25/11/2024
" Day 2:
Jake woke up with frozen toes and refueled with the classic camping breakfast of leftover crisps. He was keen to get going and piled the rest of us half asleep into Felicia. We set off for our first pole “maybe impossible”; as its name suggests it was not the friendliest affair. We picked up a friend of Estanis’, Guille, who has knowledge of the area like a sherpa. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain and were optimistic for a one up one down walk in the park. Much to our disappointment, it was a lot more difficult…
We split off into two teams with different trail ideas. It was an obvious opportunity for a Spain vs England rematch. The english, as usual, quite literally fell at the first hurdle. Jake took a tumble and 5 minutes into our hike we were out of water and had a rolled ankle to overcome. The mountain to climb already seemed to have doubled in size. After a bout of altitude induced nausea and some generous pauses from Estanis and Guille, we regrouped and headed for the summit. Two hours in, we reached the summit of the highest ski lift in Spain at 2758m. With high spirits and a rusty ski acquired the way down was a breeze. Felicia couldn’t contain her excitement and w**d herself of her entire coolant reservoir. Rolling in neutral all the way down, we decided we needed lunch.
After showering at Guille’s, we worked out Carbonne, France, was our next campsite. Guille is joining further us on his much more off-road minded motocross bike. Alternating frying our brakes and engine we made good progress across the border to France. In typical French fashion we were greeted with mist, drizzle and the flash of a speeding camera at the boarder. A short recap of the conversation that took place :
Estanis, “Slow down”. Nat looks over without braking, “What’s the limit?” Estanis, “Slow down”. Nat proceeds to lightly tap the breaks as the flash of a hidden camera is forever impinted into our memories. We already had enough to worry about on the Felicia front; it is safe to say the rain and the flash brought us deep into our feelings and not a word was spoken the rest of the drive to Carbonne." — The Three Unwise Men.
