Lac d’Estaing

Excited and nervous for the next leg of our journey that is going to take us to the mountains! 😁😬
The terrain gradually changes and is becoming more hilly as we make our way, suddenly we breach the brow of a hill and there before us in the distance is a huge range of snow capped mountains 🏔️ stretching from east to west in our line of vision. Darren was looking at his phone at the time so didn’t immediately see it until I, calmly as I could, said “look at that!”
He looked up and was clearly shocked “OH MY GOSH” he exclaimed 😂 ( or choice words to that effect)
We needed some supplies so we found a Lidl and right next to it a McDonald’s. Thought we’d see if it’s any better here but no! Still junk.
We were going to go to Lidl together but as we were going in I thought better check if Bliss has settled down in the van okay... checking the camera she was giving it her all... howling like her life depended on it! So Darren had to go back to the van while I did the shopping. Unfortunately I didn’t have a list as I’d left my phone in the van so the shopping took forever. By the time I got back to the van an hour later I was stressed right out and so was Darren because I’d been ages. 😳. A rare mini domestic ensues as we argue about who should do the shopping until the pointlessness’s of it all gives way to the resignation it’ll have to be me. Can you imagine the food choices Darren might make? Octopus with strawberries and gravy anyone? 😂
We continued on our way heading up the mountain, up, up, and up we went getting steeper and winding along narrow roads through tiny hamlets that were barely wider than Ivy. Switch backs and death drops and huge rock faces looming over us all the way up. No barriers, loose rocks waiting to crush (or so it seemed) Already feeling a bit stressed out from the shopping trip this was definitely getting out of our comfort zones, it was all becoming a bit much. Overwhelmed by the adrenaline rush of it all. The views all around us were otherworldly like nothing we’ve ever experienced before so close up, and feeling so responsible for all of our lives I was genuinely quite scared. 😱
I was worried about how Ivy was going to cope with climbing such extreme hills but I needn’t have as she was a real trouper, she did get a little warm but she coped so well with the really steep and long climb.
We reached a small plateau which was going to be our stop for the night and tried to take a deep breath to calm down from all the excitement. We looked at the weather forecast for the night, it was predicting thunderstorms and heavy rain! Uhoh 😟 Thinking about how very exposed Ivy was, and the lack of any phone signal in this remote location we decided that we should move somewhere safer for the night. Yes OK... we chickened out!! 😂
It probably didn’t help that there was literally a huge real life vulture circling above our precarious choice of home for the night.
I’m sure we would probably have been absolutely fine but after having moved down the mountain to lower ground I didn’t regret our decision especially when the stormy weather did finally hit us. Even at this lower altitude and sheltered position the van was buffeted. I don’t think we’d have slept much if we’d been up that mountain in the storm and I’d have had many pairs of pants to wash today had we survived.
At the end of the day, this is all new to us, we’ve lead quite sheltered lives on the sleepy Isle of Wight. I think we can forgive ourselves for bottling out this time while we become acclimatised to this more adventurous way of life xRead more