Les Pyrenees

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After Biarritz, we headed towards the Pyrenees. A large mountain range bordering France and Spain, hosting some of the biggest climbs in the Tour de France. Before we got to the National Park, we stopped off at a cool little spot near St Engrâce for a little walk, chilly dip, and a climb through small dark caves. Driving into the Pyrenees was something else, all of a sudden you’re engulfed by huge mountains everywhere you look. Our first stop, saw us crossing the border to Espana, shocked by how quickly the language, people and culture suddenly change within such a small distance. We got a chair lift up the mountain, and then hiked the rest. Pyrenees was already turning it on! We then headed to a bit of a tourist hot spot, Lac de Gaube, back in the land of cheese and choccy croissants. A small hike up to a huge, crystal clear, blue lake. It was sweltering hot, and not a single person was swimming. Sure the water was freezing, but damn, it felt good! The small town close by, Cauterets, was having their local markets, so we indulged ourselves in some local vin, fromage et miel (wine, cheese and honey!). All equally delicious and satisfying the tastebuds. The next day, Myron headed off for the hills and climbed one of the biggest mountains in the Tour de France, Col du Tourmalet (plus another one that I don’t know the name of). But all in all, a huge ride of over 100km, with some stupid elevation of over 2000m. I went for my own little spin, finding a nice bike loop that was delightfully flat. We spent the night on top of a huge mountain, with another beautiful lake up the top and I discovered a new phobia – driving up twisting narrow roads, with nothing but a huge drop to the bottom on your side. We woke up to the sun rising over the mountains, went for another walk, completely losing the trail, resulting in us scaling up some of the mountain. We crossed the border again to Spain, stocked up on some canned sangria, spent the day by the river, and had our first ‘shower’ for a few days aka. taking the soap and shampoo (all natural of course) down to the river for a bathing. We went to a big lake that looked like an oasis in the middle of the dessert, but the water levels were so low the water was pretty gross and it was also 35 degrees, so we got outta there pretty quick. We had some tapas for dinner, discovering there aren’t a huge amount of options for vegetarians, and the next morning headed for Monte y Perdido National Park. As we got there, we saw the huge line of tourists waiting for buses, and discovered a fatal flaw in our plan. We couldn’t drive there, and if we wanted to see the national park, we too, had to join that line. So, we turned around and decided we’d leave that one for another day! Back to France, and time to head towards the coast…