This being the seventh part of the tale of the summer of 2006

One of the major decisions we made before we set off on out travels was that there wasn’t going to be any wimpish resorting to hotels this year.
We were on a camping holiday and only in dire necessity would we sink to using one.
On one day travelling down through Spain we had struck camp in the morning, travelled 840 klms, and arrived at the new camp in time to set up the tent and make the dinner before retiring for the night.

That we were able to do this this year was due to our new equipment all purchased in Altitude, here in Waterford.
We had a much bigger tent than last year( a Vango 500), one in which we could set up the table and eat dinner, and, a luxury for me, even stand up. But the principal factor in our ability to set up camp quickly was thet we had bought ourselves self-inflating matresses. These are by Thermarest and (even though made in Cork)don’t come cheap, about €80 each for singles, but when you think that because of them we were able to camp nearly every night on the trip they make total financial sense.
The cost of a campsite for a night + a gourmet meal cooked by myself + about as much wine as we could manage would be around €25 to €30.
Even the cheapest Dinner, bed and breakfast in a B& B would still come in around €120.
After two nights in the tent we reckoned we had well paid for the mattresses.
They do take a bit of getting used to as they are thinner than your average airbed but the bliss of just undoing the valve and watching then inflate themselves far outweighs any minor adjustments.
We were so knackered from our travelling anyway that we were both snoring by about 9.30 most nights.

But to return to the travels.

Against all advice, and because the journey down had been so grim, we decided to travel back to France through the centre of Spain.
The general advice was that we would expire with the heat.
On the contrary we had a great trip.
The campsites in the centre are way better than the costal ones and usually on the top of hills keeping them wonderfully cool in the evenings.
Two days brought us up to the Pyrenees where we decided to take a few days rest.

We settled in Panzano in a lovely and brand new campsite.
We had only found it by chatting -in French- to the lady in the local shop.
And it was way up the mountain.

As we climbed into the mountains we noticed these specks
wheeling in the sky above us

On slightly closer inspection we could see that they were
some sort of raptor, a kestral or hawk maybe.

There we set up our tent, inflated, ate

And enjoyed our wine in the moonlight.

In the morning I saw my first cloud in about four weeks
as it rolled lazily over the top of the mountains.

But even that was soon banished once the sun came up.

We decided to travel into Jaca which was the nearest town.

On the way we soon discovered that what we had taken
for the Pyrenees were but the most minor foothills.
The real mountains were rather larger and more
dangerous looking

Jaca had a good cathedral with windows which I loved.
Were these wafer thin slices of marble, or Alabaster ?

It also had the most amazing cake shops, a real feature of
Spain these, it is a wonder they have a tooth in their heads.

The following day was to be our journey out of Spain.
We had decided to go through the tunnel at Bielsa.

On the way up to the pass, which was quite gradual, we
passed some incredible Tourquoise lakes, the colour so vivid
that it must have been caused by some mineral in the water.

When we got to the tunnel itself, which was about 5 klms long ,
we discovered that it was operating on a one way system
as it was very narrow.
We waited patiently at a red light for about 10 mts until
it turned green.
As soon as we entered the indeed very narrow tunnel,
we discovered that the drivers of the juggernauts didn’t
take a blind bit of notice of the lights and there followed
one of the most terrifying 5 klms of our life as these huge
lorries thundered at us with mere inches to spare and,
in a tunnel, no place to hide!

It was with great relief that we finally got through
and into France.

The larg town nearest to the French side of the tunnel
was Lannemazan.

Sile remembered that her mother had made friends with
a family there while she was escorting a group of school
girls about 20 years ago.
Furthermore both of her parents had gone back and stayed
with the family the year after.

On a whim we decided to look them up.

The Mesailles greeted us with open arms, were delighted
to hear that Sile’s parents were still with us and insisted in
giving a present of Pate to give to Sile’s father on return.

From Lannemazan we took the short trip to St Gaudens.
There we quickly set up our tent in a campsite with a terrific
view right back over the Pyrenees, all the way we had travelled
that day.
We really had liked Spain but France was home.