Andorran pyrenees

This was our trip from May to the Andorran Pyrenees. Andorra itself is a mega hole, one big commercial centre where people go to buy cars, open bank accounts etc because they don't have taxes...
Border security was really tight, we got out of the car to ask somebody to stamp my passport, just because i wanted to have one and maybe it would show i've been travelling a bit but nobody wanted a bar of it- the police told us the checkpoint blokes did it and the checkpoint blokes told us the police did it!! So, no stamp for Clairey...

So we cruised up the mountain and did a shortish walk upto a refuge for the night... we thought we would have it to ourselves but on arriving back from a firewood collecting expedition we found another couple... no worries, there was room... then about, i dunno, 9pm or something, another couple rock up (Catalans tend to get off to a late start with these things..hmmm it's 8pm, let's walk up a mountain!)... they were quite... animated and had lugged up full bottles of rum, vodka and beers... the girl was a bit of a Catalan Shazza i would have to say.. kind of that nasal laugh and calling her boyfriend "cariño" the whole time... Oz equivalent would be 'darl'... you get my drift... so we were quite antisocial, just sitting by the fire, then we went to bed and managed to get to sleep despite Keith and Shazza...

Next morning we headed off early (no sign of life from Shazza or Keith) and drove through the mountains, thinking it was a bit chilly when we came across a temp sign saying it was 3 degrees (see photo of me freezing!).... gradually the weather warmed up and we arrived at the surprise destination... Roman hot baths (natural thermal springs). So excitedly we chucked our togs on and dipped into 40+ degrees of sulphur filled bliss... overlooking the snow capped pyrenees... "Hmmm, the Romans really had the right idea didn't they Marc... why did they get shoved aside"? "Well it's probably all they did... had baths and...group hugs...so they probably didn't get much work done..." good point!

So after an hour or two of pruning up, we headed through the mountains and down through La Garrotxa to Banyoles where we stopped for a wander around the lake. The guy wanted to charge us 10 euros each for a half an hour tinny hire so we chose walking!! By this stage it was 32 degrees so through the course of the day we had experienced a 30 degree increase!!

And so another weekend in the mountains was muchly enjoyed...