The Dolomites

The Dolomites were amazing. Arguably more spectacular than the Pyrenees, and that's really saying something.

We took 5 trains in a day, starting at 9am and finishing at 7:30pm, and got to the beautiful city of Bolzano. We randomly met this dude called Tim and his American friends who were road riders who'd just been riding in the Dolomites, and Tim gave us lots of info and a great map of the area. It was the best advice we'd got this whole trip, and we were very thankful for it as it made the planning and riding a whole lot easier! Thanks Tim!

Jen and Tim in Bolzano

After a morning doing jobs, we set off in 30 degree heat up a pass, 1700m or so high, and realised after 3 or 4 hours of climbing, that Bolzano was probably quite a bit lower than that. Like, 1500m lower. It was a long gruelling climb in the heat, but we made it 70km later to Canazei, a small ski-village at the base of the Sella Mountain group where we camped for 2 nights.

Our beautiful campsite near Canazei. This is the view from our tent. Not bad.

The next day we did what is known as the Sella Circuit, which goes around the Sella Massif. It involves about 65km of riding and 4 big passes. So we left all our gear in our tent (hoorah!) and then set out for a great day.

Jen on the Sella Circuit. Notice the lack of gear, though our bikes still weighed about twice as much as the superlight, sub 7kg road bikes everyone else was taking on the circuit.

After the 4th pass, we were happy to go downhill. Here's Jen fanging down.

The next day was massive; 2 big passes, the 2nd involving a 1000m plus of vertical ascent, with gear on. This was on top of the last two days which were both bigger than we expected. Anyway, 80km later we arrived in Cortina.

I can't remember when this was taken, but it was in the Dolomites, and it's cool.

After that was a short day to Aurunzo (only one pass in 35 degree heat), where we had a much needed rest day.

A few days later, and we're in Slovenia! That was via Austria and the 18% Wurzenpass. Brilliant.

The Cinque Terre

We caught a train from eastern Italy to the Cinque Terre. This is a national park in Italy consisting of 5 little villages on the rugged coast, only accessible for by train or on foot by punters like us. We found it was full of Americans, and not much else. But it was beautiful nonetheless.

We managed to find a lovely apartment for 50 euro a night, and stayed 2 nights there, meaning we had a full day to explore the place. We spent that day walking along thtough 4 of the 5 villages, and caught the train back to Riomaggiore, the village we were staying in.

Riomaggiore.

The last town we visited, something beginning with V.

Pretty stunning, hey?

The Coast

After the Gorges du Verdon, we headed to the Cote d'Azzure, the southern coast of France. It was nice flat fast riding for a change, but the traffic was horrendous.

Riding along the Cote d'Azzure.

We got to just outside Cannes, and then caught a train to Nice and stayed a night there.

Fountain in Nice.

Then we headed east, up Col d'Easo, and into Monaco. We didn't go into the main part of town, but it was pretty crazy. Saw one Ferrari.

Crossing the border into Italy was cool, but then the traffic got ridiculous. So we camped it as soon as we saw a camping ground. Phew.

Italy!

The Gorges du Verdon

So the Grand Canyon of Europe was pretty cool.

We got to Manosque alright, after a bit of an epic train/bus/train ride. Then we left Manosque and Jen suddenly had 4 broken spokes. So we stayed another night in Manosque.

3 days later we'd finished riding the Verdon Gorge, and it was absolutely stunning. Here are some pics:

Nice campsite at the mouth of the Verdon Gorge.

The stunning Verdon Gorge.

Jen emerging from the tunnel, Verdon Gorge.

More photos here.

The Long Bit

This is a very long version, if you're absolutely and utterly bored, even then, don't read this dribble. I'll do a summary above.

Tuesday, 3rd of June
Foix to Tarascon-sur-Ariege, 18km. Then train to Ax-Les-Thermes.

It was 18km to Tarascon on quiet roads, but after that we would've had to join a major highway to get any further, so we took the train instead. The other option would've been to ride along a quiet road that would take us up the Col du Chiola, but that would've taken all day and we wouldn't be there in time to meet Rosie.

So the easy option was to catch the train, which was actually a very pleasant ride with many limestone cliffs to gawk at on the way.

Rosie had been up since 4am or something ridiculous and had caught the bus from York to Leeds and then the plane from Leeds to Toulouse, and then had to wait 3-4 hours for the train to take her to Ax-Les-Thermes. (Having just finished working a week of nights.) She arrived at 15:43 and we then decided to stay in an apartment in the town centre for a touch over 50 euros a night between the 3 of us. It was cool cos it had a kitchen and fridge.

