Adventures in Spain and France 2022 - Higher mountains and back to the Med

Friday

Before leaving the high Pyrenees, we go back up the valley we were at yesterday for another look around and for Geoff to re-connect with Citril Finch and Alpine Marmot. Sit on some rocks for a while with a coffee and it’s awash with Lizards running around, chasing each other. It’s very good as I love Lizards.

Citril Finch

All of these lovely photos by Geoff 

Leave the valley and drive along some lovely, very wooded hillsides to a campsite we are aiming for. Get there and it’s very deserted - if it hadn’t been for a couple of vans and tents we would have assumed it was closed. Park up in one of the free plots and go to the reception. That’s closed and there is absolutely no-one around. It is mid afternoon though and we think that maybe they are having a siesta so we sit outside the van for a while. After a couple of hours we go in search of someone and eventually find a lady who tells us the bar and reception will be open at 7pm and she’ll sort us out then. The site is a bit rough around the edges – it looks as if renovations have started to take place but haven’t been finished. At 7pm we go for a drink in the bar and into the reception to pay for our camping. The owner is around our age and really quite eccentric but we get on well – so we stay for a couple of drinks. We are really struggling to understand what people are saying and then we remember that we are now in Catalunya and everyone is speaking Catalan.

We see from information in the bar that there had been a Jazz festival held on the site in 2019 but sadly, due to Covid it hasn’t been held since.

Saturday

Wake early to the sounds of squawking Peacocks and Goats that are kept on the site. It’s much livelier today with the bar open from quite early and music being played – it’s like being at a little festival – maybe they are trying to re-create the feeling from 2019. Fortunately the music they are playing isn’t too loud and it happens to be music we really like, which is just as well as it goes on all day. At one point they play a BB King tune that Geoff used to play with the band he was a part of in 1980’s London, which brought back memories of crowded south London pubs.

Have a walk around and little look at the local village which is small and seems to be mainly holiday flats. Walk up a track behind the campsite and see lovely butterflies but unfortunately Geoff doesn’t have his camera and my phone isn’t good enough for close up wildlife photos.

We are staying here tonight as we have things to catch up on and although it’s a bit of a bonkers place it’s fine.

 

Get a tattoo while having a beer

Sunday 

Before leaving, we walk back up the track behind the site to photograph butterflies we didn’t get yesterday, then back on the road to head east towards the Mediterranean.   We are not sure exactly where we are going - we are planning to visit an old friend of Geoff’s who lives near Perpignan on Thursday but for the next few days we are going to see what we come across, as we make our way there.

a fritillary species

Purple-shot Copper

Butterfly photos by Geoff

Stop at La Pobla de Segur for provisions and see very large fish in the river spawning but not sure what the fish are. Carry on and stop further up the river for lunch in a nice, shaded picnic area. We had quite fancied a swim as it’s warm but the river is big and fast flowing and not swimable. Plenty of people heading out in kayaks though.

Decide to make for a campsite in the mountains that on the map doesn’t look too far off the main road, but it is a real trek, up and along winding roads that in places are really not that good. Get there eventually and it is a very nice location, with fantastic views. It isn’t the highest place we have stayed overnight but certainly the highest campsite. Great facilities, a lovely mountain stream running through the middle and in the reception area you can get probably every Yogi tea that is currently being produced. (Turmeric Chai is my favourite). It also has a swimming pool with water in – a few of the campsites we have stayed at have had pools but no water (and some had resident frogs). I’m guessing they only fill the pools in high season. Although this one isn’t empty, I don’t much fancy it as it is a ‘natural pool’ which in this case seems to basically mean that the water is really green and slimy – I’m sure it would be OK though.

Although it’s been great, we are getting a bit tired of tortuous mountain roads now, Geoff especially as he drives them and are looking forward to slightly easier driving.

View from the campsite

Monday 

Have a little look around the area before going back down the mountain road and into the valley. Geoff consults his wildlife guide and even though we have been saying how we are getting weary of mountain roads, we decide to do one more mountain in search of the Alpine Accentor and then that’s it for really big mountains. We are making for the Serra del Cadi and a road that takes us to the highest point we have been so far. So much for sticking to the Pyrenean foothills. To get to where we want to be, we have to go through the Tunel de Cadi which is a 5km long tunnel through the mountains. We have been through plenty of mountain tunnels on our trip, but not one this long nor one that costs 12 euros to go through. Once through we find the road that goes up the mountain. We are making for the coll at the top which is 2106 meters high and the road just goes on and on, up and up – it’s a 20km assent from the village where the road starts. Although it is spectacular mountain scenery and spectacular sheer drops I am very glad to get to the top. I also keep thinking that I do hope Geoff doesn’t get ill or anything as I really don’t know if I could do the drive back down. We park at the top (2106 meters is almost 7000 feet) and plan for an early morning mountain walk tomorrow.

Tuesday 

Up early and out on the mountain for the final quest for Alpine Accentor. It’s a lovely day – bright and sunny and not too hot (yet). Walk up the mountain to a plateau where it opens out to the most incredible view. You really feel on top of the world. I hang around for a while then make my way down to the van while Geoff mooches around on some rocky outcrops.

After a while Geoff returns to the van and mission accomplished – he had great looks at Alpine Accentors – they didn’t make any sounds so he didn’t record anything but at least he had a good look so I was very pleased for him - persistence paid off.

