Vall d'Aran to Andorra

Post by **Ollie** » 22 Aug 2008, 12:50

Here is some pics from our(Jake, Ollie and Co) Pyrenees trip in June. A lot of steep climbs, followed by steep decents, fantastic sceeneries, some really beautiful wild camping spots(4wd needed to get there), and a lot of local cheese and beer... A region to go back to. There is so many more lanes to do...

Ollie

[IMG4]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... velle2.jpg[/img]

Post by **Gunslinger** » 22 Aug 2008, 12:58

Got back last week from a holiday near Perpignan where we ventured into the Pyrenees and Andorra. Sadly didnt go in the van but we have earmarked it for a future visit. It was truly beautiful, stunning scenery and the cheapest duty free's I have ever come across.

Post by **syncroand101** » 22 Aug 2008, 13:06

Aye, agree with all above, a few more pics...

Post by **HarryMann** » 23 Aug 2008, 11:25

Lovely colour in all those photos - you obviously had better light than us

That's where campers score... much better for impromptu stops and a quick lunch, but we did a bit of that, tea and sarnis in some nice spots. My tarp was starting to get on my wick at times!

Post by **HarryMann** » 25 Aug 2008, 09:55

Just to give a flavour of the tracks and the scenery after an hour or so of climbing....

PS These are big video files so will take a minuteor so to load..

34 Mb driving up to 8,000 ft

100Mb driving about an hour or two before the vid above

Lower res. versions of above...

8 Mb driving up to 8,000 ft

23Mb driving about an hour or two before the vid above

The white flickers in front of the screen are butterfiles, lower down the track between the trees there were literally thousands, swarming like bees all around us, never seen such a sight before... there were several butterfly museums in the region.

Post by **Andy syncro-nutz** » 25 Aug 2008, 22:24

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14602120@N03/2753134066/

Seems all a bit tame now! Still had a great time!

Post by **jed the spread** » 26 Aug 2008, 20:00

Clive, were did you kip on your jaunt ?

jed

Post by **JustSharon** » 26 Aug 2008, 20:53

Well, Jed. Generally we slept in our tents.

Seriously though. We didn't sleepy spot anywhere but there were spots where we could of. It would of been ideal in a camper but then as we went in the Dokas fully loaded it wasn't that easy.

Jenny and I will post the routes and places where we stopped - once we've recovered.

Post by **jed the spread** » 26 Aug 2008, 21:33

Actually i did mean were did you kip. Tents it was then

jed

Post by **HarryMann** » 26 Aug 2008, 23:36

Yup, thought you meant that what with the Dokas...

Typically with the Khyams, it was not the tents so much as filling them with the gear... but have to say we've all been a bit phased since getting back, after all we don't have to put up a tent almost every night and take it back down in the morning !

Minimum of an hour from stopping to fully functional tent, cooker, fridge, bed, table, chairs. Bit longer in the mornings... maybe another half hour and we broke camp with wet tents more than once, but lucky not to be in pouring rain.

Think we did three B&B's in France, cheapest 34 Euros for us. 4 campsites in Spain and Andorra and 2 in France + Simon TMT's on way down, Simon's being the cheapest campsite

Post by **syncroand101** » 27 Aug 2008, 06:11

HarryMann wrote: Minimum of an hour from stopping to fully functional tent, cooker, fridge, bed, table, chairs..

I love my Westy...

Post by **HarryMann** » 27 Aug 2008, 10:02

I love my Westy...

Mmmm. Your pictures demonstrate that so well...

We would have loved to have had a more leisurely routine and not be aiming at a campsite every night!

Some of those spots up there took our breath away, particularly the ones up above the butterflies from Castelbo

6 Mb Driving up to an ideal sleepy/picnic spot

Post by **PC52** » 28 Aug 2008, 21:41

Yep, westy would of been good, and will be next time - no doubt about that.
So after 2500 miles from leaving CJ's weekend the damage sustained was
1 broken wing mirror from smash and run incident after we had finished the off road part of the holiday!

One not working rev counter - on mine before we arrived at Simon's.

Oh and the bank balance isn't too damaged either

Now we've settled down, we've been able to look through some of the photos and film.

a little clip more to follow.

Website · Post by **syncrosimon** » 01 Sep 2008, 10:18

Just got windows media player working at last, so viewed the vids for the first time this morning!!, but still wont play the high res video. That looks like a fantastic trip, would love some info on the routes. I think our 2.1 DJ will be well up-to the job, you have to be going up some steep hill before you are ever flat out in G gear. Played at 8000ft in the V8 Rangey, who towed a 1.5 ton Caravan into Andorra up and over the pass, not through the tunnel, never noticed a lack of power though.

Jenny, did you use your laptop for the routes on the mountains, did you get digital maps for that area?? Was it giving you the altitude. Seems the way to go, using the laptop for route planning, as the Tom Tom's et al have such a small screen you can only see where you are, and not where you are going and have been to any great extent.

Post by **JennyTyger** » 01 Sep 2008, 22:35

Simon we used Memory Map on our laptops, following routes from a book that Jake lent us. Jake had already plotted all the grid references for the route and sent me an overlay for Memory Map which we followed. I will PM you details of the book we used.

I also downloaded some maps of the Pyrenees and Andorra from the internet, which we were able to view in Memory Map. Just as well as none of the tracks showed up on the road atlas!