First Impressions and Initial Doubts!

The first alarm bells about our choice of gite rang in my head when we discovered that the last three quarters of a mile up to the gite were on a rough, unmade track. It was passable with an 'ordinary' car, but it really needed a vehicle built with off road in mind. I was far from comfortable with the workout the suspension on our Citroen was getting from the approach road. Alarm number two went off when we got to the perimeter fence of the estate where our gite was situated. It seemed that the estate was totally enclosed and had only one electric gate for access. With an eight foot high fence around the rest of it, walking out into the mountains wasn't going to be possible. The third alarm bell went off when we discovered the interior. I'm not going into detail here, but suffice to say it wasn't what we had been lead to expect. Probably the most alarming bell of all was the fact that I spite of what was claimed in the property description, there was no internet connection at all in the house. The owners didn't see this as a problem as we were welcome to go into their house at anytime to use theirs. It wasn't what we had in mind. One of the most important prerequisites for us was to be in touch with our family and to be able to share our experiences by blogging on a regular basis. It's not about being addicted to social media, it's just the way we live now. We use the Internet for so much now and not having that level of access to information feels quite debilitating.

There is absolutely no disputing that the views from the gite were stunning. From the view down the Gorge de Galamus and the layers of mountains disappearing out into the distance, to the snow capped Mont Canigou. Spectacular views. It was the views that carried us through the next three weeks, because the accommodation was somewhat testing, but we were determined that it wouldn't spoil anything and we got on with the things we had come to do. Albeit in a somewhat different fashion to that which we had imagined. It appears that we had booked into a hunting estate. The owners bread wild boar, deer and wild sheep, only to let huntsmen pay for the privilege of bringing their dogs up into the mountain for several hours hunting. Again, I won't go into detail as the more you know, the worse it gets. The perimeter fence was three kilometres from the house and the ground all around. Was churned up by the sanglier (wild boar). If you can imagine what pigs do to the ground, then it's just the same with wild ones. So there was no chance of discovering any wild flowers on our walks around the estate. So the walking had to be from further afield and down the bumpy unmade track.

Sanglier, destroyers of the earth!