We tried the first of many hot chocolates at the awesome cafe which had a menu with about 15 different types and a hundred types of tea. It played Norah Jones every second of every day without fail.

Wednesday, 4th of June
Long walk up and around Ax-Les-Thermes, to the Roc de Quercourt (1820m)

Today we went for a long walk up, and up, and up. We followed a walk in this guidebook that we'd bought from the helpful tourist office. We left at around 11am and had lunch at the Refuge de Chiola (a small cabin you can stay in that also sells coffee and food). From there we cruised up and down the Roc de Quercourt and then headed back into town. We were back by around 8pm and were absolutely knackered.

The walk itself wasn't particularly inspiring; there was some lovely beech forest and good views.
Walking tracks are pretty well marked in France with red and yellow lines.

Luckily Ax-Les-Thermes (Ax comes from Aqs = aqua, and Thermes meaning thermal I suppose) has some of the hottest thermal springs around, and we got to dip our feet in the free public thermal pool (called something like Basin du Lepre or Basins of the Lepers) in the town square. A good way to finish the day.


Thursday, 5th of June
Walk up the Dent d'Orlu (2222m)

On our walk yesterday we noticed an awesome piece of rock jutting out from what was mostly grassy hills - we found out later it was the Dent d'Orlu - the Tooth of Orlu (Ax is situated in the Orlu valley).

The walk was about 15-20km away from town so we found a taxi to take us out...unfortunately she took us halfway but refused to go any further (the road became gravel).
So we started what we thought would be a long hike up to the start of the walk....the road was deserted so we didn't like our chance of hitching. We did wave one guy down in a ute but his comment was "You are on holidays? Then you have to walk.)

Shortly after he disappeared some girls in a van passed who were happy to throw us in the back. They were headed to the same walk.

So anyway we started on the walk. It was a beautiful walk...Straight up the peak...(Well most of it was straight up...except for the bit where we got lost for an hour after following 3 large arrows painted on a tree...fortunately we hadn't got too far before we realised we weren't going very far up.)...So the track got steeper. Great views of snow clad mountains. Passed pockets of snow. Then just before the last steep pinch Rosie spotted about 4 marmots wrestling and playing. So we watched them for a bit which was cool...then headed up. We got to the top just in time for a glimpse of a view before cloud closed in around us. (Fortunately we'd had good views going up.) Then headed back down.

Friday, 6th of June
Pottering, wolf park.
This day we pottered about, had a nice big breakfast (how good is French bread)...
then decided to head the 9km out to wolf park.


Saturday, 7th of June
Col du Pailheres (2001m)
We said goodbye to Rosie late that morning. Rosie, it was so cool to hang out with you for those few days… thanks so much for coming all that way to see us! We love you to bits.

At about 12:30 we headed off over the Col du Pailheres, about a 20km up, the last 5km or so of which were all 9.5%. Beautiful climb though, again up past snow and great mountains. The last 500m or so were up a single lane road....When we got to the top it was cold and windy but a small hut gave us shelter so we could eat lunch!

Then we set off for a spectacular descent. About the first 8km or so were all single lane, tight steep switchback. Famous names on the roads. This is must be one of the bits of the Tour where crowd is all packed tight in around the riders on the narrow road. Passed lots of riders who were on they're way up, all with a friendly 'bonjour' and happy that we were over the painful bit and now gliding downhill!

There was a bit more up before we got into the tiny town of Escouloubre where we managed to find a Gite which let us camp and use their hot showers for a princely sum of 3 euro.

Sunday, 8th of June.
Col du Garavel, Col du Jau (1506m)
Sundays are difficult in regional France. It is a challenge to find anything open! Because we stayed in such a small town the night before, we had breakfast with us but not heaps of supplies.
The first Col wasn't too bad. Then we headed up Col du Jau which became reasonably hard work. With about 6km to go we met some Aussies who were just letting their dodgy campervan they'd bought from Poland cool off (it was having trouble hacking the steep gradient!) and had a brief chat to them; they asked us how far it was to the top which we first thought a strange question given they were in a car... but the poor thing really was struggling.

They overtook us shortly afterwards, and we continued to the top which took us another hour or so. When we got there we were surprised to see the same people in their campervan at the top, waiting for us! They asked if we wanted a coffee, and boy, that was an invitation we couldn't refuse. We were starving, exhausted, and thirsty and had virtually run out of snacks. We could've cooked up some onion and pasta but that was about it.

Into the warm campervan we went, a welcome shelter from the cold wind blowing over the top. Instant coffee with milk and sugar never tasted so good; they offered us some biscuits and we hoed into them stat. They even insisted on giving us some oranges and biscuits to take with us. What absolute legends. So to Col, George, and Maureen from Queensland, thanks so much! You guys are champions!

