There is a story about a name of a Mitsubishi 4×4-model that did not comply to political correctness in all languages. During a midnight meal with the warden of the hostel we were staying close to two days ago I asked him if the story was true. He confirmed that “Pajero” in Spanish slang means “wanker”. So, I wondered, if this particular model is called Pajero in Spain as well. Yesterday I found out:

I am surrounded by wonderful nature looking at the ocean and keep asking myself this question. I am still convinced that we are heading in the right direction: to Portugal and to a new sustainable life. But are we travelling fast enough?

We started to contact eco villages in Portugal, and they are responding. If we want, we can begin to work on an eco-farm as soon as possible. But instead of going there directly, we let ourselves be distracted by the Pyrenees and the Atlantic ocean. We use our pets as an excuse. They get stressed by long rides with the truck as do we. Even short trips of 100 kilometres can be very stressful in the heat of Spain in summer. We are telling ourselves that we should enjoy the travel because we won’t have one for quite some time. I guess, we have to live with this ambiguity until we will arrive in Portugal – in three weeks or so…

When I see a helicopter manoeuvring closely, I become a little child again that cannot resist to watch. Because of the invention of smartphones I can film it and put it online to share with others.

The Pic de Vallibierna is a 3.067m high summit close to the highest mountain of the Pyrenees, the Pic de Aneto, 3.404m of altitude. In the picture above Pic de Vallibierna is the little white top in the middle. The locals say that at this time of year there is still a lot of snow up there and you need crampons and ice picks to climb it. Yesterday, we went up there Monday-style: using summer boots and taking our dog with us.

Well, actually we didn’t succeed, because we left out the last 200m walk on a very exposed ridge, which you can see in the background of the picture above. Our dog suffers from vertigo ;-).

But the journey is the reward, and we enjoyed the hike and the wonderful views. We left our truck at a parking spot close to a reservoir…

… and left early next morning using the path via the chalet Refugio Cap de Llauset.

From the top we had an excellent view over the highest mountains of the Pyrenees as well as the reservoir, where we could spot our truck with binoculars.

Right now, we are setting up a record for the slowest travel to Portugal. We are on the way for three weeks and we have managed only half the distance. I think we are distracted by the wonderful attractions of France, Andorra and Spain too much…