Went wine tasting and ended up in a puddle

Weather: wasn't us that got washed away but wish we'd shut the skylights before we went out today!
Cauterets

Managed to tear ourselves away from last campsite in the Pays Basque after a final outing to a vineyard.  Unfortunately we chose the hottest, clammiest day of the year and although we took wet wipes to sluice ourselves down after cycling to the village where the owners lived they weren't up to the job.  It was very hard concentrating on what Madame was saying to us as the sweat trickled down our backs and onto the floor!  She very gratiously ignored the fact that our hands were so wet that we could hardly hold onto the glasses we were sipping and sweat was puring down our faces.  But we bought the last 2 bottles of her white wine, which an American living in Paris (huh?) told us was very prized and cautiously cycled home with it in my basket.  Just hope it tastes as good without the added tang of sweat.

Nice project for someone in Basque region, we'll be your first guests!

And the next day we headed further into Pyrenees.  Unfortunately we hadn't paid much attention to someone who had told us how there had been devastating floods in the area in June (too much snow - France! - June!!) but it did become clear as we saw all the debris along the riverside and then the road disappeared and we chugged up some very makeshift tracks.  Even Lourdes was affected so David hasn't got much hope of the miracle he wants happening if they couldn't stop a river flooding.

The town, Cauterets,  we're in is at the end of the road and has obviously taken a battering, but its bustling with tourists and a nice place to spend a few days.

Yesterday did what we thought was quite a gruelling walk up to the snowline (2150m). It was one of those walks where you begin to give up hope of getting to the end and at one point I decided we'd gone beyond the goal and were climbing the highest peak.  But it was worth it for the fabulous views along the way and at the summit - well it wasn;t the summit but it was what we aimed for.  By the end of the day we were very pleased with ourselves as long as we didn't think about the little children who managed to do the same walk.

We've not had wiffy for a couple of days but we'd had to drive out to the lift area for this walk so we re-positioned the van on our return and picked up telly and of course got the news about the baby.  So as the only Brits in camp we thought we'd fly the flag.

It's looking a bit washed out today as we've had the thunder storms currently sweeping across western Europe.  Good excuse to hang a round camp today and luckily they've fixed their wiffy so we can catch up.

Another walk tomorrow and then David is very bravely plunging into the raging torrent on a raft.  (Must check his insurance).