The descent down the Col du Jau was fantastic; quite straight and lots of beautiful villages. On the other side of the col the sun was shining and there was nothing but blue sky. A beautiful snow-capped peak was visible in the distance.

We got into Prades at about 3pm, and like usual, all the restaurants had stopped serving food and there were no supermarkets or bakeries open whatsoever. Gotta love those Sunday afternoons. We made do with the rest of the biscuits that Col, George and Maureen had given us and had a coffee and coke. It was a beautiful afternoon, and the municipal camping ground was very close to town. After we set up camp and had long showers, we took a stroll about town and then smashed some dinner at a Vietnamese joint.

Monday 9th of June
Prades to Perpignon, 90km, 4 cols.

We bit the bullet and legged it to the coast. 4 cols, but only 2 involved any uphill, the other 2 being ones you tick as you head downhill. Slightly different terrain today; reminded us a bit of Australia in that it was dry scrub rather than lush green beech forest. The first climb of the day started up a steep gully, with waterfalls and a steep creek several hundred metres below us. Pretty spectacular. Of course things got greener as we went up, and after a couple of hours of hard slog, we made it to the last 1000m col - the Col du Palomere at 1036m. You could just make out the Mediterranean Sea from the top through the trees. Pretty exciting.

The descent was frustrating; we were used to the fast-flowing hair-raising descents of the higher, steeper cols, but this one involved some pedaling, would you believe. There was even a km or so of uphill too which gave us the willies as we were getting a bit hungry. Fortunately we'd bought plenty of food with us from Prades.

We delayed lunch till we got to Llauro at about 4pm. Then it was a bit of downhill and then 20km of flat to Perpignon. Luckily for us someone showed us the quiet road in, and we also managed to find a bike path that lead us right into the heart of the city.

We got lucky and found a 29 euro a night hotel with a flat-screen TV in the room which didn't work, but most importantly, free WiFi. It was also very close to the train station and was on a street where there were 15 kebab shops in the 400m walk to the station. We couldn't comprehend why this was the case, but we ate kebabs for dinner as there wasn't much other choice. Good tukka.

Tuesday 10th of June
The goal was to make it to Manosque today. Unfortunately there was a train strike on, so at the moment we're in Nimes and hope to get to at leaset Marseilles today and if we're lucky to Manosque, but I doubt it.

Well we made it to Manosque after catching another train, and then a bus, and then a train. Confusion was the word of the day, but it all worked out in the end despite the horrendous thunderstorm. It was still raining so we stayed in a hotel for 30 euro. Splurged on dinner as we were knackered… it was good.


Wednesday 11th of June
Plan was to start the Verdon Gorge ride today, but as we left I noticed Jen’s wheel had a bit of a wobble to it. I spun it around and 4 spokes broke! There was no way we were going to be able to fix it, and as there was a decent bike shop in Manosque, we thought we’d better get it in there.

We dropped it in and they had it fixed 3 hours later. It still meant we had to take a rest day, but oh well. We camped at the only campsite 3km from town and cooked ourselves. A kind lady took pity on us sheltering from the rain and cooking in the laundry, and gave us some cup-a-soup. Sweet.

Thursday 12th of June
Manosque to Lake
Nice easy riding, slightly uphill at the start and then flat and rolling through lovely fields of poppies, wheat, and lavender. Moustiers Sainte Marie was the endpoint, a beautiful town situated at the start of the Verdon Gorge. Amazing limestone cliffs rose behind the town, and some brave soul(s) had hung a star up between the two main cliff faces. Very cool. We had lunch there, and kept going a few kms further to a very busy campsite near the lake. We were keen to have a paddle around the lake and up the gorge in one of those pedal-powered boats, but unfortunately it was threatening to thunderstorm (as it had every day for the past few weeks, according to the locals) and none of the boat hire places were open.

Friday 13th of June
Lake to Someplace 100km away, via the Verdon Gorge.

Big day. Started with a big climb up to the high point of Verdon Gorge, very spectacular. The Gorges du Verdon, or the Grand Canyon of Europe, is meant to be the biggest canyon in Europe. It’s predominantly limestone cliffs, with a thin little river running along the bottom with what looks like grade 2 to maybe 3 rapids – it would be a sweet river trip to do someday. The climbing looked endless and amazing. I think it’s mostly really really hard stuff as it’s very steep and overhanging. We spent ages gawking though.

