Creel

As we got off the train in the small dusty cowboy town of Creel we were instantly greeted by a horde of hosteliers vying for our business – having picked our dude to go with, should have done it based on who had the best hat and boots but instead the lure of dinner included won! Creel is set in the most stunning location, a small town surrounded by big country – rock formations, forests, lakes and mountains are all on its doorstep as are hours of walking or mountain biking. Having dumped our bags in the hostel we then met the owner and his sales spiel on tours in the region, after 10 minutes of nodding we finally politely said ‘No gracias!’ and tried to keep him happy by saying that we would hire bikes from him tomorrow though. So the following day, we jumped on the said mountain bikes still saying no first to the tour and headed off into the surrounds. Mushroom rocks, frog rocks and phallic shaped rocks dot the countryside as do small little villages with ancient churches and cave dwellings. We cycled out along dirt tracks through a valley that seemed to go on forever finally reaching a good stopping point for lunch…ok so we stopped in the greatly named valley of erect thingy shaped rocks! The local tourism board are trying to get the name changed to something less crass! But hey its not ever day you get to have lunch whilst sitting on….sorry, stop there Nathan! From here it was guessing at little paths through a forest and down to a lake before heading back by road to town. The following day we headed out for a walk through a different valley that was just as stunning, gaining 2 small local kids in the process who just giggled behind us for a little while before we stopped and they then just come and sat next to us! Luckily we could just about converse in kid talk and they weren’t carrying guns so they walked with us for a while to show us the way until they soon got bored and left us to getting lost again. We wandered around the valley and up into a pine forest then headed back to town before it got too hot and just in time for a siesta. The town itself is a one plaza, two roads kind of affair with not a lot else in between, other than a train line of course and a few dozen cowboys wandering around minus their horses!