PHOTOBLOG 9: September 2022
- Rory Dinwoodie
- Oct 16, 2022
- 3 min read
This one is a little late as I was waiting for my film to be developed and have been a bit swept away with the move to London. However, I am excited to share this one as it contains some of the best photos I have taken in a while. The downside is that this blog truly marks the end of summer and brings my 5 months of roaming around Europe to an end. The main focus of this month is on a trip to the Pyrenees with my brother Oli and friend Rob. Enjoy mountains, surf and camping, taken on both 35mm and digital...
PART I: FRANCE
The planning of our Pyrenees trip was all a bit last minute. I hadn't worked out how I was going to get there until about a week before the trip when Rob let slip that he had a spare seat in his van. He had planned to get the ferry across to France and drive down the coast following a similar route to the one I took on my cycle at the start of summer. This seamed like a good plan and avoided taking another flight which I was beginning to feel a bit guilty about. The downside of this plan was that we only had 3 days to make it down France and into Spain where we would be starting our Trek. We did, however, manage a few stops along the way...
After a solid effort of driving from Rob and picking Oli up in Bordeaux, we spent a day in Biarritz before heading over to San Sebastian. Both Biarritz and San Sebastian were highlights of my bike trip and it was great to be back again. There was a weird kind of symmetry to this trip. Retracing the route I had covered a few months before at the start of the summer, I was now taking in the last bits of summer before moving to London and jumping headfirst back into the real world.
PART II: SAN SEBASTIAN
Whilst we all enjoyed our brief experience of France, there was no doubt a different energy across the border in Spain. Perhaps our trip was now finally starting, we were all together and the majority of the driving was done. Or, perhaps thee was something about the cold beers sunset beers on the beach and the delicious pintxos that was a bit more inviting than French motorways...
PART III: PYRENEES
From San Sebastian we headed East to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Torla Ordessa would be our base for the next week or so of trekking. Driving through the North of Spain we were becoming increasingly concerned about how dry it was. We had known that there was severe draught across Europe and had seen some of the wild fires in SW France, but seeing completed dried up lakes and empty rivers was a cause for concern as we intended to be fully self-sufficient in the mountains. However, when we arrived in Torla, we were pleased to see things still relatively green. The first stage was to begin provisioning for our trek.
luckily the view from our campsite was not too shabby and was getting us excited for what was to come.
After provisioning and Oli making over 30 ham sandwiches we headed off into the national park and towards the French border.
After a ver chilly swim in one of the lakes on our route we pitched up camp for our first night and were accompanied by some very inquisitive sheep.
The next morning we woke up with the sunrise and welcomed some warmth as it was surprisingly cold at night. Our second day would see us cross the border into France and climb Petit Vignemale 3032m.
After making it over the summit we had a long trek down the valley to our second camp spot.
On our next day we continued further down the valley before making our way back up and over the border into Spain.
Once over our last bit of uphill we were greater with an amazing lake to swim in. We rested here for a couple of hours before heading back down to base and towards Torla.
After spending a night back at the campsite we had one more day of trekking planned up the Ordessa valley. This was one of the main attractions of the area and we could see why.
After completing the. trek we headed back south towards Barcelona and spent a couple days in the city before returning to the UK, bringing summer to a final end.
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