Had a coffee at a cool café overlooking the gorge, perched atop some cliffs. Paid an arm and a leg for the coffees but it was worth it for the view. A cool tunnel to pass through with windows carved into it overlooking the gorge was also a good diversion.

After that it was mostly downhill all the way to ???? where we camped the night.

Saturday 14th of June
???? to St Raphael then along the coast for a bit.
Flat riding along busy busy highway to St Raphael. Very touristy and big town; it was on the coast and the weather was fine, and every punter was out and about strutting their stuff. We had 5 scoops of icecream and then headed along the coast for about 35km, which brought us just outside Cannes.

The Cote d’Azure is stunning, with very beautiful blue water and lovely little beaches along the way. A pity the road was as busy as all hell and quite shite to ride. At the end of it we were quite sick of it all, dreading the ride into Cannes and then into Nice… so we caught a train into Nice instead.

This was to be our last evening in France, so we went out for a lovely meal. Loads of people were out watching Euro 2008 soccer. Sweden was playing someone I think, and they lost.

Sunday 15th of June
Nice to Somewhere in Italy

We rode out of Nice, following the directions in Sam and Aarti’s cycling LP which lead us up a steep hill for a hot few hours of sweating, till we reached the Col d’Ego or something like that. Views of the rich mansions below were cool for a while. We descended into Monaco and got a glimpse of how the rich and famous live in Monte Carlo. Only one Ferrari was seen. Loads of other expensive cars though! We avoided the city centre and headed into Italy.

Riding along the coast in Italy was horrendously busy, and we very quickly called it quits and found a ridiculously expensive campsite (24 euros for the night!) which smelt like poo and was next to a rocky beach with hard dumpy waves (which we experienced first hand during our first swim in the Mediterranean). At least we got to play foosball for free.

Monday 16th of June
We were over coastal riding quite quickly, and decided we’d try and get to the Cinque Terre national park, where there’s meant to be less cars. So the train we caught took about 6 hours; but we finally got to the very cute town of Riggiamore where we found a really lovely split-level room for 50 euros a night.

Tuesday 17th of June
Walked around the Cinque Terre. Very beautiful.

Wednesday 18th of June
5 trains to Bolzano in northern Italy, in the middle of the Dolomites. Left Cinque Terre at 9am, and 5 trains later we were spat out exhausted in Bolzano at 7:30pm. Whew! Met a lovely group of American cyclists who’d just been riding in the Dolomites, and this lovely fella called Tim gave us a map and lots of ideas of where we should ride. We were stoked as we were going to spend the next day researching, but with Tim’s help, that was time saved.

Jen had the best lasagne ever for dinner, and also the best hot chocolates in the world were had.

Thursday 19th of June
Bolzano to Canazei – 70km, big climb out of Bolzano.

Friday 20th of June
Sella Circuit 70km, 4 passes. Av 16km/h

Saturday 21st of June
Canazei to Cortina
Big day 70km 2 x 2000m+ passes

Sunday 22nd of June
Cortina to Aurunzo

Monday 23rd of June
Rest day, Aurunzo

Tuesday 24th of June
Aurunzo to Paluzzo 70km, 2 passes.

Wednesday 25th of June
Paluzzo to Austria, then train along to Arnoldstein. HOT.

Thursday 26th of June
Arnoldstein (Austria) to Bled (Slovenia), over a heinous 18% gradient pass, the Wurzenpass. Eeek! Hot!

Friday 27th of June
Easy day from Bled to Bohinj.

Saturday 28th of June
Rest day, Bohinj.
Got on the cable car and climbed Mt Vogel.

Sunday 29th of June
Rest day, Bohinj.
Sat around lazing in the sun, swimming in the lake, then did internet for the whole afternoon.

We've finished!

It's been an amazing week since we last posted.

Unfortunately it's late, and I'm really too knackered to write too much... but in summary:

• We spent 4 days in Ax Les Thermes hanging out with Rosie! It was amazing. We went hiking for 2 of the days, the highlight being getting to the summit of the Dent d'Orlu (2222m) and hitching a lift in the back of a panel van. Lots of good cooked dinners in our apartment helped fuel our adventures.

Relaxing in the thermal pool at Ax-Les-Thermes, our base for 4 days.

Saying a sad goodbye to Rosie as she heads off on the train. We'll miss you Rosie :(

• After that we took 3 more days of riding to finish the traverse of the Pyrenees. We got over quite a few cols, and camped at some beautiful spots. One of the most spectacular descents we've encountered so far coming into Prades.

• We're now in Perpignon, a big city that we luckily found a bicycle track leading into. There are 10 kebab shops between our hotel and the train station, about 400m away. Suffice to say we had kebabs for dinner.
  

