Stealing Home

My return is cast in stone now. I'm slightly disappointed, as more time here would have been better for me. You spend half a year getting settled into new surroundings, only to have the tide turn in another direction. One aspect of corporate life that is dismal is how one is just shifted around at whim. Working in a small private company is always more work, but is somehow much more rewarding. In a big company, I'm not sure anyone actually understands what is going on, even those who claim to.

After spending some time in Roussillon, I can state that it is a beautiful place. The constant sunshine, the mountains, the history. Climbing up Pic Canigou was a highlight for me. A brutally cold day (for October anyway), with high wind, made the temperature at the summit (~2800 m) below zero. The hike up from a lower valley (Col de Jou 1100 m) was scenic. I started out at around 9 am, and it's quite nice to see the sun lighting up the valleys as it breaks over the mountains. The trek is mostly wooded until about 2100-2200 m when the treeline falls away. Above 2400 m only rocks and peaks can be seen. One of the toughest parts of the trek is when you can see the summit, but you're still kms away slogging up rocky switchbacks. The final approach to the peak is a reasonably technical rock scramble requiring some careful foot and handhold placement. It's quite steep, and I could see why it is not recommended for someone who has vertigo. Once on the summit you feel as if you're on top of the world because the peak is small, and the sides fall away quite steeply. You can see clear to the Med, and the Pyrenee range extends to the north. Getting back down the Chimney was probably more difficult than going up because I was very cold, and the top bit is quite steep and awkward. Once down on the lower exposed rock slope I was able to move at a good pace. My feet were a bit beat up after the trek. In total I hiked for just over 9 hours, with maybe 30 minutes of break time mixed in. I think the total distance was about 24 km -- a long day of hiking. Very worth the trip.

I also spent a very large amount of time winding my way up and down the valley's in my trusty rented Citroen Nemo. Basically this vehicle is a mini delivery van, and handles just as the description implies. I'm quite certain that if I was not a decent driver I would have driven off of one of the high mountain passes I crossed. Far more sketchy than my climb up the Canigou. Far more. The valley's are quite spectacular in the region though. Along the way I stopped to visit several so-called "Cathar" castles. These were used at one point in time to either protect Cathar communities, or as a last stand stronghold prior to extermination at the hands of the Catholic church crusaders. The current batiments are hardly original, most having been reconstructed in the 16th or 17th century, but some of the buildings and lower foundations date to the 12th and 13th centuries. The most impressive facet of the castles is that they're built atop rock promontories high above their valleys. Impressive how this was done. Equally amazing to stand in such a place and imagine what it must have been like to be holed up there.

A final highlight worth mentioning is the Grotte Niaux. Inside this cave, the tour proceeds for 800 m to the Chambre Noir, where 80-90% of the cave paintings in this cave complex are located. The paintings, most of which were made with charcol based paint, show bisons, elk, horses, a donkey. Very impressive, especially in that some of the drawings showed an understanding of perspective, either by representing the figures in 3 dimensions, or by following the curvature of the rock face or fault lines. Entirely remarkable to see paintings from 13000 to 14000 BC.

Returning to my impending return. I have much to do in preparation. I'll need to make a trip back to the homeland to find a place to live. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be covered by the company, which is annoying. They'll put me up for 6 weeks, but will not pay for a trip to search for housing? Weak. Of course I must pack up my life here. This should be quite a bit easier than I would have thought coming here, because I didn't really fully settle in. In a way, once I saw what was going on politically in our group, I figured I had a better than 50% chance of being returned to home after a single year abroad.

Onwards.