Spain, since my first extended visit, has quickly become my main reason for coming to the Pyrenees. For no reason we decided to go visit out west, find somewhere nice for lunch. There are a few hill top villages around, some abandoned, some still inhabited. We found one where people still lived, and stopped to eat. I should say that hill top is perhaps an understatement, more mountain top really – we parked up and I told my dad I’d give the place a look round and see what’s there.

That turned out to be on the one hand a bad idea as I basically climbed a mountain to get to the top in the extraordinary heat, and yet on the other hand it was a great idea as the view from the top was breathtaking. The village has more stairs than roads, and it’s at first difficult to understand how or why people live up there – but when you finally reach the summit and look out you quickly understand why there’s not an empty house anywhere.

Lunch by the way was great, the restaurant doesn’t appear to have a menu – we got in, sat down, a four course meal was put in front of us (for about £8), we paid then left. All in 30 minutes. No wait, no fuss, no worries about cost. It tasted good.

There are so many pictures I could have chosen from. The village was pretty, but it’s difficult to get a real feel of how steep everything is because of the intense sunlight bleaching everything out – so I chose this one because you can see how high up it’s perched, and it gives you an impression of just how hot and arid this place is. Those fields aren’t full of crops – it’s all just dead grass that won’t grow.

I hope to go back soon – there’s plenty more to explore.