Road Tripping to the Pyrenees

[hashman]

I love your road trips.
Thanks for sharing, always enjoy your accounts and photos.

Karl

[hot66]

Tuesday

Only a few days in and we were all starting to feel a tired as these road trips are intense. So it was not ideal to look out the window and see wet tarmac with rain moving in ! Today we were heading north and into the hills aiming to be in Andorra to visit its car museum and then grab some lunch .



Id planned the route to take us on some twists to start with , just off the main roads. We had started with the words .. let’s take it steady in this weather ! …. 5 mins in and as usual we were cracking on and enjoying the road , and all of us learning a bit more about our cars and how far we can push them in these conditons. To be honest this first part of the day was really enjoyable as he headed up to Andorra.







Andorra …. now I think we all had ideas what it would be like, possibly swiss like with nice historic mountain buildings, how wrong could you be !. Driving up to it , the weather came in and it started snowing and as we entered Pas de La casa, My first thoughts were , this looks like Benidorm of the mountains, neon lights , awful buildings and busy. Not pleasant. Probably the largest concentration of petrol stations I’ve ever seen ! We carried on through to Encamp and the car museum .







This museum was actually quite interesting with a varied selection of cars and bikes. Including what was claimed to be a 911R … it did have lots of R details so could have been real .





All was going so well until someone asked the guy behind reception for a restaurant recommendation , which he kindly gave us and said just head up the street a few 10 meters and there is a small place on the right .

Now Andorra has become one of those very memorable places with our group for many reasons, but this restaurant will live with us forever . We firmly believe it was actually his brothers place , and as we entered it was empty apart from the owners son sat in the corner who lets say was friendly, but special. All feeling slightly out of our comfort zones, the owners old wife described to us set menu and wine was offered . Bear in mind this was lunch, wine was declined and various soft drinks ordered apart from one person who ordered a coffee. Now in this establishment, it turns out a coffee before lunch is seriously looked down on , and he was chastised accordingly but off she went to make it . Upon reflection, the order was cancelled and we’ve never seen someone throw their arms up in joy as this much as this lady . Confusion over the menu also entailed but the owner / chef was so enthused about his food he cam out of the kitchen with a fresh cooked version of all ( 3 ) of the dishes he was doing that day . Lets say of the group found this place way out of their comfort zone whist some of the rest of us embraced it. To be fair the food was good and the restaurant started filling up with locals and workers which is always a good sign. 3 courses and 17 euros later we stumbled out ready to get as far away from Andorra as we could .



Having dropped down, the roads dried up a bit and we headed up the stunning N260. Nice fast twisty road where for where we came across our friends on the cape to cape rally.
One car in particular was a TR4A that we all overtook for the 2nd time of the day whilst on route to the mountain road Port de la Bonaigua where once again the weather was still bad.. although we did make a friend of a mountain fox.
















Garys pic :



Quick photo stop and we headed off for the hotel , not before overtaking the TR4a again for the third time that day. Our hotel this night was a grand Paradour over looking the valley, so as we arrived at the hotel . it was bound to happen, teh whole cape to cape rally was also staying there along with our friend in his tr4 . Did have a chat with him and did admit to feeling a bit guilty for ( 10 porsches ) passing him so many times but he took it in jest and his wife actually quite enjoyed the car .





For once, this hotel had good food and in a restaurant with stunning views.

[anglophone1]

Andorra is a dump - at least Benidorm has a beach!!

[Ferdynine11]

Enjoying the read - some nice shots too….. looking forward to the next instalment…..


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[Gary71]

The drive up to Andorra was definitely better than the destination, but still we got to tick another country off the list
The weather went south as we climbed and then the rain hitting the screen had that ‘thick’ look about it which turned quickly to snow

Some benchmark Andorran architecture

Big shout out to Adam who took on the role of shepherd at the back of the pack whilst I nursed the car up the passes.


Things starting to get a bit more interesting…


To all those ‘Never driven in rain’ people…
Ah well they are missing out!




Eventually the weather cleared for some wonderful open roads where I just ignored the noises and decided if it was going to break it would go out in a blaze of glory!


