map and thesis (part 5)

I am writing this with just 2 days of mapping left to go. Slightly out of synch for what I would have liked to do however, life currently is just a countdown to heading home. For those who are interested in the geological part of this little adventure of mine, it is still confusing. Unfortunately as mentioned in previous blog posts, lots of small forests have grown all over the area completely covering everything. With such low levels of exposure we are near enough guessing what is happening. In the adult world of geology, they would have more equipment to bore down and collect samples, have access to chemical analysis etc but alas, we just have our maps and coloured pencils. Either way, it is almost done and I actually think I will have a decent (first attempt) map to hand in. The hassle now is writing the thesis. My upcoming trip is going to include some typing during flights I think. 

On the social side, we managed to take a day off to visit the historic city of Pamplona. In all honesty, it was much smaller than we thought so also visited the fort town on Jaca, town that can also trace  its routes back to Roman times and is famous for its 16th century fort. 

The Cathedral of Royal Saint Mary, Pamplona

Spain is certainly a beautiful country but one has to wonder sometimes how it manages to function. Despite Pamplona being the capital of Navarre, it was such a quiet place. Bars and cafes were open but when you walk down some of the side streets it just appears deserted. The city is also famous for its bullfighting but this happened a few weeks past and now the very large stadium that hosts the event was closed and didn't offer the chance to look inside. I could not even get a good photo as the outside is surrounded by trees!

Since writing this blog I have not mentioned the fact that I have been driving, a function that none of my family would have thought me capable of. I passed my driving test through the army more than 5 years ago. The course they sent me on in order to get my license was up to two weeks long but with the option to take a test after the first week. Monday to Thursday consisted of meeting our (two of us had to share a car - can not remember the other guy though) very strange driving instructor who really did not seem interested in teaching. We would drive around a bit, do some manoeuvring then swap over and do it all again. My test was on the Friday, I did not feel ready. Upon meeting the driving assessor on the Friday morning I thought we could get this fail over and done with nice and quickly. We drove out of camp, went around some roads and parked on a hill where the assessor instructed me to turn off the engine. He then started to chat to me about my regiment, about his old regiment and his time in Northern Ireland. 15 minutes later I started off again with a hill start, drove in a loop and back into camp where he then assessed my parking (which consisted of me driving straight into the starting point). 11 minors later (unsure where they came from) and I had my pass. Boom! Luckily did not have to drive again....until now.

This would not normally sound very encouraging to most but actually it has been very simple (aided by the car being automatic) and nobody has died of fright from my dangerous driving.

So what is next. Sunday I head to Barcelona for two days of doing no geology at all. Tuesday I fly home and have a few days before heading off on a family camping trip to my fathers favourite place. More on that to come soon I think.

So sum up this post, here is a photo of a really neat little village we saw whilst driving to Pamplona that looks like Rohan from LoTR, it is built on a small hill and everything!

Until next time :)