Mountain Air.

Well, we're back home after a fantastic week in the mountains near Argeles Gazost in the Pyrenees. As usual, we were staying at the  Centre de Vacances ´Vers les Cimes ´ for the Camp des Aînés. We spend the mornings in a Bible study, among other things, and in the afternoons, we set off for a hike in the incomparable scenery of the mountains. The holiday camp is owned by the Protestant Church at Orthez and is used most of the summer by young campers, often in tents, but for many years a camp for the older campers has been organised before the main season starts. The centre is high up in the hills behind Argeles and, as you can see from my header, the high peaks of the Gabizos mountains dominate the site, what a view to see in the morning when I open the door at the end of our corridor to walk the dogs. yes, we did take Jilly and Laika with us, leaving Toffee with our house-sitters, as he is getting a bit elderly to walk in the mountains. The dogs sleep in the car as they are well used to and as this year we have the Berlingo, rather than the much smaller 106, they had more room to stretch out.
   The weather was a bit mixed this year, but it never stopped us walking, though we had to re-arrange the programme some days to take the walk in the morning when a storm was due in the afternoon. We didn't have much actual rain in the day, though. We did have a couple of hairy storms at night.
    And didn't we eat! One of the attractions of the camp are the excellent but volunteer catering staff. If it were possible, I would have put on stones. It was also very pleasant to meet again all the other campers, some of which we have known for years now, together with some new faces who blended in well, a real feeling of a shared community with similar interests.