Cols & Lacs

Lac D'oo

"Whoa steady." Tanya does not like thunder and the deafening and unexpected thunderous crack right over our heads was enough for her to take one leap and land right in my lap. Never mind the fact I had a fork full of chicken salad halfway to my mouth. Chicken salad goes flying while Tanya buries herself into me shaking like a leaf. Not for long though. She soon loses the shakes as she discovers the flying chicken piece has conveniently landed within reach of her mouth. 

Hmmmm! Sometimes I wonder just who is fooling who?

We are in 'Val D'oo' and yesterday enjoyed a walk on up the valley to 'Lac D'oo' . This was on the recommendation of a lady we met while doing a walk to the peak opposite the ski resort at 'Col de Mente'. She was local and her: "Yoooo seeemply must walk to lac d'oo, eeet ees beeooteeeful!"  Was remembered as we passed the sign along the way. No plan as usual so a quick left turn was executed and here we have been since yesterday.

This 'North side of the Pyrenees' leaves me with a dilemma. The lakes, mountains, ability to wild camp and the sunshine are just so tempting that once again I find myself  'not getting very far'.

Picture it. You wind up a stepladder of a road giving alternate views of snow covered peaks ahead and precipitous drops to the valley and roadway below. Sadie, in third gear I have to say, finally swings into a convenient parking spot at the 'Col de Mente' and we disembark to enjoy a first class 13 euro 'Plat du jour' at the little cafe.

We are soon joined by 3 motorbikers from Cornwall on a 6 day trip from Santandar back to the UK. They were well pleased with my recommendation of 'Plat du jour' and tucked in heartily. I was showed round their big BMW and Suzuki touring bikes afterwards before they shot off on the downhill run. Wow! Some bikes and with all the gizmos you can imagine.

There was a steady stream of these bikers coming and going in each direction. But what fascinated me most were the cyclists as there was also a steady stream of them coming and going and grateful for a short rest before the descent. The groups of young fit men and women in all the cycling gear were impressive as these uphill and downhill descents are not your 'out for a Sunday ride' type of hill. So I was even more impressed when a group of four, two couples, all white haired and possessing wrinkles and tummy podges (quite prominent in tight cycling lycra!) turned up, stopped for about five minutes to don light jackets and then disappeared over the top and downhill.

My reaction to this?

"C'mon Tanya. Think we had better walk to that peak over there and assuage this guilty feeling!!" 

.... and we did.

Come evening it is a different story. The little cafe has closed and the steady stream of tourist traffic has stopped. We are left alone on this lovely Col to enjoy the peace and quiet of the approaching night. Just to prove the silence, it's 'normal'ness' if you like, a Wild boar appears on the track opposite with six little piglets in tow. I was spellbound and made not a move as they all shuffled about on the edge of the track and then trotted off into the forest. Tanya, luckily, was at that point out of sight of both me and Mummy boar. She was doing her own doggy rooting over by the waste bins.

A pleasant, silent night under star studded sky was spent at the Col before we left ourselves for the 2nd gear plus brakes hour long downhill run. We only travelled about 20 miles before 'Lac D'oo' beckoned us to this delightful and large wild camping spot right by a little lake and with a cafe on site too. The 4km steep walk to 'Lac D'oo' itself was yesterdays exercise while today; Well the intention is to try and travel over to Lourdes. How far we get before we are once again tempted into an inviting valley or Col is anybody's guess.