Ian (or possibly Jack) enjoying the climb into the clouds for the group shot.




That evening I made the call to quit whilst I was ahead and drive in the straightest possible line home! Still quite the journey when you are just outside Andorra!

Really sorry to miss the rest of the trip, but I wasn’t enjoying the drive as much as I should with that ticking deep inside my head!!

Again massive thanks to James for arranging the whole thing and Adam for playing Dad at the end.

Awesome adventure and home safe eventually!

[911hillclimber]

Tough decision, but I would have made that miles before, so well done for sticking it out.
Presume you ticked you way home from there?

[Gary71]

Yes, we took the French autoroutes despite the complications of getting recovered off those roads they are super straight and low stress.

We cringed on every one of those big right hand cloverleaf junctions, and of course the U.K. side once off the motorway, but yes made it home ok.

Would it have made the whole trip? Who knows, but looking at the state of the pinion side diff bearing I think I made the right call, particularly when travelling with my son.

[chris68]

Well done getting back in one piece Gary. Empathise with your decision. Would have driven me nuts listening to a mysterious noise that's only getting worse. Many thanks for the pictures and diary .

[Lightweight_911]

.

Looks/sounds like a great trip.

I have similar memories relating to Andorra, although it was a long (~40 yrs !) time ago & I was driving something a lot more sedate (a Renault 4 van). There was a massive queue of traffic in the steep climb up to Andorra with most of the vehicles just stocking up with duty-free alcohol & leaving again ...

.

[hot66]

Wednesday

Today was one I was worried about as the original plans had to be thrown out the window due to one of the passes still being closed ( this is where via Michelin maps are better than google maps as google still showed it open ) . This didn’t matter too much as I had a back up plan, but the route was going to have to be different to the usual. Originally this day had been originally planned around the Col du Tourmalet but unfortunately it was closed due to the weather and didn’t look like it would be open for a couple of weeks .



For Adam , he woke up and decided it would be a good idea to cycle up it instead ( the peak was still accessable by bike ) so off he went ! … this might not have been his best decision !



For the rest of us , usual start time and the morning weather looked good as we watched the cape to cape lot head off before us and then we said our goodbyes to Gary as his car was still making noises ( we thought he should stay and complete the trip and tried to persuade him to carry on ) and he wanted to get home and still had 800 miles in front of him .



So we set off in the direction of the Col du tourmalet , minus 1 car and soon got on some lovely twisties , only to catch up with the cape 2 cape cars again which we despatched as and when we could between corners on the wooded pass we were traveling over. The plan was still to get some elevation today, but as we had plenty of time on our side stopped at a small coffee shop to grab a sandwich and a drink . Funny how our group of cars always led to us meeting new people and lovely girl from New Zealand stopped specially and came over for a chat as she was on her way to London with her boyfriend and was surprised to see UK cars in the neck of the woods.




Coffee’d up, we continued on past the police who had parked up to watch us all, and headed up what we thought was going to be a good pass, …



…but in reality was a road used by all the wagons to get between France and Spain , bit of a disaster this , so onto one of my speciality roads that they all love , a long climb up to a mountain lake on a very bumpy twisty narrow bit of tarmac with the weather closing in the higher up we got.



This was an interesting road but very much rally stage style. Spectacular destination, If only the cafe had been open and it didn’t start snowing again … to the point we all eventually agreed … 1. Let’s get going so we don’t get stuck here .. and 2. At least we’re not riding a bike up the tourmalet !














So on to the next pass, Col d’Aspin which was a fantastic road, smooth fast and twisty.





We weren’t far from our hotel but instead of going the direct route we headed around Lourdes and climbed up Col de Soulor and then took a turn off down the valley which became known as within our group as the death road …. Sharp fast corners, no barriers and massive drops ! A few got the vertigo flutters …. Also didn’t help when you went round a corner to be faced with a herd of goats.





