Thanks David.
I am a veteran of Ariel road trips now, and I would say that was one of the best, if not the best trip in terms of the roads and scenery, that Ive been on. We also had up to 10 cars at one point. more photos to follow, and Bob Robinson is putting together some GoPro footage.
We had a good mix of roads; Basque Country hills and coast line, Spanish and French Pyrenees passes up in the mountains and foothills as well as driving briefly through Navarra plains. We stayed mainly in small towns or villages, apart from the cities of San Sebastian on the first night and Pamplona on the last night. full list of passes on the original topic here --->
viewtopic.php?f=64&t=18528
My personal favourite passes were;
Puerto de Larrau. N2011 (Spain) to D26 (France)
Col de la Pierre Saint Martin. D132 (France) to NA137 (Spain)
Port de la Bonaigua (C28 in Spain, just east of Vielha)
All of the Tour de France passes on French side (D618, D918, D934)
Top tip, don't do the Tour de France passes on the weekend like we did. Although probably the best roads of the trip, they were somewhat spoilt by the sheer volume of cyclists on the route. I have done it on a previous trip during the week and it was much much better.
The crossings were on Brittany Ferries new ship the Salamanca, from Portsmouth to Bilbao. Smooth sailing over, but a bit rough on the return. The ship was ok, but not as good as some of their older ferries.
All of the hotels were good, some excellent. If anyone wants the routes and hotels let me know. I will do this trip again, in an atom. I was in my Alpine A110, before I get the Atom 4 next year.
