We said goodbye to Sue and Sheila on Monday, September 28 as they were staying in Spain whilst we wanted to explore the Pyrenees. We left around 10.30 after refilling our water tank and emptying the other stuff as we expected to be wild camping for the next few days.
Our first stop was at Castellfollit de Roca. This had the potential to be as stunning as Bonifacio in Corsica. The town was set on a cliff face high above the surrounding area. Sadly, on closer inspection, it was rather dilapidated with half the shops closed and a lot of TLC required. Looked good from a distance though.
Onto Sant Margarida volcano which is part of a national park. We walked from the car park to the crater where Sant Margarida’s chapel was. Goodness only knows why you would built a chapel there, in the middle of nowhere but they did. Lovely walk but very steep in places and you could see the volcanic strata in places. Jo was pleased her new knee held up well.
We then decided to drive through Andorra as it sits in the foothills of the Pyrenees and Liz had never been there. On the way up we got to the top of a number of Cols which seem to be the destination point of quite a few cyclists. Madness.
Jo had been to Andorra many years ago when learning to ski and wasn’t impressed then. It hasn’t improved. Even the duty free shops aren’t that great but at least the fuel was cheap at €1.73 per litre. Apparently, Andorra is the only country in the world where Catalan is the official language. We stayed overnight in a municipal car park (P4N#13272) near to the city centre in Sant Julia de Loria that provided bays for campervans with electricity and grey/black water disposal. The charge for the whole night was €2.80! Granted the car park was on a slope but at that price we weren’t complaining!
We set off the next morning in rain and low cloud so decided to go the long way round to Lourdes on the French side of the mountains rather than over the top through Andorra. This took us all day as the roads were very windy and we came across some roadworks on the mountain where they stopped the traffic for 45 minutes so they could work and then let it through. At the border with France, French Customs had everyone stop and divert into an inspection channel. Not sure what they were looking for but they weren’t interested in us.
Our destination for the night was Lourdes, renowned as a place of pilgrimage since Bernadette Soubirous had her apparitions. Liz last went there when she was 21 and Jo had never been so we decided to have a look. We found a great aire just above the town for €10 a night (P4N#610778). Electricity and water were extra but we didn’t need them and could empty the toilet cassette for free.
We wandered into town around 18.00 to find that various services had started in the Sanctuaire complex including one outside the grotto where Bernadette had her first apparition. It was very bizarre that you could still visit the grotto whilst a service was going on in front of you. Did mean there were no queues! The town itself has taken full advantage of the millions of pilgrims who travel there each year with a lot of very tacky shops. The Sanctuaire is enormous and very ornate inside showing the wealth of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo had visited a couple of days before so the banners celebrating his visit were still draped everywhere. After 90 minutes of wandering around, we made our way back up to our aire for dinner in the van before a fairly early night.
On Wednesday morning we drove south to Gavarnie, around 30 miles, as we wanted to hike the Cirque de Gavarnie. It’s a natural amphitheatre with one of the longest waterfalls in Europe. The town itself is very sweet, high up in the mountains and still fairly busy despite the late season. We were able to park just outside the village for €10 for 24 hours. No facilities but there was an aire about 3km away that you could use to empty your waste water. We parked on the finish line of the 6th stage of this year’s Tour de France. The incline was hard enough in a van! We made sandwiches to take with us on our 3 hour hike and once the rain had stopped started off. It’s probably just under two hours there, all uphill, and just over an hour back. The scenery was spectacular and the photos don’t do it justice. It rained on and off the whole time but that didn’t dampen our enjoyment. On the way back, we passed a shack where a local farmer was selling his Bebris sheep’s cheese. After tasting it we had to buy some. Once back in the van, the heavens really did open but we were cosily tucked up in Dora so we didn’t mind.
Miles since last blog: 330
Miles this trip: 1,938