Just before Geoff sees his first Alpine Accentor

On top of the world

While we are on the coll, we have a look at some information boards that are there, referring to ‘El bunquers de coll de pal’.  It seems that in the 1940’s and early 50’s, the Spanish army built ‘resistance centres’ along the Pyrenees to prevent a hypothetical invasion from the north. They planned 4,500 bunkers along the mountain range to house machine guns, anti tank cannons, anti aircraft guns and people. The project was never completed and never went into service. It must have been some feat getting what was needed to this height to build the centres.

Leave the mountain – going down wasn’t quite so bad as going up – and back through the expensive 5km tunnel. We continue our journey towards Perpignan and get to a town on the border with France. Go into a supermarket and assume we are still in Spain but after seeing signs on the supermarket shelves we are clearly in France. Get our (my) French staples – celeriac remoulade and mushrooms a la greque and they do stock some Spanish specialities so Geoff stocks up on his favourites – octopus and squid in a variety of sauces. Unfortunately we are now out of the area that sells a rose wine carton for 1 euro but maybe that’s just as well. Get totally confused when we are asking for things as we now, without any preparation, have to speak French instead of Spanish. My ageing brain is very well challenged.

Drive along another lovely winding road to a small campsite by the river in a mountain village for the night.

A rather splendid supermarket display

Wednesday 

Near the campsite there is a small train track that runs along the valley with train that chuggs along and gives such a sweet ‘toot – toot’ as it goes, it’s like something from a children’s TV series. It makes me smile every time I hear it.

Head along the valley to a campsite in Ille sur Tet where tomorrow we are meeting up with Geoff’s friend Francis and his wife Karen. Clean the van in a car wash, go for a little wander around the town where I browse a charity shop then spend time catching up with family – phone calls with our son about his wedding in August and a chat with my 93 year old Dad.

 

Thursday 

Meet up with Francis and Karen and go to back to their house for coffee then a delicious lunch. It was fabulous to have home cooked food – the spinach and feta cake was so good I had to take the recipe. Geoff and Francis spend a lot of time trying to remember where they first met. It was in Oxford around 1976 and as Francis is a fellow guitar player and makes guitars it was quite likely to have been at one of the music venues.

Go for a walk along the river after lunch to the ruins of a medieval village which was lovely. Back to Francis and Karen’s for more chat, wine, music and cheese. Before we know it, it’s 10pm and we make our way back to the campsite after a really lovely day.

Friday

Meet up with Francis and Karen again and go for lunch in the town. Delicious Red Mullet for me and Calamari for Geoff and a Tartiflette pizza for Francis and Karen which I’d never heard of before but it did look amazing.

More chat, music and wine (but as it’s day wine it doesn’t really count) before we make our way back to the campsite for the evening. Later on we get chatting to the only other English person on the site - a young woman who is cycling on her own through the Pyrenees. She had flown to Barcelona with her bike – the bike cost her less to fly with than a suitcase and was making her way north through the mountains to the Atlantic coast. We were very impressed – we have seen cyclists in the mountains and can’t imagine how they can do it. The mountains are really high and the roads are so winding with lots and lots of hairpin bends – Geoff has dodgy knees and I hate cycling so we are really impressed with those who do manage it.

 

Saturday

Leave the campsite to make our way along the Mediterranean towards Narbonne and then to the village of Ribaute, both of which we last visited 37 years ago.

Before we leave Ille sur Tet we call into the local Super U supermarket to get provisions and also to get some lovely local red wine we had with Francis and Karen that we want to take back home for friends. It’s a rather large supermarket with a fabulous array of food but also a very comprehensive wine department. We get to the wine section and there is a guy promoting different wines and offering wine tasting. We smile and walk past and look at the rose wines for us, before getting the red wine to take home. He is very insistent on us trying the rose on offer, which we do and it is very good. He then encourages us (and other people who are around) to try the white wine and then the red. It’s a lovely idea but at 10.30 in the morning we have to refuse as it’s a bit early for wine, even if it is day wine.

Get onto the road towards Narbonne and it’s hot. It’s forecast for 35 degrees so we decide to go down to Narbonne Plage to see if we can park anywhere near the beach to go for a swim. It isn’t as busy as we thought it might be, get parked up and head for the beach. We think it is how we remembered it in 1985 but 37 years is a long time. Spend time lying in the sun, going for a swim and repeating until we get bored. Have a little drive around the town then park up in a campervan aire within walking distance of the beach. An aire doesn’t provide the facilities of a campsite but it is fine for what we need tonight and, most importantly, there’s shade. Have some food then go for a walk along the beach in the evening light. It’s lovely and Geoff unexpectedly comes across a Little Tern colony on a part of the beach that’s not far from where we have parked up, so he will get out early tomorrow to record what is going on and I’ll walk the beach.

Narbonne Plage

In the next instalment (which will be my last for this trip) we are going a little way inland to Ribaute to revisit the beautiful river that has become a bit mythologised in our memory and then slowly making our way north, visiting some lovely places as we go before eventually crossing the channel back to the UK.  I have to say I can’t quite believe we are making moves to go back to the UK but we do have things to do at home and even if we wanted to stay away longer, unfortunately as a result of Brexit we can’t stay away for more than 90 days so - driving north it is!