Estamos en Espana

We moved down south of Lourdes last weekend and into the mountains.We visited  the Col  de Tourmalet which was just over 20 miles from the campsite, almost all uphill and very bendy in parts - including some scary hairpin bends. This is part of the mountain route of the Tour de France and there were several cyclists doing the climb which is much steeper than it looks on the TV,  Going up must be knackering, and going down would be terrifying. The road on the way up has permanent messages to the cyclists and as we got higher there were patterns on the road that looked like sperm - maybe an incentive to the blokes cycling up the last few hundred metres. Stunning views from 2115m, and some good birds –there were Griffon Vultures circling, several Alpine Choughs, a Kestrel and a couple of what we reckon were young Rock Thrushes. By the way, we did not cycle, we took the scooter - much easier.

 

Sheila at the top with real cyclists

While in the area we did the Cirque de Gavarnie which involved a very bendy (and very breezy) 25-mile scooter trip to a natural cirque where a
waterfall marks the start of the River Gave. Vehicles stop at the town and you either walk or hire a horse (€25 return) or donkey. The sign said it was a
one-hour walk but we reckon this is the same feller who does the ‘one-minute to Carrefour’ signs (if you have been to France you will be familiar with such misleading ads) because we walked for well over an hour (admittedly slowly, because it was uphill) and still only got to the hotel where – if you looked carefully – you could just see tiny people in the distance on the final bit to the waterfall. At this point we decided to stop for a drink and go no further.
 Some fine scenery en route, and it being and  despite being near Lourdes (and hearing Irish accents amongst the afflicted who were doing a side-trip to the Cirque in wheelchairs) we decided
not to bother. In the past we have done Fatima, Santiago de Compostella, Walsingham and Canterbury and we still haven’t won the lottery, although it may not help that we haven't bought a ticket recently.

 

Cirque de Gavernie

it was probably another hour to waterfall from here

Snowy peaks en route

Ainsa

We left France  on Wednesday (after a very rainy night when earplugs were deployed) and did the 150-mile trip to Boltaña in Spain, taking the long – less bendy D roads – route which involved a 7km tunnel through the Pyrenees (thankfully free) but still ending on a very narrow and mountainous 40km section with snow-covered mountains in the distance.
 

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It was only when we looked carefully at the map that we realised that we are only about 50km from the Cirque we visited earlier this week.  We are
staying at Camping Boltaña where we are enjoying the first free wifi of our trip, we do have to go up to reception to enjoy wifi but it’s a good signal andwe have been able to download the paper onto the iPads quite quickly.

Today we revisited Ainsa – part of which was an old Moorish fort – in beautiful weather (but chilly to start with) which was as splendid as we remembered from a couple of years ago. And we did a good deed by rescuing a couple from the Bell Tower. They had gone in with a bunch of French tourists for whom the tower had been specially opened, but then got left behind when the French departed, not realising that the door and gate were being locked behind them. We looked through the gate and heard knocking and spoke to a workman who then fetched the key-holder from the ayuntamento. The couple did not perhaps realise how lucky they were – the tower is normally only open on weekends and their knocking would not have been heard unless you were right at the gate. They would have been a touch peckish by Saturday. He had a good reservoir of lard to keep him going but she was skinny.

Church tower where people were locked in

a local enjoying a sunny spot

We have got the timer delay on the camera sorted