4 May

I woke to the noise of the river flowing by. I didn’t realise how loud it was until this morning. I prepared for breakfast and was down just after 8. I had my toast with vegemite and ham. I also had tea and orange juice. Then it was back, pack, write some postcards and then go down and pay. I got some more postcards and stamps (Andorran) and paid for those at the same time. Then, at the car, I had to look up the addresses to send them to, as well as write them.
I headed off to look at the shopping in Andorra. The first problem was to find it, because all the roads lead in different directions and I found myself in a tunnel (when I hadn’t gone through one in Andorra yesterday). Eventually I found myself in a shopping area (the one frequented by Spanish, by the registration plates), but it appeared more like a large supermarket than anything else. I looked at some electrical goods but they were still more expensive (comparatively) than Australia. I got some DVDs, as they were cheaper than I had seen before, but still dearer than Australia.
I asked about postboxes and was told to look for the Post Office. I found that through the SatNav, then had to get there as the one-way streets were different to those programmed in. I did, but then couldn’t park, so had to stand in a bus zone while I rushed out to post a total of fifteen postcards. Most will go to those who don’t have computer access, but some will go to those who I think will get a kick out of getting a postcard form Andorra with an Andorran stamp. I just hope they get posted out as I found there isn’t an Andorran Post Office, but there were Spanish and French ones.
Then I headed out. I filled up with diesel at the €1,038 that I had seen many times yesterday, only to find it €1,00 at the very next service station I saw. Leaving was interesting because of the roadworks and the narrow and one-way (and different at different times lanes) roads, but eventually I was through most of the Andorran towns and into the real Pyrenees. I chose not to go through the tunnel, rather over the passes, to see the Pyrenees with snow. This I did, and it was spectacular. As I came down the other side I found the town there where all the French go to shop – and did they go! Traffic jams everywhere! I got through and then found myself at the French border Customs point. Here there was another traffic jam, but I found out that there was only one girl on and she was pulling over particular cars – I had again got passport, car papers and everything else ready only to have them just sit there.
Then I was in the French Pyrenees National Park, and heading out down a river valley. Whereas coming out of Andorra had been mainly uphill, this was just coasting in third or fourth gear and using little fuel.
The scenery was great, but similar to other mountain scenery. I looked around in the early afternoon for a patisserie but, of course being Sunday afternoon, none were open.
I stopped to look at possible places to overnight and found one I thought would be perfect – and rang, only to find they were booked already. I continued on to a town called St Affrique, and stopped there and read up to find other possibilities. I did, rang, and there was room at the in (well, farmhouse really). I said I would be there at 7:30, and then drove off from where I was stopped only to stop again for about ten minutes as the town had had a festival that day, the centre was blocked off and the police were directing traffic around the centre on what were otherwise one-way streets. Everywhere the SatNav told me to turn was blocked off, so I just headed right out of town and then took directions. I arrived at the farmhouse at 7:25 after an interesting drive up, then down, a narrow road and seeing the Millau viaduct for the first time.
I booked in, had a look at the room, then headed into Millau to look for tea and Internet. This was at Macca’s, so I checked my email and sent a bulk one out. I hadn’t written my blog, of course, nor finished with photos, so I couldn’t send those.
After, I went out to the viewing area under the Millau Viaduct. It is an impressive piece of engineering, and while I took some photos, I hope to get more and better ones tomorrow.
Then it was back to my lodgings. Bad luck struck just 650 metres before I arrived, in the form of a deer, which ran out straight into the front quarter of the car. I stopped up the road and then came back and removed the deer from the road. The car had reinforcing pieces which had twisted, and were scraping on the front wheel, so I pulled them back up and everything seemed okay, so I continued on, unpacked, did my usual things and finally retired for the evening.


One of my correspondents asked about what a SatNav was. I’ll explain that and the difference between a SatNav and a GPS.
A GPS is a device which uses the Global Positioning Satellites to determine position. With a few satellites, the fix gives your position on the earth’s surface (in whichever co-ordinates you specify, but I use degrees, minutes, seconds of latitude and longitude). With more than three satellites, the fix gives your position on the earth’s surface and the altitude. You can use this to map positions or just to mark positions. I use it for marking the car’s place, so I can find it again without having to remember exactly where it was. I also use it when walking, either to backtrack a path or to determine how far I have walked.
A SatNav also is a device which uses the Global Positioning Satellites to determine position, but it has inbuilt maps (either in internal memory or on cards – SIMM, compact flash or SD) which it then uses to show where you are in relation to roads and places. It can then use that to calculate paths to other locations, and display those as directions on a road map on its screen. The directions can be read out to the driver or just appear as written directions. When read out, they allow the driver to follow the instructions to get to the required place, such as an address or a place (such as a tourist bureau or a Mcdonald’s), providing the place is in the memory. It is very useful for navigating freeway interchanges in the US, where at 75 miles per hour you can weave from one freeway, through others, to your final freeway and then to your destination. It’s also very useful for me to find a McDonald’s, see if it has WiFi and so keep in touch.
I chose to get mine in Australia, become familiar with it so I could interpret the instructions as well as program it quickly, then load it with North American (US and Canada) and Western European maps at home and enter in the places I was going to visit. I could also create itineraries for places and get an estimate of the time it would take me to travel in an unfamiliar country (so I found that San Diego to Tucson was the same as Melbourne to Adelaide).

My SatNav is a TomTom One XL and my GPS is a Magellan 200.