The cool of the mountains, Ordino Arcalis, Andorra

Zagan the motorhome is parked among the cool, green mountains of the Andorran ski resort of Ordino Arcalis. The large parking area next to the La Coma chairlift (N42.63142, E1.48509) is at 2220m, and we have finally cooled off. A big thank you to our friends Joanne and Craig at ourbumble who visited this spot a couple of years ago and shared it on their blog (after their garage door snapped off on a mountain pass – ouch).

Our night in the shopping centre car park wasn’t as quiet as we’d hoped. The sound of fireworks set off in the nearby town bounced around the mountains, causing Charlie retreated into a den I had made for him in the passenger footwell. Trembling, he freaked out for a couple of hours. None of us got much sleep, so we decided to spend the following night in the most remote place we could find.

Winding our way through Andorra La Vella (pronounced la vey-ya), the capital, we didn’t see much in the town to inspire us. A shopping mecca of designer branded shops lining the streets, full of duty and tax free goods we didn’t want, so didn’t stop. Jay swung Zagan around more roundabouts than Milton Keynes until we turned west off the main road. Leaving all the mildly frantic traffic behind, within a minute we were on our own climbing up a valley.

I spotted this building on postcards, it’s the largest spa resort in Europe, so there is something in Andorra La Vella that isn’t shopping

I can only guess that most folks come to Andorra for the shopping, driving the main road. This is a real shame as just a few kilometres off the main drag there are pretty stone villages and amazing views. We followed the road (not our satnav which kept trying to get us to turn onto mountain bike tracks) up the valley to the resort of Ordino. Here the flags were out to celebrate the world mountain bike championships which takes place nearby next week. As we drove further, the number of cyclists tackling the ascent grew.

I hope the contestants have slightly bigger bikes

Steep hills have seen the Tour de France come this way a few times

We’d read that Andorra has one of the highest life expediencies in the world and wondered how that could be in a land of cheap booze and cigarettes. However after seeing the number of people out cycling up these hills (everywhere in Andorra is a hill) they must all be super fit and not par-taking of the tax free offerings that attract the tourists.

Up a squiggle of a road that looked like someone trying to get their pen to work on the map, we arrived at the ski lifts. The large parking area was filling up, so we slotted in on the grass verge with a few other motorhomes and drank in the views. This is what motorhome life is all about!

Comedy squiggle of a road

With the air cool enough to leave Charlie in the van, we went for a walk following a well worn path to a view over some lakes with families who were also out enjoying the sunshine.

A nice leisurely walk!

Worth it for the views though

We’re right on the edge of Andorra here, a mere mountain away from France. Instead of slogging our way there (you can if you want to), we headed back down the path and enjoyed tasty burgers made with Andorran beef at the ski centre cafe.

As night fell, the temperature dropped and I put on a jumper. This may sound like an odd thing to tell you about, but after weeks of being constantly sweaty and clammy, when just the thought of putting on a jumper made me shudder, now it was a significant event. I know we’ve gone on about how hot it has been lately which has probably got some of you thinking ‘stop complaining, back here in Britain it’s raining/cold/windy’, but these past few weeks have made us realise how much the weather affects our lifestyle. From our time in France last winter when we ventured up to the ski resorts only to find how utterly unprepared we were for stopping in the snow, to these past few weeks when all plans (such as they were) have had to go out of the window and pretty much lived on campsites (which is not like us). We’ve felt unable to do anything, as it was too hot to leave Charlie, even at night. It looks like in future we need to do a bit more planning and research!

With not a firework to be heard we all had a fantastic night’s sleep up here snuggled under the duvet. The silence was only broken only by the patter of light rain early in the morning which brought with it a wonderful fresh smell.

We’ve decided to stay another day as it is so beautiful here and Charlie has an enormous amount of sleep to catch up on. After a lie in and ahead of his morning nap, he joined us to visit a small stone set of buildings behind the ski life, that were once used for milking sheep and making cheese – the stone path funnelling in the flock to the milking area. Then Jay and I went back down the road to see a huge metal circle of artwork that we spotted on the drive up – L’Anella D’Orino – which was built to celebrate 25 years of the Andorran social security fund.

L’Anella D’Ordino

L’Anella D’Ordino

The temperature here is 22°C, a significant change from the heat we’ve had over the past few weeks. I really don’t want to leave and go back down from the fresh air we’re enjoying, but tomorrow we need to start our journey over towards a stage of the Tour de France, something that has been on my wish list for a long while. Time to pack away the jumper for another few weeks.

Ju x