A 4x4 Tour of the Pyrenees in Good Company

by Judy Green

(The non-techie female view)

Day One Proper

Just getting there is how you prove your endurance and fitness for this adventure. Do you know of anyone who sleeps well on a ferry - if so do let me know the trick of it. We sleepily left the ship at 6:00 am to wake up fast when confronted with the first French roundabout going round the wrong way. Neither Michael or I had driven in France before so concentration was at a maximum for that first day and it was a long 378 miles down to Bordeaux but we told ourselves that every mile we were getting nearer to the fun part.

Day Two

Wagons rolled slowly at 8:30 today. There is a story to this in that yesterday M, my better half, had complained loudly that the convoy leaders kept speeding up and leaving slower vehicles far behind. Today they were getting their revenge! As they kept their radio off we resorted to pulling alongside and shouting through the window the message from the tail-enders, to speed up a bit. Our first rendezvous (getting into the French bit already!) was at St Jean de Luz with our guide for the day, Jean Michel. The plan was to have a typical French Sunday lunch and then do some local off roading. However the locals were out hunting so JM said it would be far too dangerous to go into the woods today. I guess we would make excellent slow moving targets (Points for tourists?) so instead we voted to go into St Jean de Luz to swim and enjoy the town. Excellent choice.

Lovely old fishing port with paved streets. The place was full of French families and their dogs ‘en promenade’ and when we walked over the brow of the hill there was a superb sandy bay with the most inviting blue water. Naturally most of us dived in then dried off in the sun. A lovely unexpected treat. We eventually reached our hotel in Montory at about 6:30 and met up with the remaining members of the party who had come by other routes. Our host and guide for the week, Michel, laid on a wonderful meal, the wine flowed, there was much hilarity and even some impromptu singing (perhaps best glossed over!).

Day Three

Off to the mountain tracks today, the boys all very excited and rushed off after breakfast to feed the machines with diesel, then there was the inevitable waiting around until everyone got their act together. Nine lots of drivers and their grooms take some organising! Michel’s leadership style is by example (he is a real expert) so we all had to be on the ball and ready for anything that was round the next corner. Michel was quietly observing us all I’m sure to start with, and the wooded tracks were very similar, although perhaps somewhat steeper, than we might get on Exmoor or in Wales. The little Jeep that was with us did not have a low box (sorry, techie bit) and needed to take a good run at some of the steep hills which caused some problems when he came roaring up behind a Land Rover that was slowly walking it’s way up in low one or two. The ropes came out on several occasions to give him a tow, but I reckon he was the hero of the day.

At this point I must mention food, which turned out to be a very big part of this holiday. The French have a small breakfast, as every one knows, but we found there was a very good reason for this. They like to snack at 12 noon (we mistakenly thought this was lunch proper to start with) then sit down to a 3 course meal at approx. 2:00 pm which goes on until 3:30 pm. This took us quite by surprise the first day out. The custom is to keep your knife and fork from one course to the next so you never know how much more is coming. We didn’t know whether to be polite to our hostess and burst or refuse yet more food and risk causing offence. Some did one thing, some another!

In the afternoon the tracks got even harder so the little Jeepni was left to sleep at a friends house while Dick and Vivienne joined other members of the team. (We were beginning to feel like a real team now.) Ropes and road building were needed from time to time and much filming and cheering done as folks got through the rocks and hard places. Finally back to base about 7:00 pm.

Day Four

Higher mountain tracks, steeper precipices to left and right, increasingly fantastic views and some horrendous washouts, one of which really frightened me as I was too close behind the Disco in front and got lined up for it wrong. “Hand brake” M instructed to no avail. The safety harness had locked on and I couldn’t reach it. Luckily he could so I bailed out, white and shaking and let him drive for the rest of the day. I reckon I have driven off road to A level standard, but this was really degree and Ph.D. stuff. The afternoon was more relaxing, spent at Michel’s ski lodge (after another big lunch!) where there was the opportunity to ride quad bikes or go for a walk among local cows and horses grazing on the short pasture making evocative sounds with their bells. A long, long wind down the mountains again at the end of a surprisingly tiring day.

Day Five

We move on into Spain. Michel is joined by Christian our second guide. He speaks no English and looks a lot like Tony Robinson from Time Team. We all get on splendidly with lots of Guessing and gestures! Great drive up to the border. The road is very twisty and needs total concentration so M gives me a word picture of the scenery. We stop at the first small supermarket in Spain so that those who booze and smoke could shop like crazy, and we discover one or two shopaholics amongst our number.

