At 1.00pm as if on cue, the sky began to clear, just in time for us to hit the road into the Pyrenees.
Up and up to over 1250m at Col de Port, the pass on the road between Tarascon sur Ariege and St. Girons. Our first taste of the Pyrenees is awesome and Jenelle is bouncing around the car trying to get photos out of the windows.
Up here the air is cool, there is a faint smell of cattle in the air and then there is the incessant rattle of clunky cow bells. This herd has been happily wandering up and down the road and even camping on it if the cow pats are anything to go by.
The hills around here are steep. This fence goes straight up to the top of this mountain which is 400m higher than where we are parked at Col de Port.
The view from up there is apparently amazing but we give it a miss. We did see a couple, with backpacks, marching up the zigzag path that leads to the top of this mountain in the half hour or so we had lunch.Even the yards at the pass are built on a steep slope.
We see quite a few cyclists riding up and over the mountain road.
One wise couple and their young daughter were brought by bike hire company to the top of the pass and they then coasted back down. The mum gave the brakes a good test out before they began their decent; as you would. Most of the road has no guard rails. The sides of the road are marked with long poles (green tipped on the left, red tipped on the right) which we find out later is to guide people when the road is covered with snow.
As we wind our way down to St Girons we follow along beside mountain streams that are gently babbling now but must be a fair torrent when the snow melts in spring.
Far off on a distant mountainside we catch a glimpse of the final remnants of last winter's snow.
St Girons village has a picturesque centre that is surrounded by pretty run down buildings and derelict factories.
Back on flat ground again. Every patch of grass that is not almost vertical has been mown and baled into huge round bales. Sheds are stuffed full of bales.
Jenelle wants to know where are all the animals that will eat all this hay? We see very few herds of cattle in the fields. Apparently at this time of year most of the cattle, sheep and goats are in the high country grazing. They are brought back down towards the end of autumn to spend the winter in barns chewing their way through a mountain of hay bales.
Along the road side we see a church with chapels going up the hillside behind marking the stations of the cross.
On top of the hill is a statue of Jesus.
We stop to take photos of the entrance to this huge cave called the “Grotte du Mas-d A'zil”; not knowing that the road we are following is about to drive right though it.
The 500m long tunnel is about 20m in diameter. It was scoured out through the mountain by the River A'rize. Very convenient for the road builders, but devastating for the archaeology of the cave system., much of the caves leading off the central tunnel cave have been sealed up to protect them from the road traffic pollution. Exciting to drive through though.
The final stage of our trip took us though the rolling hills around Pamier. As you can see they farm up and over anything that is not classed as mountain.
