Congost de Mont-rebei / Mont-rebei gorge

The Congost de Mont-rebei is a spectacular gorge through which runs the River Noguera Ribagornza and which divides Catalonia from Aragon. The only way through is along a mule track much of which is dug out of sheer rock. The walls of the gorge reach heights of more than 500 metres with a minimum width in places of 20 metres. Most of the gorge is within the Montsec PEIN and it also borders the Partial Nature Reserve of the Mont-rebei Gorge.Trip report to the Congost de Mont-rebei

We started out from the car park a couple of km from the Congost de Mont-rebei, congost being Catalan for gorge. Straight away we had raptors above our heads and within a few minutes a golden eagle flew over, accompanied by a distant young lammergeyer. But the best came just when we entered the gorge itself as a pair of lammergeyers soared past their colours beautiful even without binoculars. As we moved along, they lazily floated past again. Highlight of the day. The gorge itself is spectacular, with the Noguera Ribagornza below dividing Catalonia from Aragon. Later on we scrambled up to an alleged bat cave, though managed to see none. The front was caked in red-billed chough feathers and droppings. 100 or so called from above the cave as we clambered down and then swooped inside in fantastic formation. Mont-rebei is famed for its otter population so back outside the gorge we hacked down to river and found tracks though saw no (nor expected to see) otters. Most of the next day was somewhat dampened by rain, though in the afternoon as we ate our picnic by a river, the sun came out and we trained a couple of telescopes on a gaggle(?) of vultures scrapping over the ends of carrion. Others circled above, presumably having had their fill. Finally we stopped further up near Aiguestortes and walked around a Karstic lake. A single huge earth-mother of a common toad hugged by a smaller male lay silently in the water. Surely this is very early, and more so, so far north? Follow the forum follow-up thread on this topic