Freedom Trail Feedback

It's great when people who have experienced the Pyrenees with Pyrenees Mountain Adventure leave some kind words as a thank you. Much appreciated!

20 Years At Rowlyn

As well as leading successful Freedom Trail treks across the border in the Pyrenees, I started my 20th year of trips to Rowlyn in North Wales. Rowlyn Isa is a cottage on a working hill farm just inside the Snowdonia National Park. It is the base for a week long activities based 'adventure week' offered to all the 13 and 14 year olds from Simon Langton school in Canterbury. There is no running water at the cottage and no electricity!

The cottage gets its name, which means lower whirlpool, from the splashpool situated about 1km away.(see top left photo)

Thanks to all the members of staff and students that have done the trip with me over the years and given me such great memories and taught me so much. I love the week and think it is one of the best things the school offers. It really does help nurture the 'leaders of tomorrow'.

My favourite part of the week? There are so many, but hearing the skylarks in full song in the Eigiau Valley is something I have never tired of.

The top right photo was taken on my very first Rowlyn back in 1993. Some of the people in the photo are still teaching at Simon Langton.

Escape Season 2013

The 2013 Escape Season with Pyrenees Mountain Adventure is well under way  in the Pyrenees with 2 successful crossings already completed along the Freedom Trail. These were rerouted crossings because of the large amount of snow that made the classic route unsafe. Day's 3 and 4 took the trek across the border into Spain via a lower col where there was less snow and gentler terrain than on the classic route.

Well done to the Harwich Hardcore Hikers (23 - 27 June) some of whom had never even camped on a campsite and yet wild camped on the trek. Also well done the Dutch 'DOS' Group (16 - 20 July) who completed the trek in their 60's. 

It is interesting to notice the difference in the amount of snow in the largest photo in each group which was taken on the border.

Ax les Thermes Mountain Film Festival

The 6th Explos Mountain and Adventure film festival is being held in Ax les Thermes 6th - 12th May at the Casino d'Ax.

The best day looks like Thursday 9th May when the films are all about the Pyrenees. I am looking forward to Traversée des Pyrenees about crossing the chain from sea to ocean........on skis! The film about the Dodtour crossing the Pyrenees also looks great.

The Dodtour was completed by Lionel Daudet and involved him walking, paragliding and canoeing around the extremities of France - along the borders with other countries and the coastline.1 year, 5000km and 1000 summits!!

Here are Daudets photos of his journey along the Pyrenees and the French/Spanish border. 

Ibex (Re)Introduction

The Ibex is a large, stocky member of the goat family. The males are bigger than the females (weighing up to 90 kilos) and are recognisable by their impressive curved horns. 

Ibex

The Ibex is represented in ancient Pyrenean cave art.

Ibex cave painting Niaux Cave, Ariege, Eastern Pyrenees

Images of the Ibex can also be found  in the 14th century Book of the Hunt by Gaston Fébus.

Ibex hunt from the Book of the Hunt - Gaston Fébus (15th Century)

To see the animal for real in the Pyrenees in 2013 is impossible. The animal disappeared from the French side of the chain in 1910 and the Spanish side in 2000. This was in large part due to overhunting althought the final animal in the Spanish Ordesa National Park was killed by a falling tree.

A project does exist to reintroduce this magnificent animal. The French want to start with introducing 20 male and female Ibex in the Haute Pyrenees and as many in the Ariege region with a long term aim of 160 releases along the entire chain over the coming years. The French will buy the animals from Spain where breeding populations exist away from the Pyrenees.

The first phase of the reintroduction programme was meant to take place in the spring of 2013 but unfortunately it is taking longer than planned. Things are being held up by the Spanish Agricultural Minister who has failed to sign the agreement and give the official go ahead. The timing of the first releases have been put back to the autumn.

Whereas the reintroduction of the brown bear has divided the population in the Pyrenees, the return of the Ibex is generally well supported. There have been several successful reintroduction in the Pyrenees in the past including the marmot and mouflon.      

Top 10 John Ruskin Quotes

The Spirit of Adventure Foundation 'Pure Adventure' weekend recently took place at Brantwood House. Brantwood is spectacularly located overlooking Coniston Water with views towards Coniston village and the high fells above including The Old Man of Coniston. 

The View Across Coniston Water From Brantwood.

John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) lived at Brantwood House for the last 27 years of his life. Ruskin was a writer, painter, art critic, social reformer and philanthropist. His writing was hugely influential being an inspiration for the first Trade Union leaders, the Arts and Crafts Movement, the founding of the National Trust, and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. His ideas led to improvements in working conditions, housing, health care and the quality of the natural environment.

