{"id":3026,"date":"2017-03-29T18:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billandrews.co.uk\/?page_id=3026"},"modified":"2017-03-31T10:42:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T09:42:00","slug":"pyrenees-1987","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/billandrews.co.uk\/?page_id=3026","title":{"rendered":"Pyrenees 1987"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"11th June<\/p>\n

Catch a train to Gatwick, meet Chris, fly to Toulouse and go in a coach to St. Lary, France. We were on a 9-day, 3-stop coach tour, mainly for wild flower enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

12th June<\/p>\n

We set off from our hotel and did the most spectacular walk I had done to date. \u00a0We went from St Lary to Ens past the Lac de la Come to the peak of the climb at 2179m. \u00a0The views of jagged, snow covered peaks, raging rivers and plunging slopes were breathtaking. \u00a0The flowers were pretty and we saw several eagles.<\/p>\n

13th<\/p>\n

Feel a bit jaded but set off never-the-less on a valley walk through fields and meadows of flowers down to the head of a valley where a waterfall plummeted and boiled and two others dribbled down. \u00a0Picnic there.<\/p>\n

14th<\/p>\n

A day spent on the coach south from St Lary through the Bolsa tunnel to Spain. \u00a0Stopping at a medieval village for coffee and for lunch. \u00a0Arriving at La Viella in the rain.<\/p>\n

15th<\/p>\n

Our first day in La Viella. \u00a0We set off on our free Land Rover trip up a valley in the pouring rain and fog. \u00a0We felt we were leaving the weather behind only to realise the rain was turning into snow. \u00a0We were also rather uncertain of our route as the Spanish map was rather poor. \u00a0We were loosing our nerve as first we were in lying snow and then we had trouble finding the path. \u00a0However we did have an escape route down a road. \u00a0We continued up the path across several large patches of lying snow and were finally confronted with a basin with at least 75% of the ground snow covered. \u00a0Visibility was poor and the snow became a blizzard. \u00a0I was excited by the beauty and drama but was easily convinced by Chris to turn back. \u00a0We struggled to get down as the conditions worsened and we became colder and wetter but we managed to find refuge huts to shelter for our lunch and our hitched lift home was from our morning Land Rover driver. We arrived back very satisfied with an exciting day.<\/p>\n

16th<\/p>\n

The weather today was totally different. \u00a0We took a taxi to the Refugio Restasica and had an argument about the bill.The walk through\u00a0a wooded valley up a laid stone path to the dam and Refuge was magnificent. \u00a0After coffee and inspecting the Refuge we met some climbers who warned us about the bad snow conditions ahead – they had walked our walk in reverse. \u00a0And thank goodness they had as we used their footprints as a guide for the rest of the day We followed them over vast snowfields and round a lake in a snow filled valley. \u00a0It was spectacular and exillerating stuff but we were both glad when we commenced the decent. \u00a0This took quite a while and was marred by losing the path and retracing our steps twice but was pleasant enough. \u00a0Getting back was again easy – the second vehicle we hitched stopped. \u00a0We were lated thrilled to find we had walked part of the Haute Route – Restanca to Hostal Veilla.<\/p>\n

18th<\/p>\n

A pleasant enough day on the coach with our happy band of campers, leaving La Viella at 10 and arriving in Andorra at 1630 after stopping for coffee and lunch on the way. \u00a0The hotel was much nicer than the previous one but with a deadpan atmosphere. \u00a0The hotelier and waiters were all gay. \u00a0We had a drink with Martin, Jackie and Tracy and ended up in an awful disco, even having a dance.<\/p>\n

19th<\/p>\n

Our first walk in Andorra. \u00a0We set off in damp conditions up a metalled road through a lot of grot. \u00a0Once we were off the road the charm of the place took over. \u00a0The path was initially well marked but then disappeared and we found ourselves quite lost. \u00a0The map was poor and we had strayed too far east. \u00a0It took us some time to work out exactly where we were and even longer to convince ourselves as we had unexpectedly climbed a peak, Pic de Llops at 2858m. \u00a0Chris was over the moon.<\/p>\n

On the way up we clarified most of our family business which can be summarised as follows:<\/p>\n