The Journey North Begins

As we travelled back across the peninsular of the Cabo de Gata on Thursday morning we knew that we had just over a week before we were due back in the UK but we had a few plans for stopping off on the way home.

Thursday and Friday were spent on the road with Valencia as our first port of call and the Spanish Pyrenees as our second. The journey to Valencia led us along the coast to Murcia and then North through the hills to Valencia and a site a few hundred metres from the beach but only a few metres from the motorway!!

On Friday we headed through Valencia (some great architecture) to Teruel by motorway and through some fantastic scenery as we climbed through the hills and onto the plateau where the red soil and green of the cereal crops gave a lovely colour palette. The miles flew by and we were soon through Zaragoza and onto Huesca with the Pyrenees as a backdrop.

We have been surprised by the hills and mountains of this part of Spain and the excellent roads have provided us with interesting routes as we have journeyed through the country avoiding the toll roads. One feature which we have seen and enjoyed throughout Spain are the sculptures on the roundabouts and along the motorways which depict some local feature, industry or historical fact.

We stayed the night at a site north of Barbastro (the northern limit of major Moorish settlements) and enjoyed the peace and quiet of a lakeside pitch. As we neared the site we saw a storm travelling across the mountains and flashes of lightening but our luck held and by the time we arrived the storm had passed.

On Saturday we walked along the lake before breakfast and then drove to Ainsi with its chocolate box medieval old town patrolled by red kites. After coffee and shopping we started the journey that would take us over the border into France at Portalait. This involved a two hour drive through the mountains with views of snow capped peaks and deep river gorges. The roads were good, if a little narrow, and the traffic was light. At one point, faced with an on-coming white transit on a particularly narrow stretch we lost part of a wing mirror. Margaret was sent back up the road to retrieve same, which was only a little worse for wear but you should have seen the other guy, he was not amused at his shattered wing mirror - Fords!!

We lunched at 1500 metres on a picnic table with a view of a snowy hillside and then climbed to pass the ski resorts (some skiers still catching the last of the snow) and over the border.

Our plan to re-visit Lac D’Artouste, which we had walked around in the early nineties, was thwarted by lack of a ski lift and so we descended to Laruns for a couple nights by the river and found ourselves in a very French village.

After some investigation into possible walks we were told that the high level routes were still closed by snow but that a valley walk was possible from the village and so Sunday saw us at the boulangerie for pain et croissants before starting the 8km walk. 2km and two hours later we were staggered out onto a level path after climbing 600 metres – we were exhausted and this was the low level walk. However the climb proved worthwhile as we sat for lunch in a meadow at over 1000 metres and looked across to the mountains and down at Laruns in the valley below. Another Springwatch first was a Camberwell Beauty sunning itself on a bridge. The walk down was less vertiginous and we arrived back at the site after five hours and 13km! So much for a gentle stroll but it certainly gave us an appetite for a Sunday evening meal in the local square.

And so to bed ready for an early start.

On Monday we were aiming to reach Bordeaux and had identified a site at St Emilion. It was route across the flat plain of Les Landes and the immense man-made forests that have been planted there. Eventually we climbed into the limestone hills of Bordeaux and made our way between the fields of vines to the site a couple of miles outside the village of St Emilion.

WiFi was on offer and so we were able to catch up with mail and upload some blog. The temperature was well into the 20’s and forecast to be hotter so we decided to enjoy the sun for a couple of days.

On Tuesday we took the campsites shuttle into the village and took a tourist train journey around the vineyards and stopped at Chateau Rochebelle for a tour – all in French – we are trying Emilie. The fact that many of these chateaux have only a few hectares of vines was quite new to us and explains the focus on the relatively few bottles that are produced by each vineyard each year. The village itself is very quaint and fully equipped for the tourists that trek here each year but now quiet and a pleasant place to spend a morning before we are back for an afternoon by the pool in the sun and some route planning for the next few days.