Apologies for the absence from finishing the next installment, it takes a fair bit of time sorting and editing videos, pictures and writing it all up, its been pretty busy work wise and another holiday squeezed in as well, a Bookatrack iberian adventure, 3 trackdays in a week in Spain & Portugal. ....
Day 5 the plan was to head into France via the Bielsa tunnel just a few miles up the road from the Parador, then down into the foothills and then into the passes and cols of the french side as we worked our way back easterly across the Pic du midi then south back into Spain towards the next nights stop at Sos Del Rey Catolico. The roads we followed were:
Leaving the valley of the Parador, onto the A138 North into France.
From the border the D173 south to Arreau - another lovely mountain road, pretty well surfaced, medium speed winding through some lovely countryside and small towns and villages as it got lower and we reached the lower valleys and plains.
From Arreau the D918, which snakes back into the mountains part of the tour de France route, not far from Arreua you hit the first of the famous cols, the Col D'Aspin.
This was about 12 km of switchbacks and hairpins with some wider corners, pretty narrow in places, that winds up over the first pass and then back down, with the obligatory amazing views everywhere as the sun beat down from a clear blue sky....It then doubled back up into the mountains for the Col De Tourmalet. These are ski towns in the winter with lifts and chalets but in the summer, its cyclists and fellow driving enthusiast who fill the roads. 2 weeks before the tour de France, the roads were busy with cyclists pounding up the mountain, many of them over our age and going like the clappers, amazing.....unlike in England we did not seem to get held up unduly and the car was in its element snarling up and down the gearbox and attacking the corners gleefully. It was pretty hard work, so we stopped to admire the view and have a coffee in Tourmalet.
I had come this way on the motorbikes around 14 years previously and it was just as good then.
From Tourmalet, more of the D918 and another col as we headed up again to the Col D'Aubisque... yet more staggering views, however, here, we hit some low cloud right up high and the road became quite scary at times, with some sheer drops and lots of places with no barriers to the valley floor several hundred feet below. If you got it wrong here, it would be messy for sure......
So I knocked it back a few notches and took it a little easier. We headed down towards laruns then picked up the D934 south back towards Spain. This was a really lovely bit of fast road sweeping up the mountain, through avalanche shelters with colunnaded sides, the exhaust booming off the walls the out into the sunshine again as we raced upwards.
This turns into the A-136 at the border and runs due south to pick up the N 260 in the foothills of the Pyrenees, from which it was a shortish drive to Jaca and then back along the N 240 in the opposite direction we had come a few days earlier and interesting to drive the other way.
We had a bit of an "interesting" end to the days driving when I decided to turn off the main road and cut across country towards Sos Del Rey on the A -1601. The road started off great, with approx 5K of freshly laid tarmac then abruptly became extremely bumpy, in fact so bumpy, I could only drive at approx 15mph maximum. We kept thinking we would come to another section of well paved road, but oh no.....on and on it went, and it really was completely deserted and really lovely, with some great countryside. We passed an amazing old abandoned castle where we stopped for a rest and some pictures.
Then pressed on towards Sos Del Rey. After approx 45 minutes of this, we came out on a decent road and could see Sos on top of the hill not far away. It was a relief to pull in to the car park in front of the Parador and check in, after a long hard day of driving.
We washed and got changed and headed out for a well deserved cold beer and a walk around the lovely old town, perched on top of the hill overlooking the surrounding plains, it had some great views. We ate in the Parador that evening, tomorrow we were headed North again back into the mountains.