Image credit: La Poste

On my recent trip to the Pyrenees I profited from the occasion to post to my own self covers with postmarks from both the Spanish and the French Andorran postal services, thus adding two more postal administrations to my cover collection.

When sorting out on the internet  what stamps to buy to this end on the eve of my descent into Andorra-La-Vella, I noticed the French Andorran  Post had issued this year a stamp that, the moment I noticed it, I knew I had to buy it, even though it is far from being a stamp that would fall into my “what makes a stamp great” criteria.

What caught my attention were the words on it: “Estany de Cabana Sorda”. This evoked in me the memory of what began as a gorgeous day I spent in Andorra, in 2015, that would end not in disaster, but in a fair bit of discomfort to put it mildly J.

My wife and I, we were looking forward to a not so difficult walk in the mountains and so we took on the suggestion of a pamphlet issued probably by the Andorran Tourist office that  proposed 4 or 5 hiking routes to explore in the Vall d’Incles, a most  wonderful and peaceful location, that I love and recommend to all.

So we decided to follow what was, If I remember correctly, the green path, that would take us from  the parking lot at the entrance to the Valley, up to a lake at 2290 metres high, in what was presented as an easy walk, fit for families with children and all.

So we started our hiking. I have to say, it was not that difficult in what regards the path and the type of soil on it, but it had a lot of steep  passages that made it harder than I was expecting for a path classified as easy.

On the way up, I remember passing by a family with a 8-10 year old child that was crying and saying he was tired and wanted to go back, but the parents kept pushing him forward…

Anyway, step after step we reached our goal: this beautiful little lake, enshrined by the mountains with a shelter on one side of it: Estany de Cabana Sorda, it was.

We stayed for a while to eat our sandwiches and enjoy the gorgeous views, but all of a sudden, clouds began to muster  and what were fluffy white rolls of cotton candy in the sky began to turn into menacing grey stacks of smoke.

We looked at each other and without needing to say a word, picked up our walking sticks and started the descent in haste. Just a couple of minutes into it and a big cold drop of water hit my bald head… we donned our waterproof jackets and accelerated our march.

BOOOOOOOOOOM ! the first thunder echoed in the valley. With it came the heavy downpour and thunder, more thunder. The biggest thunderstorm we had ever witnessed was taking place and we had no place to shelter, so we had to go as fast as we could down the path to the valley. Luckily the storm stayed  up high in the mountain, but the sheer noise of the thunders echoing in the valley is something I’ll never forget.

We  reached the safety of the road in the valley completely drenched  and were desperately yearning for a warm drink. There was a little café bar on the way, but we were so wet that we didn’t want to leave a pool of water under our feet in the bar, so we went on to the car and drove to Pas de la Casa, where we were staying, and where we finally had our invigorating cup of coffee at home, after a nice warm shower to get the blood running again.

This was a day to remember.  

And looking at the image on the stamp made me remember it all again.

So on par with being  tools to ensure a letter journeys form one point to another, stamps can also be the trigger to (now) pleasant memories, so much so, that the day after buying that Estany da Cabana Sorda Stamp, I was again on the parking lot at the beginning of the road at Vall d’Incles to start another hike with my wife… this time, though, we chose the Camí de l’Obac (the path of the shadow) so we would be sure the sky would not fall upon us….