Time to go home again, unfortunately :( But my trip home wasn’t straightforward – I made a detour for sentimental reasons, to refresh memories from my childhood by visiting the Île d’Oléron.

I don’t think it’s made for this, but it fits perfectly =)

The only piece of highway I drove on the 1500 km of route back home.

Closing in on the atlantic coast.

This is what happens when you give decisive power to navigation software and forget to exclude ferries…

I was lucky though, 5 minutes after I arrived at the ferry it started it’s way across the Garonne.

Finally crossing the Viaduc d’Oléron.

La Brée-les-Bains.

For years we played volleyball tournaments there in the summer. It’s a difficult memory, but somehow it feels sad that this tradition apparently has deteriorated gravely. Though, I even met someone there whom I knew from back then.

Same place, about a decade ago…

Saint-Denis-d’Oléron.

Once upon a time, this place was like a second home to me. Now I felt strangely out of place.

Same place, viewed from opposite directions and a time difference of 15 to 20 years. The lower one is actually a scan from an old film negative.

There used to be a camping site where this marina is located now.

Enjoying the beach for a little while.

Unfortunate vignetting by the polarization filter, even though it’s an extra slim one.

Tourism…

Remains of german occupation, slowly dropping into the sea as the coastline erodes.

Phare de Chassiron.

The initial plan was to stay the night there, enjoy the perseid meteor shower in it’s strongest night. Unfortunately the wind from the sea was so strong that it rocked the tripod, making star shots quite impossible and it also carried with it dense clouds just shortly after the sun vanished.

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Taking cover from the strong (and cool) winds.

Nightfall at the beach.

I missed the ocean, and already I miss it again!

But I left there with the fall of night and drove until I found a small town near Cognac to spend the night.

Next morning, starting early when everything was still blue. Last day.

Still a thousand kilometers ahead.

Sunrise.

And there I was: 12 hours later, back in Germany, back in the rain. That’s it. But it seems there might be more travel on the horizon this year, though not as a vacation.

Planned as another rest day. It wasn’t.

La Mongie. I haven’t done a 100 km tour in years. So my bright (spontaneous) idea was to do one just the day after I was on the Col du Tourmalet. And of course, go up there again, from the other side. Boy did the last bunch of kilometers hurt…

A welcome photo break. My road bike’s transmission isn’t exactly cut out for mountain climbing, requiring a lot of force rather than allowing high cadence. So in the end I needed a few micro breaks of 30 to 45 seconds every once in a while a few kilometers short of the summit, simply because I lacked the power to go on pedaling. Switching the transmission would likely mean switching most of the drivetrain – which could be quite costly. Therefore I’d rather live with the pain ^^

French ski resorts are mostly a great example of horrible architecture…

And there I was: 65 km and and about 2200 meters total ascension, only 35 km to go to return to Argelès-Gazost.

You can’t go too fast anyhow, there might be sheep on the road. Or cattle. Or tourists.

Back home. Not much power left, but happy ^^

Photo backup. I always made a triple backup. A good decision, as I was tired enough to delete my primary photo drive by mistake the day after I returned to Heidelberg…

Blue hour, closing the 10th day.

11th day, the weather coincided with my need for rest.

My last day in Argelès-Gazost. Bye.

Two months ago, this was my plan to refresh my french skills. Still haven’t made it past page 50 :/ But in the end, my french hadn’t degraded as badly as I feared.

Another day, another rainy morning. But fortunately, only the morning was that wet. Since the last day’s images weren’t too many and to great, here’s the next one already…

The sun is coming through.

Anyhow, the descision was made against cycling, in favor of hiking.

The road leading up to the Col de Tourmalet. The first time in 20 years that I went up there by car. From there leads a road/trail up to to the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, at 2877 meters above sea.

A vulture, one of many circling above.

Rocks.

Tourists.

First, flat part of the road.

Shot not with the 105mm, but with the 70-200 extended to 340 with the 1.7 converter.

The target.

Thistles were about the only flowers blooming at that time of the year.

Wait, WTF!? Lamas!?

Sheep, cattle and horses are nothing special there, but Lamas I have never seen before in the region.

Getting closer.

Note the nicely folded rock structures.

Just above the clouds.

Reminded me a little bit of Mont Ventoux. Actually this was the first time I really experienced the reduction of Oxygen in the air (you know, barometric formula…) – not that I haven’t been at these altitudes before, but usually it was while skiing, and there you don’t ascend to that altitude but get comfortably carried up by a lift. This time it made the way up for me (unfit as I was) a lot harder ^^

Last action for my S3 safety boots. They lost their sole that day, due to materiel aging – they had been going since 2002. Going to miss them.

Nearly there.

There.

Brèche du Roland.

Descending.

Hello!

Posing. It’s a shame that they are all spray-painted… at least if they would be full colored ^^

Somehow, the clouds most times move up the Tourmalet from the east side.

West side.

East side.

First venture into night shooting there. More to come.

A little bit of clouds in the morning. I’m afraid you might see these mountains quite often, it’s part of every mornings panorama. It’s nice to crawl out of the tent and see something like this, sometimes in bright sunlight, sometimes hidden by dark clouds. This one isn’t that great of post I must admit, but that happens when you decide to create a post for every single day.

First tour, starting (very) easy.

Lac d’Estaing. I remembered it with a lot less tourists (which I managed to keep out of this picture, well, mostly…)

Playing with Christoph’s 105mm macro lens. It was a little late for many flowers though.

Shooting myself while slacklining.

Rain. Just a bit.

Unloading CF cards.

Canasta. Lost anyways.

Second day. Still on the road, after a short and uncomfortable night I was already moving when the sun rose.

I love driving in the early morning, when the mist is rising…

This fog wouldn’t clear up though. Might have missed some nice landscapes.

Short break in Auch. Beautiful sight.

I was quite lucky with the clouds.

On the road again. Finally, the Pyrénées in sight!

Hello again. In case anybody wondered why there were no new entries during the last weeks – I was on vacation in France, without access to the net but obviously with my camera. Since I had to go about 1400 km, this first day was spent driving. So was half of the second day. Don’t worry though – there’s a lot of boring pictures in this post, but I think the sunset is worth scrolling down ;)

Good weather to leave the country.

Rain.

Rain.

More rain.

Short break, found something in the radio. Still had a good playlist on.

Better weather?

Not exactly.

Short break in Eguisheim.

Extending the short break…

Gas, baguette and cookies. The latter two are favorites of mine ^^

Would have been lost without it.

Oh, rain again!

Sun.

Rain. The benefit was that the regular rain intervals kept the windshield clean.

Dark and looming from one side.

Bright and beautiful from the other side.

Goodbye daylight.

Time to search for a parking spot to spend the night.

Still searching. In the end I stopped past midnight somewhere in no-mans-land.

Hello down there…

Raaawww!

It started raining soon after.

Didn’t have the time to shoot my food lately. But I took the time to bake a quick cake.

Going to town.

Going home.

Finally made it up there again, first time this year. Went up twice, got to train at least a little bit for what’s coming next week.

Gathering data.

Not many new shots, I’ve been sick in bed for the whole last week. Not so nice. But it looks like I’ll be back on my feet in a day or two, finally.

It’s cold outside ^^

My old mobile died after three years of good service. This one seems to fulfill my needs quite well so far.

We had the first snow of this winter today. Wonderful sight: heavy snowfall and sunshine.

First time I took the D5000 out on a cycling tour, 77 km through the Odenwald in mixed weather. The shot above was the sky at the end of the tour, shot from the top of the Königstuhl. There were some rays of sun as well…

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