Toulouse

Cross the border into Spain at St Beat ( 2 hours? )..... head down into Vielha and turn left towards Salardu. As you enter the village of Arties look for the camp site on the right. Speak to Esther or Luis ( both speak a bit of English ), explain you are a friend of mine ( David Round ) and Luis will show you some pleasant tracks on the map... The village of Montgarri is well worth the trip. A couple of the deserted houses are now restored and the church is all but finished too. The old vicarage is now a manned refuge and sells pretty good cider type stuff!.

You will probably have to wait till the end of March now or the tracks will be too deep with snow for anything other than a set of fondo skis....

David LLAMA 4x4

Thanks, will give them a try if I can

david

I stayed in Argut Dessus this time last year (more or less next door to St Beat). Whilst I wasnt there to off-road if you pick up a 1:25k or 1:50k (iGN do good 1:50k and TOP25 for 1:25k) there are lots of very good tracks around that area. From experiance even the "main road" upto the Lucheon ski-resort is interesting when packed with snow and ice!!

J>

Just a thought but have you a GPS?

If so could you record any routes you find and make them available for download / email ??

I know I am going to that area again next Christmas/New Year so would be useful, I am sure to others also?

Thanks. Jon

Speak to Freddy or Lionel (English no too good) at snipped-for-privacy@wanadoo.fr who runs a hotel at Revel in the Lauragais

- when I was there last June she mentioned lots of off roading offered by a friend in the Montaigne Noire area - north-west of Carcassonne basically. Feel free to mention my name - Dave Jackson. The telno is 05 61 81 73 03 -