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Escape To The Mountains, And Celebrations

August 14, 2022 by libertatemamo 18 Comments

Another week of heat, drought and fires in SW France. The ground is so dry now it’s forgotten the taste of water, and the air is so heavy it’s resting on the horizon like a blanket of dust. We see rain clouds almost daily, but like a biblical story they seem to part and move around us every time they approach. They always approach, but they never deliver.

So close, yet so far….

This is the end of it though, or so they say. The last of the canicule before cooling starts, the absolute last day before it’s all over. It won’t exactly be chilly next week, but it’s going to be less than it has, and at this point I consider anything below 32°C (~90°F) a win.

Cool views from up high

We’re all ready for the change, eager to break out of our house-cages and into the outer world. In fact I was going stir-crazy on Monday, so ready to bust out into Hulk-mode-Nina that when our old RV friends @the_scenicroute indicated they were in the area and at higher ground it took all of two seconds to decide to pack up LMB and join them.

Escape!! It turned out to be exactly that, and exactly what we needed!

But that’s not all that happened this week either. A certain handsome gentleman celebrated another orbit around the sun and I took a tumble that sent me to the ER. But hey, that’s all in a weeks adventures in rural SW France, right?

Escape to the mountains, with friends to boot!

Escape, Oh To Escape

Sometimes friends are the only escape we have from ourselves, Atticus

Humans are an odd species sometimes, and I include myself in that description. Despite almost a lifetime of travel and what I’d deem a fairly “free-spirit”, I’m still prone to routine and habit. House-living, as we’ve now done for 4 {{gasp}} years only adds to that inclination. Perhaps it’s the comfort or just the ease of it all, but for whatever reason we don’t get to the Pyrénées mountains nearly as often as we should…..and yet they are right there!

Look at me, I’m wearing a fleece and I’m outside…..hiking!!

So I thank the travel Gods for roving friends, Iain and Kate, who once lived and RV’d in a snazzy airstream back in the USA but decided to move to Europe several years ago and brought their travel bug with them. They now reside officially in Spain, but spend a good portion of their time motorhome traveling and (very recently) vann’ing it in their spankin’ new, snazzy van.

Mountain highs
Sweet-smelling pine

They were already in the Pyrénées when we started texting each other

Cool relief was literally just a hop and a skip away

“It’s beautiful here” they said “and cool”

OOOOOo…..What kind of temps?

“Low 20’s” Kate texted back “with a high of 24”

“Heavenly” I replied “see you tomorrow”

So as our area headed into the absolute hottest week we’ve ever seen, we zoomed off just ~2 hours south to the mountain town of Égat, France into a lovely, shaded campground (Camping Les Clotes) at around 1,800 m (~5,900 ft) of elevation. We arrived to simply perfect weather, unloaded our camping chairs and enjoyed the first comfortable afternoon outside we’ve had in months.

Out hiking
Selfie view from the top

Peace, cool temps, outdoors and friends….what more could you want in life?

This is my new, fav hiking app (no affiliation)

The next few days were just a total chillax session. We hiked in the mountains around camp (literally hundreds of miles of trails in this area, which we explored thanks to the very handy Wikiloc hiking app), drank beer (we even bought some of Paul’s homebrew with us!), ate food and napped/read when the afternoon thunderstorms rolled through (which they did each day). Just a perfect coupla nights away.

Now, why don’t we do this more often? Back to that human thing again, I guess….

Have you ever seen a happier man?
Afternoon thunderstorms!
Cheers!

Then We Baked

We got home just in time for the hottest day of the year, a necessity really as we’d planned a birthday celebration for a certain young man that night, but oh my did we bake. This is the fourth canicule we’ve had this year and the most brutal of all. The heat has been relentless and unforgiving and the ground so dry it seems you could set it alight just by thinking about it.

Active fires in France right now (from https://feuxdeforet.fr/)

The latter has been particularly worrying.