We drive on quite a while before arriving at the Spa town of Panticosta where a swim in the hot baths had been booked for us. Put this one down to experience. It was quite amusing but those who were not partaking did have rather a long time hanging about in the somewhat dull little town. We had expected a large open air swimming pool but instead were taken, after much faffing about and language complications, (we are now working in French, English and Spanish) into the basement of this old fashioned hotel. I guess it had seen it’s best years between 1900 - 1930 and the baths were like a flooded bunker about the size of the average domestic bathroom. We lolled about in the warm water like resting seals for about 20 minutes then were all squeezed into a small cupboard where hot water fell from one corner of the ceiling onto heated stones I guess. I am rather vague about this part of the proceedings as my specs had misted up and I was feeling claustrophobic for the first time in my life. I stuck it out for about three minutes (others stayed much longer) then it was finally a shower and back into the warm pool. Confess to feeling nice and relaxed afterwards, but it was a really strange place. It is interesting to note that the quad bikes activity had interested the younger members of the party and the baths only seemed to appeal to the oldies!

More mountain track driving in the afternoon. We were in two groups now as Spanish authorities insist on small numbers and wide spacing between vehicles. We are with Christian, a couple I nicknamed the Beautiful People with an amazingly fitted out Jeep Wrangler (Lara Croft eat your heart out), and another young couple in a Discovery. The other older couples were all with Michel. What did this say about us I wonder? The weather deteriorated as we got higher and high up miles from anywhere a cracking thunderstorm broke out - FLASH BANG - too close for my comfort. It turned the track into a tributary of the Yellow River giving the driving that little extra frisson. After coming down from miles of mountain track we catch up with the others to find that Dick’s Jeepni had just shed a wheel. General rushing around and sorting of the problem by those of a techie disposition, and we finally made it to the hotel about 7:30.

Day Six

When discussing the plans for the day it was decided to entitle it “Another Full Day” as the quantities of food had been rather getting to everyone, and the mixture of off roading and sightseeing had certainly kept us all well occupied. We encountered a bolster in our bed last night which Michael managed to co-habit with quite successfully but it gave me nothing but a neck ache and very little sleep. If I had my way they would all be shot on sight. However the weather was beautiful again and it was the day of the Egyptian Vultures, swallows, butterflies, scented plants and the scenery just kept getting better and better. High in the mountains we stopped below thus huge buttress to look out over the plain for mile after mile. The brave ones climbed to the very top up metal ladders. Not being a fan of heights I sat among the thymes and lavender and observed the wildlife. The vultures circled lazily around on the thermals waiting for one of our party to fall off the top. They make our buzzards at home look very small. Down the mountain to the farmland, different terrain again through fields of olives, apricots and almond trees as well as grain stubble, but no animals to be seen. Lunch was booked at a small café halfway up to an amazing medieval castle which was perched high amongst the rocks and looked almost like part of them. There was time before the meal to visit the outside of the Castillo de Loarre. I would have really enjoyed doing the tour inside but sadly more food was waiting so there was not the time. Instead lunch took two hours!.

We viewed some amazing rock tower formations in the afternoon some 400 metres high. At the base of them was a little village and Christian pointed out a cave at the bottom of one of the pillars which apparently goes right through the mountain to a similar village on the other side. More vultures were flying here, and we met a riding party on the way down the mountain - now that looks like a good idea! Shortly before joining the proper road we negotiated a very narrow gorge with the road passing through about 1/3 the way up the side. In some places there was no retaining wall. This was a place that needed steady nerves and no looking down. Another bolster to do battle with tonight but a much quieter room if the local dogs go to sleep.

Day Seven

Last real day of the holiday as after this we shall be slogging it up through France again and home. Michel promised us the desert today and we were not disappointed. It was truly sandy desert with seriously washed out wadis where flash floods had carved out great gouges in the soft mudstone. You could well imagine being in Nevada or part of north Africa and the trail went on for mile after mile through the heat. Then suddenly in the middle of nowhere we came across a film unit, cameras, sound and hospitality wagon all complete. Tables were laid out with cloths and glasses and it really looked bizarre. They waved us on (I wonder if we ruined Take 22). Shortly afterwards we stopped to picnic to the accompaniment of American jet fighters doing bombing practice and cannon fire about 2 miles away. A great display for us but pretty menacing if you had been the enemy.

It was a long drive home again from the desert over the mountains and the border back to Montory for our last night. We had a very festive final dinner with speeches and thanks to Michel, Christian, Jean-Michel and Richard, our English organiser. Altogether it was a most excellent adventure - not perhaps one for those who like to relax on a beach for their holidays, but a truly great experience and I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it. A nice thought too is that the sponsorship we raised will help disabled riders and their horses. Thank you Richard for working so hard to organise everything and putting up with us all.