Our host, Richard Ziemek-Chige (of Polish extraction but five generations of producing wine at his lovely 6 hectares of vineyard) saw us off and we set out down the Vallee d’Ossau towards the mountains. The gas problem niggled at us though and although we went as far down the valley as Arudy, we sought advice and turned for a recommended specialist on Oloron St Marie to no avail. A much better steer came from the proprietor of a camp site there and we retraced our steps all the way to Pau to a splendid store called Agest where the attendant was extremely helpful, we found a new two-way junction which M2 fitted on the spot. Only 15 Euros too! A further bonus from this excellent store was a two-way electrical adaptor which would save us from needing to change the electrical supply plug when we had the wrong connector. Another 18 Euros then made us fully functional and better placed than ever before to continue the journey.
We cheerfully climbed aboard and headed back down the valley again passing some points for the fourth time – but the problem had been solved! We chose a 3 star site on the south side of Laruns next to the gushing Gave where there were only a handful of other campistes. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a warm welcome from la belle mam’selle Stephanie, surely not yet 20, pretty as a picture with amazingly pale blue eyes who furthered our sense of well-being after what we regarded as a triumph of persistence over technology. Power and gas supplies secured we set about enjoying some of our Jurancon and Cahors wine and a tasty concoction of rice and whatever else we could chuck in. This had not been our original plan which was to walk into town to a recommended restaurant. We walked purposely but in typical fashion we turned left instead of right failing to notice the main street about 300m from our turning point. Probably saved us 70 Euros though! We looked forward to a day’s walking on the following day.
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