Holibob Adventures

Holibobs is what Bub called it.  It was very exciting.  Until this year our summer holidays were  - very relaxing.  And there were some relaxing bits most definiately.  But it was a very exciting holiday.  Challenges were met and faced!!

The main thing for me was the whole driving up a mountain thing.  Honestly I am terrified of mountains.  At least that is the story in my head.  Perhaps it is growing up in Suffolk,  - so flat and unhilly  - that did it? I have nightmares about falling off mountains.  Being up one, gives  me vertigo and a continuous anxiety that I am going to fall.  So I knew that this house we are staying in was high up..... so I started fretting about it, long before I got there.  

I was nervous driving a left hand drive car, driving in Spain  - from Barcelona to France - anyways.  Let alone driving up a mountain. 

And when I got there, the road was virtually one track and wound up and up.  Not too bad though, it had trees at least.  No Alpine sheer drops! - At least not that I could see!!!  But I was following the Sat Nav and the last mile or so took me up a dirt track, so over grown that the grasses scraped the bottom on the car, up hair pin bends on rocks and stones, no tarmac, just 2 strips of concretem that were buckled up and not quite wide enough for the car.  I kept going, swearing as I turned each corner, each hair pin bend.  But I got there.  Phew!  High high up the side of the valley.  An incredible view, the main route into Spain far in the distance below.  Fort Bellegarde in full view in the distance.   One way in, one way out. 

Or so I thought!   We stayed up the mountain the next day and I began to relax.   Or I began to make friends with the mountain home we had.  I walked the perimeter of the house, I explored the paths up the mountain, I cliimbed the rocks.  I picked up two quartz like stones to ground me.  I drank the water (sprung from the mountain well!) I took off my shoes to feel the engergy of the rocks beneath my feet. 

The day after we were planning a trip to the beach.  (we are staying sharing this amazingly beautiful french house with friends, 2 other families) There is enough room in a van for me and Bub to travel (Hub has gone back to the UK to work post Barcelona btw) and the anxieties came back.  I wasn't sure whether I would prefer to get a lift back down or be in control.  I had horribly imaginings in my head of  - bascially falling off the mountain in all sorts of ways!! I knew it was unlikely, but I could not stop!! I lay awake full of fear and anxiety!! Unable to stop the movies in my head! 

So the next day, at least it was going to happen.  I thought that I would go in the van with my friend driving as she is used to driving in the Alps and has done it before and that I would just hang on and close my eyes and face it.  And of course the whole thing was NOTHING like the movies in my mind.  Turns out my imagination was extremely out there and the reality was easy in comparison.  Not ONLY that, but the route I should have followed was mostly an actual road!!! And had no hairpin bends either.  I had come up the unused back road!! no wonder it was terrifying!!! 

Hilarious really.  

And so there is more to the holiday . Like a hike UP the moutain (beautiful, wild, stunning) and a more hairy trip when my friends husband drove (slow down!!! not so fast!) And getting lost walking back to the out of town car park outside Collioure!  My friends husband and son accidentally going to Spain and not having their paperwork on them when stopped by customs.... wasp stings, grazes, a flat tyre (well nearly) on the way back down the mountain....

As well as exceedinly healthy and delicious food, much wine and belly laughs.  It was a great trip.  At the end, I didn't want to leave, but I guess its good to leave a place feeling like that.  And actually, being back home also feels good.  And its warm still, and by the sea still.  Yes.