This past week saw another massive blaze start in Gironde (close to the area that was hit last month) just south of Bordeaux with over 8,000 people evacuated and more than 1,000 firemen on the scene. And there are at least 50 other smaller fires active all around the country. Rains came yesterday to that area which helped contain some of the worst, but we’ll need much more water before things calm down again and the firefighters can relax.

We’ve been lucky here, so very lucky (cross fingers, toes and touch all wood).

Despite the heat and drought, the fires have not come close to our location and our air has been free of smoke. Oh, and we still have water….thank goodness. Gotta be grateful for that, and just hope for the weather to change….SOON!

So many dark clouds….never any rain

And We Celebrated

On the very hottest day, the day to beat all records and melt all things, we celebrated Paul’s birthday.

Happy Birthday, my love

This was pre-planned of course, the birthday thing not the whole “doing it in an oven” part, but such is life sometimes. And in these situations you just have to go with the flow.

So as temps peaked to ~40°C (~104°F) we headed out of our air-conditioned house-caves to a local Belgian beer-bar in a small town just 25 mins away. Le Garage is a laid-back spot with a distinctly Route 66 vibe created by a well-known local garagiste (mechanic) as part of his retirement dream some years ago. He’s there every night of course, a large man with a grey beard, a booming voice and an equally big personality, “Living the dream” as my Camino friend Jessica would say. And his bar is awesome, albeit not air-conditioned.

Despite this, over 10 of our local friends braved the sweltering heat to join us, sweating buckets and downing beer into the late hours of the evening until temps dropped blissfully below 30°C.

We chatted about life, fanned ourselves like fainting butterflies and basically just had an awesome time. The whole thing was a deal too, as the bar was closing for Aug vacay the very next day so all the beer barrels had to be empty that night. Two for one all evening, with a few freebies thrown in at the very last hour. A cool end to a very, very hot day.

And once again, friends helped us escape ourselves….

Inside Le Garage, Carbonne
Dad and Paul on a mission for beer

Finally, We Wait

It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re waiting…..

Saturday morning fun….not

Waiting for the end of the canicule (today is supposedly the last day!), waiting for rain that is ever-forecasted (but never seems to come), waiting for what comes next. Oh, and I’m waiting to walk properly again, the result of a rather silly tumble I took a few days after we came back from the mountains.

Another classic Nina tale…

I find it amazing (even to myself) that I can somehow manage to walk 800km across three mountain ranges in Spain without twisting my ankle, yet achieve the near-impossible of twisting it so badly that I have to go to the ER by executing a most spectacular fall just 100m from our house.

How is that even possible?

All I can say is this….one minute I was chatting to the neighbors (very cute) dog and the next I was splayed out on the asphalt in so much pain I didn’t know if I could get up again. A drive to the Urgences, X-Rays and two hours later I came home with an ankle brace, a physio prescription and a stern warning to take it easy for at least two weeks. Twooooo weeeeeeks…..seriously Nina {ugh}!!

So yes, we’re waiting. For the heat to wane, for rain to come and for me to heal. Let’s hope all three things come to pass by next week’s blog.

As soon as I’m healed, I’ll be back hiking in these mountains, oh yes I will

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We LOooVE Comments, So Please Do

  1. Janna says

    August 14, 2022 at 10:50 am

    Glad your trip to the ER was “just” a sprain and that you will be out and about soon. It feels so good to get away to cooler spots, we’ve been ridiculously hot for 5200 feet elevation for about a month now. Yesterday (Saturday) some of those dark clouds which roll through every afternoon finally dumped almost an inch of rain on us and the temps dropped significantly–heavenly bliss! Wishing you cooler temps soon!

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 14, 2022 at 10:54 am

      Yes, I’m very glad nothing broke and it was just a sprain. Can’t drive for at least a week (manual transmission), but hopefully will be back in the saddle, so to speak, soon after that. How nice that you got rain!! Heavenly!

