Pyrenees - Active Adventure

Peter Royle - Sep 10

 Saturday

Arrive in Barcelona – warmth! sunshine!  Wait in airport for little French man and mini-bus to transport us to Font Remou.  Drive goes past the incredible jagged splendour of Mont Serrat and then up into a series of mountain ranges.  Signs turn from Spanish to French.  Arrive in Font Remou and book into Pic del’ours apartment – really pleasant and comfortable  – and we have a view of mountains.  Simon (Rep) meets us in reception and we walk to local restaurant for pasta carbonara and jugs of wine.  Perfect way to meet other families.

Sunday

We get up at 8.30am ready for minibus to transport us to the Gorges de Caranca.  Brilliant sunny day. Very beautiful walk – and the way round we go with Simon and Mike means we experience the spectacular gorge cut-out walk at the end. Dramatic waterfalls and rock formations.  Pleasant pace, so get to talk to others.  There are four families with kids ranging from 13 to 18 – a good mix.  Have lunch at a picnic spot back at the car park and go over next day’s plans.  Then on to the thermal baths at St Thomas.  We bob about in the pool in the sun, sniffing the sulphurous smells of the (optional) hot spring showers and admire the views.

Monday

The Rafting day – woah! Quite a sizeable mini-bus journey to the River Aude  - along a windy road with overhanging trees and sheer drops - we really felt we were going to the heart of a raging river... and we weren’t wrong! Although it was quite overcast, we got into our thick wetsuits and listened intently to our instructors.  The rafting was exhilarating , with our French instructor training  us to adopt ‘sefti’ positions, so we didn’t fall out - we didn’t - though others did. (My husband was completely confused though, when Lionel told us he would teach us ‘menacing-s’ (many things!).  We had lunch, then got kitted out for the hydro-speeding.  To be honest, nothing prepares you for hanging onto an overblown foam body board with nothing but flippers to traverse down a grade 4 river.  We all started off like so many tadpoles, but as the river picked up speed, we shrieked and bumped along, with Lionel in his canoe and Simon on his hyrdo-speed, steering us. I decided not to do the final drop – and the bus took us to the end of the descent, where we could watch the river, spewing the others out over the rocks, laughing and excited.  We all climbed onto the bus, inelegant in our wetsuits, looking like so many circus performers, but smiling and glowing.

Tuesday

Mountain Biking: Well to be honest, we’d all ridden bikes and probably been off-road.  But nothing prepared us for our demonstration in the car park, where our instructors showed us how to ride completely off the saddle – with our bottoms over the back wheel. What was all that about?!! We soon found out – if you didn’t adopt that posture, you soon fell off!  But what glorious countryside we travelled through.... We had split into two groups – with those who were going to stay on the saddle and those who might want to walk down the steeper slopes, down to the Spanish town of Llivia. The mountains of Font Remou and the Pyrenees rose splendidly around us as we made our descent. The views were incredible – but we were focused on the terrain ahead of us, as we rattled and whooped our way down tracks and roads. When we arrived in the town of Llivia, old winding streets and interesting old buildings whizzed past us.  At the bottom we handed our mud-splattered and slightly battered bikes in and staggered to the trattoria where cold sangria and lunch awaited. Perfect!

Afterwards we were transported back to our apartments – tired and very happy. (Though some of us had acquired interesting bruises falling over handlebars – see attached!)

Wednesday

After hobbling about after yesterday’s falls, was very keen to do today’s activities: High Ropes!  Minibus took us to beautiful forest by lake and we were instructed on high-ropes – French style. We were one of the few families not to have done ‘Go Ape’, but found that the others found this site a challenge!  We had good safety training and then we were off - on a yellow climb.  I had always thought I had no fear of heights, if held on by a harness, but the climbs challenged that. (But also, my husband, who had lost his head for heights (after falling from a ladder), regained his.)  The kids were in another group, happily scrambling like monkeys, while we sweated sweltered, we made our way to the edge of the lake, to have a beer or ice cream, take out a pedalo or canoe, and to relax. Another perfect day!

Thursday

Supposedly the ‘free’ day – but I believe I was the only person to take time off, whilst the others indulged in rock-climbing or more mountain- biking. Another beautiful clear sunny day.  I spend time exploring Font Remou and taking photos of the spectacular mountain scenery.  How lucky the locals are –beautiful countryside in summer – then all that ski-ing in winter! Met up with everyone for evening meal – made good friends over such a short time...

Friday

The climax of the week – canyoning.   A minibus again took us to spectacular mountainous countryside where we met Simon and our guides, who looked scarily fit and bronzed. We donned swimming costumes and trunks, with wetsuits made into knapsacks (lunch, hardhats and harnesses tucked into them) over our shoulders for a spectacularly inelegant walk up into the mountains. I can honestly say I have never walked up a mountain in my swimming costume ever before... We were lucky as the sky was bright blue, the trees and hillsides glowing green and Eric, the French guide, pointed out wildflowers on the way.  After about an hour, we stopped for lunch – and then donned our wetsuits, hard hats and harnesses... After a bit of splashing about to get adjusted to the cold water, we saw our first waterfall, which we were to abseil down before leaping into the torrent of water at the bottom.  Wow! Quite a challenge! We had tears and whoops, angst and exhilaration – but we all did it! After that, following the river down was sheer adventure.  We all had a go at the 5 meter jump – but the 10 meter leap at the end separated the group.  The children probably did it three times each – but the adults looked down, thought too much, breathed heavily and held back.  Only a few of us did the jump – and I am so pleased I did!  I remember at the beginning of the holiday wondering if I would do it. I stood there looking down – now or never. Eric the French guide, assured me I’d jumped OK at the other jumps.  I took the leap – eyes closed, hands holding nose –and next thing, plunged into icy water.  Yess!!! I want to do it again!!

But we had to climb back down to the waiting minibus.  Buoyant and smiling we changed into our clothes for the journey back to Font Remou.  Our last night – how quickly it had all gone.  We met up for a group meal in the same restaurant we met in (accompanied this time by a guitar-wielding Basque singer), sprits high and lots to talk about.  Tomorrow we would head back in the minibus to Barcelona airport.  (When we opened our bottles of water that we carried back and found them compressed, we had a real sense of how atmospherically high we had been.)  And that’s how I felt at the end of the holiday – on a real high! 

Thank you Activities Abroad for such a great family holiday!

We were fortunate enough to go on to the recommended week in Calella del Palafrugell – a much more hot and bustly (Spanish) feel compared  to our week in Font Remou – but a wonderful place to stay – thank you for recommending!

One of our best holidays ever!

Thank You

Janet Royle

The Royle Family

(By the way – did I tell you I won bruise of the week?

I will send you evidence in a separate email!)