Travel Pics

Early morning in Pembrokeshire. We enjoyed perfect weather and lots of fresh seafood and steak during our brief stint in South Wales before heading away. (Cheers Phil and Karen, and Derek). It was interesting to hear the farmers´very different Welsh accents "down south". Phil also helped me with a leaking skylight (the answer is more sikaflex, lots more!)

Our first campsite stop in France after the 5 of us got off the ferry near Calais. We managed to fit 3 in the front and 2 in the back fairly well (plus all the gear!). Luckily we´ve had no rain at all for over 4 weeks! The bikes have been fantastic for exploring.

Katie and Peter laughing it up

Our winery tour in Bordeaux. I didn´t know that Bordeaux grapes are all blended mixes (usually of cabernet sav, merlot and cabernet franc). The chateaus are all tightly regulated as to how much they can produce, the heights of their vines, how they label it etc etc. All very European - as the guide said, "We must obey the rules!"

A homeless person we felt sorry for and adopted


She scrubbed up pretty well in the end

From the north we eventually made it to the Pyrenees, which provided beautiful villages , scenery, sheep with bells, mountains to climb etc. We pretended to be in the Tour de France and biked up to the Spanish border and back, and Peter and I (JF) climbed a couple of peaks - the beautiful Pic de Midi D´Ossau (below) as well as the highest point in the Pyreness (Aneto) in Spain.


"Transhumanance" (summer grazing of upland pastures) is still practiced in the Pyrenees (not unlike China/Tibet) and on our early morning start, Peter and I were accosted by a shepherd and made to drink his cabbage soup with sherry. Super at 730am! He found it hilarious that we spoke neither Spanish nor French, but thought NZ heading dogs were pretty good (he had a couple). It was too cool an experience to spoil by getting the camera out. Farmers are good value everywhere I reckon.
The Pyreneen Mountain Dogs just wander around looking relaxed and a bit ragged, and not really looking after the sheep. Pete got to know this one just before we started climbing.

Terrible weather and views, but we coped

The transition from green France to brown Spain was clear cut, I guess the rain falls on the north side of the Pyrenees. This is our campsite in Riglos, in the dust amongst the olive trees. The stunning pillars in the background were the reason we sought this place out. I was lucky enough to climb the tallest one (see the white dotted line above) with a super strong Pom called Stu.


Peter acted as support crew and took some pics from below. The wall was 300m tall, and we climbed it in 8 pitches over 5 hours. We started as soon as it got light to avoid the worst of the hot sun.

You can just see us here, about 2/3 of the way up. Also one of the local buzzards top left.

It was a fairly amazing climb - vertical for 200m and then overhanging the last 100m. Big blocky holds and some steep bulges at the top - I had to aid climb (pull on the bolts) for the last few pitches as it was a bit above my grade, especially after 4 hrs climbing! (6a - 6c/E1 - E4/ 20 - 23 for the climbers) . Conglomerate with potato to TV sized blocks throughout!

Topping out

Cat made us laugh!

Now Kate´s folks have left and we are hanging about in Madrid to meet a fellow we may take some Spanish lessons from. The art museums here are pretty cool, we stood and looked at the Picassos and Dalis with hands on our chins. Picasso´s Guernica was fairly impressive - a massive black and white anti-war painting made after the Nazis bombed a Spanish town during the Civil War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_%28painting%29

Has some stuff about it