      Nina

      Reply
  2. Sue says

    August 14, 2022 at 11:50 am

    We see those black rain clouds boil up then go right around us here in Spokane, the inner northwest, the place of lakes and rivers and water, right? It’s been hotter here than at home in Wickenburg. So much for making plans and “someone” laughing! A hearty Happy Birthday to dear Paul – and a “phew” to you for not breaking something. I know, though, that a sprain is nothing to laugh about or celebrate, it hurts!

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 14, 2022 at 10:39 pm

      It’s been crazy how hot the weather has gotten in the PNW this year, and across large swathes of the USA. Also, funnily enough we actually looked at AZ weather last week and discovered that our area of SW France was hotter than the desert too! Whoever would have imagined that? Insanity!

      Nina

      Reply
  3. Rick says

    August 14, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    RVs are for snowbirds and sweatbirds to escape to warmer or cooler locations and enjoy being out. Happy that you discovered an easy elevation change can make such a big difference.

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 14, 2022 at 10:40 pm

      We’ve not taken our rig out enough this year. I guess it’s a common part-timers thing, although some RV friends I know are so much better than us at this.

      Nina

      Reply
  4. Sharon Thomson says

    August 14, 2022 at 1:05 pm

    It’s good you got it checked! Give yourself plenty of time to recover. I had a fall last month and hurt my foot. But I didn’t get it checked right away. I kept thinking it would get better but meanwhile I kept reinjuring it by not staying off of it enough. I finally saw the doctor and I’m staying off it more, like I should have at the beginning. I’m working on a post for my blog that I hope I’ll finish soon. Take care of yourself!

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 14, 2022 at 10:36 pm

      Indeed that’s one of the things I have to be careful of….to stay off the foot sufficiently to allow it to heal. Not easy for someone who likes to walk as much as I do, but needs must. Hope your foot heals totally now. I’ll be there with you.

      Nina

      Reply
  5. Chey (WA coast) says

    August 14, 2022 at 1:41 pm

    Happy Birthday Paul! I have thought of you every time the French fires are mentioned. I follow the fires on a map. Be safe, I worry. I adore you both, tho you wouldn’t know it from how often I post I have been following your blog since 2016.

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 14, 2022 at 10:41 pm

      Thanks for the supportive thoughts Chey! Always so nice to know folks are thinking of us all over.

      Nina

      Reply
  6. Sheila says

    August 14, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    Nina, you have such a talent for writing. You should consider writing a novel. I enjoy your descriptive and expressive take on things so much. Happy Birthday to Paul, and sending healing powers to you for a speedy recovery. Give Polly a hug! May the rains decide to dump their healing powers on your area soon.

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 20, 2022 at 11:43 pm

      Thank you Sheila, for the kind words.

      Nina

      Reply
  7. Imkelina Nicolai says

    August 15, 2022 at 7:48 am

    Feliz cumpleaños Paul, And good healing to you Nina.

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 20, 2022 at 11:43 pm

      Paul says thank you!

      Nina

      Reply
  8. Beekeeper says

    August 16, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    When I saw this I thought of you.
    https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220816-why-theres-no-dijon-in-dijon-mustard

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      August 20, 2022 at 11:42 pm

      Yup….it’s a French tragedy…and yet mostly not French.

      Nina

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Immersions & Adaptations – Wheeling It: Tales From a Nomadic Life says:
    August 21, 2022 at 10:44 am

    […] was a boon for controlling the fires that have blasted us recently, but it was a difficult experience for the cities. And likely to become more common as we run […]

    Reply
  2. New Year, New Plans – Wheeling It: Tales From a Nomadic Life says:
    January 15, 2023 at 12:56 pm

    […] all started around 6 months ago when I casually discussed the idea with Kate while we were camping together in the Pyrénées. I wanted to go back on the Camino, but I wanted to do an “easier” one and explore some […]

    Reply

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