This years Epic Summer trip

caledonia said:
Don’t know how you can do it Baz? We’re on our second day of temps over 25degres and it’s already too much.
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Cale, it was 35+c when I was painting hoose in France ☀️

Now home and old deck area oot, new one going in as I type, and 26c, I’m freezing 🥶

Common denominator here, no peace for for the wicked 😕

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caledonia said:
Don’t know how you can do it Baz? We’re on our second day of temps over 25degres and it’s already too much.
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Its ok now here. Its supposed to be 31 now here at Gavarnie but there is a fair bit of light cloud and I don't think its as hot as that. Im sat in the van at midday and its just nice in here. Been out this morning up the mountain and it was lovely. Going further afield later so fingers crossed the bike does not let us down.

On the plus side we have seen some Marmots now but photographing the little buggers is not easy. Would I do it again? No chance. The weather is just too unpredictable now so if we come away over summer ill stay up in the Alps where its easier to get north or south side depending on temperatures.

There is a Marmot in this picture somewhere. :D

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Everything comes to he who waits.

No chance of baking Alive here. Now I remember why I used to like to come up here mid summer.

6200ft up the Col de Tentes. 😁

I wish we had come up days ago but it was easier to do the Cirques etc from Gavarnie. Blissfully cool and tons and tons of space. If a single funny foreigner parks within 50 metres of my van they are going into the ravine. 🤣

Just spent half an hour watching a family of Marmots playing. Two humongous adults and two babies.





 
Few more pics. We got up to about 7300ft earlier. We almost ran over a great big fat marmot on the way up. Jumped right out in front of us then just sat there glowering at us six feet away. Frustratingly I had put the phone cameras in the top box for once. Normally I have them in the little cubby in the fairing! Another one literally jumped out in front of Michelle while she was walking, screamed at her and frightened the life out of her. :ROFLMAO:

I feel totally relaxed here for the first time in weeks. Its bloody Brilliant. Even got the guitar out and started writing songs again. (Sorry about that) :D

Plan is to stay here a couple of nights, then a couple of nights at another Ski station we have not been to before then Monday Lac Estaing on a (Wait for it) Campsite. (They banned wilding there sadly). Not my thing normally but it looks ok. I mentioned we have an 8.5m van and they have allocated us a 160m2 pitch. No idea if thats big but it sounds big.

Sheep slalom today. They just don't move. Note the position of the bike. Knowing how the French seem to like to park within two inches of each other it serves a useful purpose :D Its been totally fine today but not been that far.
















 
Barry, in a situation where the sheep will not move from the roadway, shout “Mint Sauce” that usually gets them out your way, works in the highlands of Scotland. 👍
 
How lucky were we to end up parking the van opposite Marmot Mountain? :D Its so entertaining to just sit and watch the Marmot family go about their daily routines, play and forage. When the two adults meet they sometimes stand up and cuddle each other. The Marmots here are huge, I guess they are fattening up for the winter. Still not got a decent photo of one.

Michelle went up the Pic de Tentes yesterday which looked impossible. There was no way I was going to even attempt any of it so I sat on the hillside with a telescope watching the ascent :D Not content with that which she did in double quick time she scurried off over the top of the track in the opposite direction to Spain while I fell asleep listening to U2 an Wet Leg. Weather has been perfect. It was lovely up there way over 7000ft. Nights are cool and pleasant while France below is melting.

Ended up back at Gavarnie for something to eat later on and it was still really warm down there. However, “Winter is coming”. We are set to go to Lac d’Estaing on Monday morning but by Tue / Wednesday its going to go from one extreme to the other. Wet and mid teens temperatures.

Bike behaved yesterday.

Few more pics.









