Warming up in Les Pirineos

We have had a little "multifunction" display in the Landy for a few years and it has turned out to be very useful. As well as showing the time (not useful) and the voltage (again not useful as other things show it too), it does show the internal and external temperature. If you are careful with sunlight, the external reading is very accurate.

As the weather warms up outside, the Landy cab does too. We drive with the front flaps open which are extremely effective. It doesn't happen often but slow or stationary traffic does cause a major warm-up. Even so it sometimes gets too hot and this was the reading when we were moving at high speed.

So we went into the Pyrenees which after all was the objective for the whole holiday until we arrived at cold and wet Bilbao three weeks ago. There was no time for any proper walking but we still intended to search out a suitable Fallas del Pirineo. An ancestral tradition celebrating the arrival of summer in different parts of Aragon and Catalonia. UNESCO has declared these festivals to be intangible cultural heritage.

After an overnight stay in a campsite where the toilet was emptied and showers taken etc. etc, we spent the day touring and first drove to Benasque, beautifully situated at the southern end of a magnificent valley stretching right up to the border with France.

Walking around the town we happened upon rehearsals for this event taking place in the town. It's just amazing what happens. Why does this tiny place host this kind of event?

We were standing in the doorway when a young girl took her turn at the rehearsal piano and it was staggering to listen to this without any warning!

After that refreshing few minutes we drove to the end of the road and "made a small hike" as they said in Monty Python's sketch, so that, with elevation, we could see some proper mountains.

The Landy is somewhere down there on the road but the green paint makes for a nice camouflage.

Few places in Alpine regions seem to be without these path markers. there are plenty of other but red/white is prominent. I used to think that they marked a specific GR but I don't think that they do - I might be wrong though. I think of them as the AS of my childhood, in the cartoon version of Jules Verne's novel, "Journey to the centre of the earth", Arne Saknussemm's initials were followed in much the same way!

That night we drove to Sahun, close to Benasque, to watch their fire festival. These are held in various mountain villages in the Pyrenees and are part of a Europe-wide (I think) celebration of the Summer Solstice and tied to the feast of St. Juan.

Depending on the traditions of each village, the participants come down from the highest point carrying flaming home-made torches (fallas), drawing shapes in the air with fire, dancing, or lighting a large bonfire in the village square. These rites are passed down through the generations and different villages regard them as symbolising the transition to adulthood, purification or fertility.

As we approached the hamlet we realised that this is a big event with several fields marked out for parking. We walked up to the centre where things were in full swing - except not in the way we intended! There was a full-on Euro-pop style concert underway. It was hilarious and i must say, very well done. What a laugh.