Day 15
Saturday 27.06.09 Gavin to Navarrenx 100 miles
Well that was an eventful night. A crowd of people turned up at about 1.00 pam. They set up camp and started to party. I stuck in my earplugs and got off to sleep at about 2.00 am. I woke a few times and they were still going strong at 4.00 am. When I awoke in the morning they had camped right next to the English couple I had spoken to yesterday. The guy came over and said he was leaving immediately and was going to complain strongly before he left. He said he was going back to civilization in France. I thought how easy it was to give your country a bad name. He won’t be back. It’s a shame as this was the first time I had encountered anything like it anywhere in Europe.
I sat with my breakfast and had a think. Nobody had come to have a word with these people and it could happen again tonight. OK, decision made, I’m off! I’m going to take the pass thru the Col Du Portalet. I had been here a few years ago and want to see it again.
So I set off at 11.00 am, intending to find a campsite over the border in France. Camera in top pocket and riding at a leisurely 50 mph I stopped several times on the way to take photos. Got to the border at about 12.30, took some more photos and had a coffee, then headed over and into France once more. I hadn’t gone more than a couple of miles when I came across what looked like a multiple car crash. There where cars everywhere with hardly enough room to get thru. There was no crash, they were just parked. Then I looked up at the rocks in front of me.
Vultures! More than a hundred (I lost count) . There was a sheep’s carcass half way down, it must have fallen over the edge, and they were queuing up to feed on it. I think every Vulture in the Pyrenees had got wind of this free meal. They arrived en masse, 20 or 30 feeding on the carcass, another 50 or so on ledges waiting their turn, and 50 or more (too many to count) soaring above. I will never forget this sight, it was worth every mile of the journey so far just to see this. I could have stayed for hours watching the spectacle but it was getting a bit chaotic with all the cars stopping to look. Anyway I didn’t fancy being next on the menu :)
I set off again, stopping occasionally to take a photo. I look on the map and decide to head for Navarrenx, about 30 miles away. Those of you who have read last years blog will know I was there in an horrific thunderstorm last year. I arrive mid afternoon and am greeted like an old friend (well I think they just about remembered me).
I bought a bottle of rose wine bottled by the campsite owners, Stephen and Wendy, and ordered a Pizza that Stephen makes on site. I was given a demo on how to make and, more importantly, how to roll out a really thin pizza which I then took back to the tent to eat. Later that evening I met a couple who had come over from Portsmouth to Santander on their big BMW. Lots of late night chat and rose wine drunk, a fine evening and no sign of a thunderstorm.
"The Return To Navarrenx" – Sounds like a spaghetti western.