Pyrenees 2011, 27/05-05/06, planning

[Gav Peter]

Nice pics Reinhard. Gosh, that truck was really ablaze eh???

 

[Andrew Prince]

Great pics, guys!

there were lots of these signs which caused people to wonder what 'caca' means ..... it is Spanish for 'hunting'.

Seeing Gav hitching up his breeches with such a big smile on his face, I'm guessing he got the "caca" translation wrong

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

We should start a list of what went wrong / broke:

Foward petrol tank strap let go, looked like a fatigue failure, where the strap bends to be bolted to the body They're very flimsy things (same as on an 80, don't know about others) so time for some HD straps.

 

[Gav Peter]

Seeing Gav hitching up his breeches with such a big smile on his face, I'm guessing he got the "caca" translation wrong

Yeah, lawd knows what was going on there - I thought I hid myself better than that for 'de cacas in de woods'

 

[SpinDrift]

Nice pics Reinhard. Gosh, that truck was really ablaze eh???

Yeah, it didn't stand a chance. There could not have been much left by the time the rescue services were on scene yet.

 

[AndyCook]

fantastic photos Reinhard
helping to persuade the Mrs that most of the tracks will be nice for her!
she didnt like the look of the ford and ruts
but... she drove through a couple of fords on Strata Florida that were that deep - I keep reminding her

 

[SpinDrift]

Hi Andy,

For the most part the tracks are very well maintained as they are used by the foresty guys to access the area. We suspect that large lorrys use some of them to get the logs out. There were a few interesting bits, but in most cases - not all - I think you could have by passed them, but hey we wanted some fun as well. The fords you had to go through were not deep. At no time during the trip did we have to break out the recovery gear, although I did use my waffle boards to bridge a small stream to walk to my tent.

There are plenty of views for a passenger/codriver/navigator to see - in fact they get to see more than the driver.

cheers

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Gav carrying out co-driver duties

 

[Gav Peter]

Gav carrying out co-driver duties

Man those GPL buttons take some holding in!!!

Just in the process of compiling a contribution but it all just bombed out on me Hopefully still got most of it copied onto Word...

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Tailgate lights and table in action, seemed to work well

 

[Gav Peter]

Could do with somewhere to hang that rubbish bag though!!!

 

[Gav Peter]

Okay, here's a few of mine - fark, I need to brush up on my photograhy techniques...

I'll try not to duplicate too much but there will inevitably be some crossover…

The morning after the night before... Packing up in the first aire after the ferry crossing. I chose not to pop up the tent & had no sleep in the Amazon instead

After quite a slog down through France, we camped in at Le Moulin campsite:

Racing away from the peagé booths!!!

Camcorder moment…

Cooling off at the top of the climb – man we suck at parking!!!

Attempted some pics of the descent on the hairpins

First track climb This is up out of the top of a ski resort...

At the top

Descending

Gaz panning for gold That was vay clean & tasty water

Not only does he organise stuff, he cooks stuff too!!! Bacon butties anyone???

Ready for the off from Lavorski - gotta love those power stations...

Yup, this was a zero visibilty moment...

The climb up into Andorra via the smugglers track was a long one!!!

And then the track just turned to tarmac at the top - we still suck at parking in an orderly manner...

'You looking at me??'

The panoramic village of Liecha (sp). Totally uninhabitted but note the solar panels!!!

Don't do it Rob!!!

Purple hills

Line astern for the viewing point - thats better parking chaps

View point without safety nets?!? Must be in Spain

Rob found supplies - woo woo!!!

We wanted to see these ravines running full of water really...

A few pics of the washed out sections that sported a bit of interest

Camping in Espagne again – nice meal out at the site restaurant here

There’s some pics on my stupid windows phone but it won’t connect to my pooter so I am a bit stuffed getting them off at the moment…

There are refuges dotted about the tracks & I wanted to see what was in one – you could make it quite comfy in an emergency situation…

More stupendous views

The bridge at Maganut (sp) – well worth a viewing

Logging ops

Jon’s des res by the sea

Last night camp by Lac d’Orient

The beast of burden cooling down on the drive after a tortuous journey back from Dover, pre-launch on the Yam

Splendid trip

 

[AndyCook]

more Great photos - thanks for sharing Gav

Reinhard - i dont mind some challenging trails, mrs cook does sometimes...

surely you didnt camp at this lac d'orient
http://www.camping-lacdorient.com/en/74 ... t/zoom-10/
seems a bit off-route?

good to see some camping shots
what was the "Duff" beer like?

 

[Gav Peter]

I was hoping to post the pool pics Andy but they're trapped on the stupid phone

I beleive that was the site Jon was hoping to use but it was full - we camped up the other end of the lake in the end.

Duff was fine Vay lagery

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I beleive that was the site Jon was hoping to use but it was full

Yep, that was the one.

 

[AndyCook]

did you come back up France by Lyon/Dijon then?

oh and did you tackle Paris on the way down

 

[Gav Peter]

Paris was largely avoided Andy

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

did you come back up France by Lyon/Dijon then?

Yes, it's not much further than going up the middle, avoids Paris and gave us a good stopping point that only left about 400k to get to Calais on sunday. I think someone said the tolls might have been more that way than the route we took going down?

 

[Gary Stockton]

Tolls were a lot more that way - but if you have time, the D road is right next to the peage motorway, and takes you into some really interesting little villages, so you can avoid the tolls. But I reckon it was close to €70 on the way back ...

 

[AndyCook]

looks like a good option and change of route on the way back -
but with 9 hours driving from Collioure > the lac d'orient (even longer at 60-65mph I will prob drive at...) i think i will have to take the toll road hit, since the D-road will be considerably slower with going through villages