature perplexed everybody.  For centuries, geologists came up with different explanations for the water’s ultimate destination.  It was only in 1931, when a spelunker devised an experiment to solve the mystery.  How did he do it?  What a question!  He resorted to fluorescein, of course!

If you aim to duplicate this experiment nowadays, here’s the procedure.  Firstly, grab a couple of friends to assist you.  The strongest one should help you carry six kegs of fluorescein (a soluble colorant used in medicine and as a food additive) up to 6,500 feet high, where Forau de Aiguallut is.  Pour the contents of the kegs into the pothole and run back to Llanos del Hospital.  Drink a beer and wait.  Meanwhile, assistant nº 2 should have got to the other side of the mountain range that separates Benasque Valley and Val d’Aran.  He will see how, just as it did in 1931, the mysterious underground river springs up again, but in orange color.  From now on it is called... Garonne!

This is one of the classic tours you shouldn’t miss when in Benasque Valley.  One of the guided runs we provide will take you to this beautiful and geologically interesting place.  The course takes you through Scots pine forests, green meadows and a few creeks.  It’s very likely you will come across some Pyrenean mountain goats and cows peacefully grazing.  It’s all part of the mind-blowing fun!

Want to see how it is?

My latest cool find!

We were chaining several mountain villages along the Núria-Queralt course that day.  During one of the short drives, Lluís, the race director, goes:  “I don’t know whether your people will find it at all interesting, but there’s a dolmen over there...”.  

I was like, “what? A dolmen?  Are you for real?”  Before I could say anything else, Lluís turned around and headed back toward the dolmen site.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t pass by a dolmen every day.  So I wouldn’t lose my chance…  

But what exactly is a dolmen?  It’s a prehistoric megalith monument.  Simple as that.  Megalith (mega = great, lithos = stone) means that they used large stones, roughly cut and held together without any mortar (it hadn’t been invented yet).  Their purpose still amazes archeologists, as they debate whether these are funerary structures or major physical landmarks of a tribe’s territory.  

“Why do you think our guests wouldn’t value this?”, I asked.  Lluís shrugged his shoulders and said: “Many locals and tourists are unaware of this treasure”.  Indeed, there were neither big signs around nor a marked path to direct visitors to the dolmen site.  We practically had to hack our way through the shrubs, and avoid a good deal of cow pats to get there.  And there it was, under a telephone cable (who on earth?),  the Dolmen of Molers.

Dolmen of Molers and the Pedraforca mountain

The Dolmen of Molers has the shape of table, that is, two upright slabs supporting a flat capstone.  The 8-foot high monument weighs almost 9 tons and is around 3.500 years old.  Thus, it dates to the Middle Bronze Age, when this metal (an alloy consisting of copper with tin) was gradually replacing stone as the main material for tool making.  Therefore, we’re dealing here with a largely sedentary society, which members became more and more numerous, thanks to better herding and farming techniques.

This dolmen may not be the greatest.  I mean, it is clearly not Stonehenge.  However, it is the most important of all Berguedà prehistoric monuments as it proves that humans were present in the region as far back as prehistoric times. 

Lluís knows this region like the back of his hand

Without Lluís’ hint, -who happens to be skilful photographer also-, I’d probably hadn’t notice this monument.  This is why all our tours are guided by local people, that love and know their region.  It will be our pleasure to show you this and other hidden treasures in this magic Catalonia.

Want to see this in person? Click here!

5 reasons to run the Trail RAE in Cantabria

So here are five reasons you should run the Trail RAE in the green and blue Cantabria:

1.    The Organization.  This is the main reason that makes Trail RAE such a great race.  In this line, volunteers staff make the runners feel pampered.  They really care and they always find time to make your run a more pleasant experience.  No wonder this race was showered with praise (“Best Race Event”) a couple of years ago…

2.    The course.  It has virtually no equal in all Cantabria.  Green trails in Otañes are some of the softest you’ll ever run.  When you’re at the highest point in Pico Ventoso , you will be able enjoy the intense blue of the Cantabrian Sea. 

3.    Every corner you go around is crazy fun.  During your run, you may come across mountain goats and cows.  Nothing to fear.  They only stare at you like thinking:  “what are you guys doing here in the middle of a meadow?”.  And just before you get to the finish line, the markers take you across a creek. 

4.    This is a truly mountain race.  The string of steep hills challenges your fitness and determination.  If you’re a trail runner  looking for  in a first-class competition, but without the suffering and the logistics of the ultras, then Trail RAE is ideal for you.  Again, this not an easy race, but in five hours at the most, you’re done with it.

5.    VIP treatment.  Last, but not least, we have arranged something special for you.  Indeed, you will receive particular attention from the race organization during the briefing and the bib collection.  You will also have access to an impressive array of gym facilities and fitness equipment, special discounts in sports clothing stores, access to a member-only  yacht club restaurant… And more!  Because you are a very important person!

Five reasons aren’t many, but they’ll be enough.  In fact, we could give you more, but as pictures are worth 1,000 words (as they say), then a video is worth a million.

By the way, soundtrack is from the French group Chinese Man Records and we simple love how they mix different music genres in this song (“Washington Square”).

Click here see more details for this Run and Tour destination.

Travel + Run + Enjoy

It’s official:  a new blog is born! (like if the world needed this…).

We will be sharing lots of fun and interesting stuff here.  For the sake of readability, we’ll keep our posts short.  However, we want you to relate these stories to your own experiences.  And above all, we hope you draw inspiration from them.  In short:  we want to be your bridge (physical and metaphorical) to a new way of enjoying life. 

For this reason, the very first post is a video that offer a collection of  images about  the spirit of Run and Tour.

Being a foreigner myself, I had to get used to the culture of this country.  And I love it!  People here made it so easy and fun!  This country and the friends I made here made me a mountain runner, even an ultrarunner.  This passion has taken me to some other countries (though not as many as I’d wish), but trust me, Spain is a completely different story.



Well then, don’t you feel like running in Spain?

If you’re curious… What you just heard is a piece from the opera “La vida breve” (“The Brief Life”), from Manuel de Falla.  This Spanish composer is one of Spain’s most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century.

Do you like it?  Leave your comments!  We want to hear back from you.

Verena.