Same Shirt, Different day-2012 Adventures of the "Devonport Wonder Babes"

Saturday 13^th October 2012 Navarennx to Vallee d’Aspe and return

Cooler day today, overcast, about 13 degrees to start the morning. Now T shirt plus lightweight jumper each day though  still managing in cutoff pants and sandals.

Spent morning writing up some blogs and reading, Lynds did a bit of washing. Walk to supermarket for last few fresh things to see us through to Monday morning, yoghurt, milk , different baguette today with hint of wholemeal, bit too chewey rather than crisp on outside and soft inside.

Had tuna and salad lunch about 12.30 pm at cabin and then set off on a last adventure into Pyrenees. We headed south east through Oloron St Marie and then due south through the Vallee D’Aspe and drove nearly to the Col Du Somport on the Spanish border. Had thought about going over border but then realised we didn’t have passports with us and it might be the one occasion that we got stopped.

Quite high in the Vallee near a village called Borce we saw a sign for the “Parc Ours”, which means Bear Park, so of course we headed in that direction and found this small zoo place up on a hillside. We went in and asked the man if they really had bears there and he said “yes 4 bears” and it is a place dedicated to the conservation of bears, specifically  in the two national parks in the Pyrenees, where there is also a small wolf population. He said they spend a lot of time talking to local farmers and shepherds about how they and their  sheep and goats can exist side by side with the bears.

 

 It was €8 entry for seniors and it turned out to be sort of a children’s zoo with quite a few of the animals common to the area just wandering freely e.g goats, sheep, mule, pigs, chooks, all fairly tame  plus some llama in enclosures.

 

 

Then the centrepiece was this quite large enclosure with 4 very large bears in it. The enclosure had smooth curved overhanging walls so they could not climb out plus another deep moat area.

 

 

The 4 bears here at the moment are a 23 year old female born in a zoo in at Grammat in Lot, one 16 year old female born here and one female and one male 2 ½ years born here all fully grown animals weighing maybe 200-300kg.

While we were watching them they were all obviously expecting something to happen, quite a bit of pacing around, standing up on hind legs ( at least 8 feet tall) and climbing up onto a bare tree, frighteningly fast. They must be very attuned to smell or movements of the staff as one woman from the staff  walked by the enclosure and they all ran down the hill at an amazing speed on all four legs.

 

 

 

 

Then the young man we had talked to initially arrived on a little tractor and it turned out to be feeding time.  20% of their diet is meat and the rest mixed raw vegetables. Today they had lots of big carrots, plus cauliflower, tomatoes, watermelon, kiwifruit ( from France not NZ) and grapes. He threw the food all around the enclosure so that after eating the larger pieces they had to forage all around the enclosure looking for individual grapes.

 

 

In two areas of the National Park of the Pyrenees there is a known population of 21 wild bears, all identified and named. 

 

Driving back down the Vallee we went through the village of  Borce again which must get pretty cold in winter judging from the amount of firewood stored. 

 

 

Futher down the road we could see the remains of the fort built into a very steep hillside at very narrow part of the gorge which must have guarded  access to the pass.

 

 Further down near a village called Bourdos where the Vallee widens  we saw a paraglider high  up above the ridge so stopped and watched through the binoculars as 3 of them came down and landed nearby, 2 tandem and one single.

 

 

 

 

Whilst stopped there we saw flock of sheep or goats being driven through a village off to side of the main road

At about 5.30 pm just another few kilometres down the road we came upon another larger flock of goats being driven down the main road through a village called Sarrance. There was a shepherd in Basque beret etc plus about 10 other people in HiVis vests, 2 dogs and a lead car and following car with flashing lights on roof.

 

 

 

NB At the bear place they had Basque berets for sale plus brochures on the Musee du Beret which is situated in Nay a village between Pau and Lourdes. See www.museeduberet.com

Closer to Navarrenx we came across the half cut fields of maize and  tractors and trailers full of maize again.

 

Off to Auberge de Bois again tonight for dinner together with Anne, sister of Wendy the campground owner, who is here with her little Toyota camper to mind the place while Wendy and Richard go off to Spain next week for a well deserved break.

Bernadette was peeling vast quantities of potatoes when we arrived with gloves on. Dinner tonight was fish for first course, cheese, omlette for Anne and pork chops for us, dessert was choux pastry circle  filled with coffee mousse, jug of hot coffee plus litre bottle of red wine. All for 10 Euro !!