We left Tournay early today, calling at Carrefour before leaving town. We drove away in weak sunshine – cloudy weather, but dry – and headed off back in the direction from which we had come yesterday. That direction was uphill, the first of many ascents, and we were soon in the lane reserved for "véhicules lents".
Our journey took us along the A64, though we never did arrive in Scarborough…
After a while we exited via the A645 and then joined the N125 and drove up into the Pyrenees and along the upper reaches of La Garonne. We arrived in Spain by 10:30, where La Garonne became the Rio Garona. As we had approached the border we could see blue sky and sun through the pass and it seemed as though Sunny Spain was living up to its reputation.
Indeed, Spain seemed to be sunny as we arrived and we had the briefest of journeys enjoying the views, the sun and the spectacular autumn colours.
The road had become the Spanish N230 and this carried us on to our final destination. We passed through the Vielha tunnel, which bore at its entrance a matrix sign suggesting (according to my limited Spanish) that the far side of the tunnel promised rain. This turned out to be so and we emerged after 5 km of darkness into hill cloud that was precipitating heavily.
The road swooped and swerved its way down from the high point around 1500 metres, passing by dams and reservoirs on its way.
We could see enough to suggest that on a better day, the views would have been magnificent.
Not today, though. The autumn colours were fabulous and I could only imagine what they would be with a little sunshine to make them pop.
The route would have been magnificent in better weather. I particularly enjoyed the flight of thirteen tunnels as we wound our way downhill…
Tonight we are on a purpose-built motorhome aire at a Tourism office at Viacamp. It is busy. I have had the camera out and a Gallery may follow, as soon as we have a hook-up again. This will most likely be when we reach Alcossebre.
So far, it seems that the strategy of turning South has avoided the worst of the stormy weather. We shall have to see what this night brings.
Onward tomorrow. Unsure at this point whether or not to make another stop or to go straight to the coast.
All cats behaving well at this juncture.
Dunno if you would find this worthy of viewing but there is a 6 part mini series called Scarborough written by Derren Litten and staring Jason Manford. Me and ‘er indoors enjoyed it.
I’ll bear it in mind. Netflix? Amazon? We can’t use the BBC iPlayer. Probably can’t watch anything at all whilst roaming, so will ook into it ince we are home – whenever that turns out to be. Love to you and L, and thanks.