Ghandi read Ruskin's 'Unto This Last' and it changed his life.  

 " I translated it later into Gujarati entitling it ‘Sarvodaya’ (the welfare of all). I believe that I discovered some of my deepest convictions reflected in this great book of Ruskin and that is why it so captured me and made me transform my life.”
                                 - Mahatma Gandhi 

Many of Ruskin's thoughts on the problems of the Victorian era - like the negative empact of unbridled capitalism, remain current today.

Ruskin Self Portrait

 

1. Modern travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel. 

2. The first test of a truly great man is in his humility.            

3. A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money. 

4. Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.                     

5. When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. 

6. When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

7. Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons. 

8. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. 

9. There is no wealth but life.

10. Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to  imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes. 

11. Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Brantwood House 

Ruskin Library

 

On This Day 10th February 1939

General Franco seals the Spanish/French border in the Eastern Pyrenees to stop the escape of Republican soldiers and sympathisers in the aftermath of the fall of Barcelona.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939 between the Republicans, who were loyal to the established Spanish republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco who had links with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

By late 1938 the Nationalists had the upper hand and they launched an offensive against Republican controlled Catalonia and its capital Barcelona.

Towards the end of January 1939 the Republican forces in Barcelona found themselves out numbered six to one, short of food (according to one estimate the daily ration down to to 100 grams of lentils) and subject to daily bombing raids by the Nationalist air force. The defence of the city was impossible and on 26th January 1939 the troops of General Franco occupied Barcelona.  

Nationalists Troops in Barcelona on 26 January 1939

The fall of Barcelona caused a massive exodus of people away from the encroaching Nationalist army of Franco towards the only safe haven available - France.  They were ill prepared for the wintry conditions and progress was also made hazardous by attacks from Nationalist aircraft. This migration has become known as the Retirada (from the Spanish for 'retreat'.)

Initially the French border remained closed, the French authorities fearing an influx of revolutioary communists. Thousands gathered at border checkpoints - there were no open borders then but armed guards at border crossing points to check papers. 

Refugees Waiting to Enter France at le Perhus

The border was finally opened by the French on 28 January 1939, but only for civilian refugees. Soldiers who had fought with the Republican army had to wait until 5th February to be allowed to enter into France.

It is estimated that from 28th January to 9th February, as many as 500,000 men, woman and children crossed the Pyrenees, eventually passing into France.

Freedom Trails

Some through regular border crossings, like le Perthus, where their entry would have been regulated and recorded, others across high mountain passes where there was no official control of movement. 500,000 leaving behind their homes, the majority of their possessions and their work.

On February 10th, Franco had the border shut reducing the number of refugees fleeing although those determined enough could still pass over the Pyrenees on the harder mountain paths.

Once the refugees had made the difficult journey and crossed the border, things did not immediately improve for the majority. The cold, hunger, uncertainty, fear and death remained. The French government had envisaged an influx of refugees but nothing on such a huge scale and found themselves overwhelmed and unable to cope. The stop gap solution consisted of internment of refugees in 'concentration' camps hastily built on the beaches at places like Argelès and Rivesaltes. Initially mostly barbed-wire enclosures on the sand, without basic shelter, sanitary or cooking facilities. Refugees slept on the sand and had to build the barracks that offered protection from the elements themselves. 

The Camp at Argeles sur Mer

The Camp at Argeles sur Mer

Conditions were very harsh. Lack of shelter, food, sanitation and clean drinking water led to many deaths. Some estimates put the number at 10,000. 

Memorial to Those Refugees Who Died at Argeles sur Mer

Despair and frustration at the conditions and their treatment from the French authorities led some refugees to choose to return to Franco’s New Spain rather than stay in France. For those who remained in exile – some 200,000 – there was the Second World War to deal with. Some  joined the French Resistance to fight the Nazi occupiers.  They hoped to hasten the defeat of Nazi Germany so that the post WWII democracies would overthrow the Franco regime. The Nazis were defeated but Franco remained in power until 1975.

Many foreigners fought in the Spanish Civil War on both the 'left' and 'right'. Laurie Lee, the author ('Cider With Rosie') fought for the Republicans and wrote about his experience in the book 'A Moment of War' (1991). To get to Spain involved crossing the Pyrenees which Lee accomplished in December 1937 during a snowstorm! George Orwell also fought in the war as did Ernest Hemingway.

Laurie Lee 'A Moment of War' (1991)
George Orwell 'Homage to Catalonia'
Museu Memorial de l'Exili, La Junquera. A museum devoted entirely to the Retirada
Robert Capa photographs of the Argelès Internment Camp
Documentary (in French) Many good photographs and footage