Tonight’s hotel was always a worry. Typical logis, right location but from the photos when I booked looked a bit run down etc , but reviews were good. Driving up to it and its photos were true ! We all thought this was going to be shite…. But as it turned out, although a bit tired, the staff were wonderful and the food was amazing . What a difference it makes when the owners and their staff enjoy you being there and want to look after you. Would stay there again any time . So after an evening of great food, plenty of Richie’s rose , talk of Adam almost dieing on the tourmalet due to exposure and the love of Sienna Miller, the day that was a bit of a mess ended great.

[RobFrost]

Great trip and thanks for the read. I'd love to do this some time.

Sorry about your mechanical woes Gary. At least you have an excuse to do another trip, now.

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[dean1057]

Great photos guys, keep the photos coming. I do love a good road trip.

[hot66]

Thursday

Nothing like waking up and again looking out at a wet car park . This had become the norm. Mixed feelings this morning as although we’d have loved it to be bone dry, maybe the damp roads would just keep us all in check on what we were driving first thing !

Today was a big day and our final full on day of nothing but mountain passes.

Loaded up with a good breakfast, back up the ‘death road’ we drove and back onto the Col du Soulor. Now when planing this route, I knew I wanted to do the Cold du Soulor but for some reason I’d sidelined it as just a normal mountain pass.





How wrong was I, this was a proper narrow, balcony road that would scare a lot of people with its sheer drops and limited barriers / stones . What a wonderful road although being the lead car, I was always aware that all I needed was one rogue car coming the other way to give me a tap off line & it was daily certain death by gravity . I did snap a picture or 2 when there was actually a concrete barrier, the rest of the time I really did have to concentrate ( lets say were were travelling briskly )














A quick stop at the top to regroup and calm down and then onwards through some lovey villages



.. and onto another a climb and then through the spectacular Gorges du Hourat which led to an unexpected dam and lake . The road , the D934 then pointed upwards and we started climbing to the Col Du Pourtalet.



This was again a stunning road that could really be enjoyed . Unfortunately the higher we got the worse the weather got and again we parked up in snowy wet conditions.







Had a brief chat with an english guy travelling Europe in his sprinter van ( he said he could hear us all coming ) . Escaping the rain we dropped back down into Spain and grabbed a coffee and some fuel at the next ski resort we hit .






A constant through this trip was the difference in weather between french side and the spanish side, france always being wet and this time like all the others, as we dropped into Spain the sun came out and the roads dried up. Unfortunately we now had a few miles to cover on relatively busy roads , which in theory was going to be a sit back and cruise .. all until a voice on the radios was heard shouting “bored ! “ and one f ur cars shot off like a rocket past the cars holding us up … of course everyone followed .



Eventually after a pretty intense drive, we were heading back up into the hills to Col du Somport and then back down into a valley road passing the weird Fort du Portalet .



Now waze at this point was showing police a few miles ahead and then when one drove past us all and did a U-turn to follow us an executive decision was made to find somewhere for lunch … and this time it was Jonathon’s turn to choose somewhere.. and what a place he found . Never in the history of restaurants has there been somewhere with more flies ! They had photos pf the big Lebouski on the walls and most of the clientele looked like they were from the movie . They couldn’t make sandwiches but they could make burgers ! To be fair the meal wasn’t bad but some of the lads didn’t really attempt to eat much as they spent the whole time fighting off the flies ! .




Anyway, stomachs sort of full, back in the cars and this final section of roads route was maybe my favourite.

We were heading up the Col de la Pierre St Martin, and what a road and scenery it is . The route up to it was lovely but we had to be on our toes as farmers let their cattle roam freely. The Col de la Pierre St Martin wery different landscape to all the other Cols and reminded me a bit of the Dolomites . The road was a lovely smooth twisty run and again as with all of the passes, traffic free. We hadn’t even reached the hotel but so far today was one of the best mountain driving days we’d had .








We still had a way to go but dropped into an area of Spain thats very lush and mountainous . I’ll have to dig out the info but it’s an area with strong self identity and again some lovely quiet roads. Our stop for the night was a new build hotel in the small historic town of Ochagavia.

[anglophone1]

Good stuff James- we did Soulor and Pourtalet two years = fab!!

[markm]

Probably one of the best trips I have ever done, can’t wait to go again