Saturday 31st May - Friday 20th June 2014
It was time for a change of scenery,my wife Kim, and I drove to Portsmouth,ferried it to St Malo,drove past Rennes,Nantes,Bordeaux and Toulouse.South on the A66 and N20 past Pamiers and Foix,turn right at Tarascon sur Ariege,through a small village called Surba on the Rabat road.A small gite was home for three weeks.Three weeks in the Pyrenees Ariegeoises to photograph all of natures wonders and have the time to enjoy it.
I had done a small amount of research as to what flaura and fauna may be encountered but really i left it to the "no agenda,no target" brigade!I actually envisioned myself driving up to the high passes,the springtime pistes and generally using lots of diesel.What actually happened was that i found more than enough stuff to occupy myself within two river valleys,one of which was where our base was,and the other a short drive round the corner.
I'd always fancied coming to this part of the world due to the lack of literature I could find.The Pyrenees,with the Atlantic Ocean one end,the Mediterranean the other,Northern Spain to the South and Southern France to the North,how could I possibly go wrong.I had no idea where to start and I'd like to thank David M for his trip report from the Eastern Pyrenees for giving the initial guidance of where I might start.His report was from around Ax les Thermes that is on the same road to Andorra just South of here,thanks again David M! That town,Ax les Thermes is also on the banks of the Ariege river into which,both my rivers,that form the area I'm writing about,flow into.
The whole region is named after the Ariege river and is one of eight departments that form the larger region of Midi Pyrenees.With Languedoc covering the Mediterranean side of the mountain range and Aquitaine having the Atlantic side of the mountains.The Spanish/French border roughly goes straight down the middle.
The rivers that formed the valleys I write this account from,the Courbiere and the Sauret, both rise on the Pic Des Trois Seigneurs massif whish rises to 2188 meters(7100ft),and at this time of year still has snow on top,in fact snow was still around above 1800 meters(6000ft)I reckon.
Primarily most of my Entomology interest,up until fairly recently, was around Grasshoppers and Crickets,but now I have moved into Butterflies,I mention this because my identification skills are rubbish with Butterflies!I use the "take bucketloads of photos technique",and work it out later!
So bear with me,this will take time to compile,and please help with identification across Meadow/Heath/Provencal fritillary sort on conundrums!Niobe/High Browns?And those Grizzled skippers! Jeez
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
Overview map of general area Now some pictures of the two valleys from where the majority of this report comes from.
First the Courbiere valley looking West with the Pic de Pioulou and the Pic Des Trois Seigneurs at the top of the valley. Looking East,the big lump centre left is the Roc de Sedour,this shot was taken from just above Rabat below,with the middle village in the distance being Surba,where we stayed.Round the corner in the middle is Tarascon.The photo above was taken from the lower slopes of Roc de sedour. The second valley,the Saurat,runs parallel North with the Courbiere valley and begins the other side of the Roc de Sedour
Looking West towards Col de Port Then looking East from roughly the same point as above doing a 180.If you look carefully centre left where the car is coming up the pass,Roc de Sedour and Calames Roc can just about be made out,maybe to small but the general idea of the terrain is shown. Both the valleys,at river/stream level start at about 500 metres above sea level and end up around 1200 metres before hitting the proper high terrain,with big peaks rising all around.
Please check back every so often,this will take a while,next instalment to follow very soon........
Thanks