Altica Pau

... nothing much new awaits. Meanwhile, the prospect of your own bed begins to appeal...
So, there we are: mission accomplished. Above all, I have to say that I for one am mighty relieved that we have managed without any mishaps. Always a worry, whenever you leave home. There were moments - say, in the hills of deepest Albania - where I did wonder what the hell we would do if we broke down. Fortunately, this wasn't a problem.
Overall highs: without a ...

... the same statuettes and bottles in which to collect your holy water. It was difficult to feel any empathy with the people there when it seems to us to be little more than a huge sales opportunity for the church. Difficult to like but interesting to visit!

Mike could recognize very little of Pau as expected. It seemed a lot bigger, but it was interesting to revisit the were Mike spent a miserable and lonely month all those years ago

... no introduction. After a bit of

souvenir shopping at the top (where there is also a great café with some interesting Tour de

France artefacts), we descend to St Marie De Campan, and from here to our hotel in Campan.

WHAT I EXPERIENCED:

We had just climbed the Col d'Aubisque and I was almost at the bottom of the Col behind my friend, Paul Middlemiss, when the ...

... 169m) and the Col De Pinodieta (176m) before lunch.

The walled town of St Jean Pied de Port offers a perfect lunch stop, and then we cycle on to our first proper climb over the Col D’ Osquich (500m). The sign of the small town of Arudy will no doubt be very welcome at the end of this 180km monster day! We get our Raid carnet stamped twice today – we are well on our way!

WHAT I EXPERIENCED:

So, nearly ready for the off! Thankfully, false alarm about arrival of guests to take over house in absence means we have one more day in which to prepare... much needed!
We will just about get there - I think.
Round about now it occurs to us we really ought to have assembled scooter on trailer and gone for little spin to test strapping arrangement, etc... just to make sure it all holds up. Oh well, the road will be a good test of all that... I guess.

In mezzo a vari racconti, foto e descrizioni di viaggi ed esplorazioni sottomarine mando un pensiero a Laetitia che e' impegnata in un viaggio difficile e doloroso ma anche arricchente per certi aspetti. Come tante persone suo padre Daniel e' malato di cancro. Nel suo caso sono i polmoni. La situazione e' parecchio ...

... de Gargas. Les mains de Gargas are what the caves are most famous for, along with some drawing of animals. It was surreal knowing that what we were seeing was from thousands of years ago. I thought it really cool. Saturday night I went to the French theatre with my four other camarades from litterature francaise of the 16-19th siecles. We saw a play by Molliere that we had studied in class, La Maladie Imaginaire. It was so ...

... who not only wasn't very religious, but who found painting tiresome and laborious in the first place? Anyway, what's probably more interesting to talk about is the student-led strike that is taking place here at the unversity. The students are protesting a recently-passed piece of legislation which will privatize the university. For fear that tuition fees will sky-rocket, the students assembled on campus yesterday to ...

... know. - I met Pujee through Xavier, who answered all my questions on horse travel and helped to choose the horses, before himself leaving for his third solo horseriding journey in Mongolia. Xavier has a truly inspiring way of telling you about his experiences, which he does on ...

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