All week the Saja-Besaya’s peaks have been there, an ever present tower of rock capped in a late spring fall of snow. From every track that we have driven in and around Polientes the Saja’s peaks have been a stunning backdrop to many of the pictures taken as we wandered from one spectacular view to the next.

There is a route that takes in the lower slopes of these beautiful mountains and we were going to travel along its trail sometime during our adventure here.

Later in the week we set off from the Molina with a hot sun warming our backs and the snowy peaks in the distance white against a blue, blue sky. The route that we were going to enjoy has three tracks with mountain roads in between, each very different. The first runs across the mountain above the historical village of Barcena Major and is of stone and mud. As we drove along its heights twenty or so Griffon Vultures soared in the sky around us. When we stopped for lunch one or two came close just to see if we had died or not!!.

The second track has an incredible climb through a beech forest where the green of young leaves is like a delicate mist drifting through the forest. We burst out onto a high plateau and found ourselves with a challenging rock climb before dropping down into a valley on the other side of the mountain. This valley looked as though it had been plucked out of the High Atlas in Morocco.

The third and highest track runs very close to the peaks of the Saja. The climb up to the top was unbelievably spectacular, and there is only one word for it: awesome. We watched an Imperial Eagle holding itself still against the wind on the way up as well, the first that I have ever seen and what a majestic bird it is. All was going well, any snow drifts easily passed until at the highest point we were confronted with a drift that was higher than our cars and would have been foolhardy to try to cross. We looked around for another way but that would have involved driving off piste which is something that we would not do here.

The sun was warm and there were many “streams” running fast from beneath the snow as we stood any enjoyed the spectacle of it all up here in the sky. Eventually we turned round and headed back down for tea feeling very content after this spectacular day in Spain.