 
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We left the Col de Tentes this morning early. Back down to the Aire at Gavarnie, empty the loo, fill up with water and then a slow drive all the way down to Argelès-Gazost to the supermarket before battling with the sat nav for the final 12 miles up to Lac Estaing. The road up to Estaing is a bit of a goat track in places but normally not too bad unless there is a lot of traffic coming the other way which of course there was today. Ok once we got through the narrow dodgy bits. Its only about a 39 mile journey but with coming down from 6200ft to about 1000 then back up to about 4000 and including the dreaded supermarket stop it took three hours and ten minutes! :LOL: Weather changed and we ended up driving through the clouds to get up here into lovely sunshine. It didn't last.

We don't do campsites very often but so far this one seems ok. I reserved a pitch and its humongous. Finally got sorted and the thunder started and now its absolutely chucking it down. :D Its the best pitch I have seen so far. Most of them are in the trees and small but I did forewarn them we had a bigun!

Amazingly up here in a very steep valley, great internet connection :D

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Well its been a cracking afternoon but we are totally at the mercy of the changing weather now. Its been sunny, cloudy, chucking it down, thunder, sunny again. We went over the little col des Borderes on the bike and ended up riding into the clouds which was fun. There are two lakes either side of the col. Lac Estaing which is a small natural lake and very pretty and Lac du Tech which is a reservoir which you can walk around in 45 minutes. Lac Estaing takes a bit longer. I am hoping to Kayak on it tomorrow weather permitting. Back at the van now and its chucking it down. :D I can't complain though as apparently its my fault the weather has changed after weeks of whinging about it being too hot. :D Bike seems totally fine now its cooled down.

Campsite is lovely and its not often I would say that about a campsite.

Few pics and a link to the site we are on.

park4night - (65400) Camping Intercommunal du Lac d'Estaing

Camping municipal du lac d'Estaing. Accueil sympa, super vue on peut faire un feu de camp sur l'emplacement dépaysant avec les enfants prévoir les guimauves ! Départ pour randonnées, pêche, merci à la commune d'Estaing ! Ils ont maintenant la 4G... un bon signal téléphonique et Internet.
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Well the Kayak got an airing but the mist and cloud has never lifted all day and its much cooler. Like a wet weekend in the Lake District. :D You would think when it was 32c in Gavarnie round the corner the other day we had moved continents and its higher up than here.

Its a lovely place but its the end of the valley, there really isn't much to do or see from here and once you have walked round the lake a few times, kayaked round it or walked up the valley thats kind of about it and with the forecast being even more dire the next couple of days we will leave in the morning, head lower down to the foothills of the Pyrenees and then come back up towards the weekend when the weather improves.

Few pics from this mornings Kayak including one of Michelle taking the cows for a walk.

As far as sites go this one has been ok. I went and paid the bill just now for two nights and it was less than I expected. Probably because I never used the electric. The new solar system even in this crap weather has been excellent. I think it worked out about £10.50 a night.









 
I wasn't looking forward to today. We left Lac Estaing mid morning where it was very wet and miserable and pretty much in the clouds. The choices were either a Camping Car Park Aire (who seem to have taken lots of aires over here) at Agos Vidalos, or one of theirs at Pierrefitte Nestalas or Pierrefart Netflix as I call it which always was cramped even with our old van or up to Cauterets to the two crammed crappy aires there. No real appealing site options or wild spots lower down at least. In the end we opted for the one at Agos Vidalos which so far so good seems ok. Its much lower at about 450m so its a bit warmer and felt warm in the sunshine. Flip flops and shorts back on. Had a right carry on getting through the barrier which is notorious here and had to call the helpline and even then it took another ten minutes. Hardly anyone here and watching the app its not been filling up to capacity. Trouble is there are only so many electric points that work so no doubt when it does start to get busier there will be a dash for them but I've already claimed mine and the layout hopefully means I wont get the usual moron two feet from my window. I don't really like the CCP Aires much but this one so far isn't too bad and at around £13.50 including electric its not expensive and you can use the swimming pool next door at the campsite apparently.

All in all hopefully the best of the three options.

Forecast is still crap but we might have a run into Lourdes to get churched up and get something to eat. Hallelujah! :D

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