http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl The Ramblings of a Daemon Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:26:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-seven-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-seven-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:47:42 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-seven-transhumance/ I’m suddenly feeling rather deflated. Probably no wonder. I am sitting in the train on my way from Ax les Thermes to Toulouse. Nathy left early with Marie-Line and Bastienne then about 11:00 Stéphanie, David, Laura, Françoise, Charlotte, Guillaume, Cécile and Sylvan went with Jean to Ax – Jean then carried on to Toulouse with [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-seven-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-six-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-six-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:47:26 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-six-transhumance/ The last day on the road. A good start with a little sun turned rapidly to more rain and showers after passing the first col It was fairly slow and slippery a lot of the way. Nathy and Athos fell; the ground was so slippery, Athos had no footing. After lunch, it stopped raining but [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-six-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-five-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-five-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:47:08 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-five-transhumance/ Despite being drier this morning, we decided to make the day shorter. We would miss crossing the Plateau de Sault – not in it full winter glory with the snow but probably still worthwhile – and have a late lunch in Puivert. I swapped horses this morning and rode Pilou – the absolute front runner [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-five-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-four-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-four-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:46:44 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-four-transhumance/ What a foul day It has rained almost the whole day – and not just light rain, but heavy “wet” rain that soaks through just about everything. My waterproof thermal boots were full of water at the end of the afternoon. My leather gloves had sopped up all the water they could. And I think [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-four-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-three-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-three-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:46:17 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-three-transhumance/ The weather has thrown everything at us! We left this morning around 10:00 in snow. By the time we got to the top of the Col de Puymorens we had driving hail; visibility was down to a few metres. We were in trot most of the way up and pretty well all of the way [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-three-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-two-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-two-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:45:53 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-two-transhumance/ Surprise, Cécile arrived this morning with Sylvan and Guillaume, Charlotte and Françoise. So, we’re a big party this year. This morning we brought down the horses that we will be riding along with one or two reserves. We then saddled up and went for an hour out along the river towards Porte Puymorens; a little [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-two-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-one-transhumance/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-one-transhumance/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:45:16 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-one-transhumance/ I arrived at Porte Puymorens to be met by… nobody! I decided to wait a short while but after ten minutes decided to begin to walk. It is about 20 minutes and all downhill so it was not too much of a problem. There is snow – a reasonable amount – but in l’Hospitalet près [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/day-one-transhumance/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/nothing-toulouse/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/nothing-toulouse/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:44:19 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/nothing-toulouse/ It is 04:24 and we have just arrived at Toulouse-Matabiau. Another three hours to Porte Puymorens. I felt aware of being awake a lot but the train has emptied itself a little during the night so I think I may even have missed a couple of stops! The train wil be split up here: three [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/nothing-toulouse/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/phew/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/phew/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:44:00 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/phew/ Well, that was slightly nail biting! The Thalys arrived some forty minutes late in Paris; then a Dutch woman and her son had the greatest trouble in getting tickets for the train to Poissy which delayed even more (not her fault, by the way), and then the Metro line 5 takes a good 15 minutes [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/phew/feed/ 0 http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/excitement-before-we-begin/ http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/excitement-before-we-begin/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:43:40 +0000 TimBo http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/excitement-before-we-begin/ So, I’m on my way again. It’s Transhumance time… Everything well planned; train times worked out so that my connections were easy and not rushed. And here I am in Brussels, just two hours travelling time from home and they announce that “due to problems with the catenary, our train is subject to delays, the [...]]]> http://tijgerblog.kobolt.nl/2011/12/24/excitement-before-we-begin/feed/ 0