22nd June 2023

The sun is out in the high Aston Valley and the alpine plants are appearing in the grasslands and wet flushes. There is abundant bistort Bistorta officinalis but no violet coppers Lycaena helle here (or anywhere). It is a popular place because of the small road, built to service the hydro-electricity dams and small turbine building, gets you safely up into the mountains and only a kilometer or so from the Andorra border; it is busy with local trout fishermen as well as beekeepers, whose hives appear in various pockets of grassland from late June. From the top car park it is a short hike to various Refuges and the GR10 long distance footpath. In late June, banks of dwarf rhododendron Rhododendron ferrugineum are just coming into flower in stunning dark pink.