• Tomorrow we're off to Marseilles and then to Manosque where we're planning to ride for 3 days along the Grand Canyon du Verdon (the "Grand Canyon of Europe").

So that's about it for now. Will post FB photos and more details (yawn) later.

Love,
Marcus and Jen.

The Pyrenees

It's been 12 days since we last posted... and we've been having a great time going up and down like yo-yos in the Pyrenees.

We've also added more photos - see the link to Volumes 12 and 13 on the right of screen.

Wednesday, 21st of May
San Sebastian to Hendaye via train, then Hendaye to Sare on bike. ~30km.

M:
We had learnt our lesson while coming in to San Sebastian, so we decided the best way out of the city was by train. We picked our bikes up from the random bike shop we'd found to give them a service and headed to the station.

It cost us a whole 1.40 euro each to catch a train to Hendaye, just across the border in France. It took about an hour and we were in Hendaye by lunchtime. Fortunately for us, Hendaye was the end-point of the 10-day "Raid Pyrenean", a chapter in Sam and Aarti's Lonely Planet Cycling France book they had leant us when we visited them. We were planning to do the 10-day traverse of the Pyrenees backwards, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean... though we were going to allow a bit more than 10 days!

After having to adjust to speaking French again, we managed to order some lunch by the seaside and then, with full stomachs, we set off on the road to our first campsite. The first 10km was beautiful coastal road, though a bit busy, but it soon turned inland and we had to ascend our first "col", or mountain pass. This one was called Col St Ignace, at a staggering height of 169m. It was actually quite steep as it gained that elevation in about 2km... a gradient of over 8%. After that was a sweet downhill which lead us into the village of Sare where we camped that night (at a cost of 16 euros or something ridiculous). Finding dinner was a bit of a chore, as nothing much was open. So we had to ride a few km before we found anything. What we found was delicious, however; a set menu of good country Basque cuisine. The best part was the dessert, called Gateau Basque. Lush.

Thursday, 22nd of May
Sare to St Jean-Pied de Port, ~60km

A mostly flat day took us through some fine French farmland to St Jean-Pied de Port. This was "a lively Basque town with a fine medieval centre" as described in LP. And it was true... we got there at about 3pm so had time to explore the town. The campsite was pretty much right next to the centre of town, and cheap at 7 euro. We met a lovely Dutch couple there who were cycle touring; actually, including us, there were seven cycle tourists there! And I think all of them were using Ortlieb bags like we were. Anyway.

St Jean-Pied de Port, despite its long name, is basically one very cool cobbled street with a citadel on the hill above it (well that's not all of it, but it's the best bit of it). The citadel was pretty cool; a steep 5 minute walk up the hill and you get to this very imposing castle wall and lookout point. It was once a very important strategic location, this town, and the citadel fended off numerous sieges from the Spanish and other invaders. It is now the local school... how cool is that? I wish I went to school in a fortress.

We got some petrol from the servo and finally cooked dinner ourselves on our chuffer stove (nowhere was shellite to be found, no matter how hard we looked) - a fine meal of pasta, pasta, and more pasta. Carbs are good. (J: As opposed to the half a cow and 10 buckets of potato chips we'd been eating most nights...)

Friday, 23rd of May
St Jean-Pied de Port to Arette, ~80km

M:
Today was a fairly big day, involving the first of the major passes we had to climb. St Jean-Pied de Port lies at an elevation of a bit less than 200m, and we had to climb to the top of Col d'Iraty, at 1327m. The first 12km was a fairly gentle uphill, taking us to the foot of the pass. There was a sign there saying the top of the col was 17.6km away; we were currently at 370m and we had to climb to 1354m... so doing the maths, that's a 994m climb...

J:
but in the middle it actually went down quite a ways which meant that we had to go back up also (there's nothing more disheartening than seeing the road start to go down when u know you are still supposed to be going up,..). So the first few km were all 10-11.5%. (Each km is signposted for riders...how far there is to go, altitude to go, and the average gradient of the next kilometre). But we got to the top and a fast descent followed.

At the top of Col d'Iraty

We got into Arette and it was raining. We found the campsite... it was closed (M: much to our disgust; it was still pissing down with rain), so that was all the excuse we needed to find a hotel. We found a nice little hotel for 50 euro with a lady who spoke fluent English... and we cooked pasta on the balcony of our room!

Saturday, 24th of May
Arette to Laruns, ~45km

J:
A shorter day...
the day started with crappy crappy weather... rain and thunder... so we left quite late (M: around 11am I think) having spent the morning procrastinating!

Col de Marie Blanque... 1073 m. First 4-5km easy (2%, 4%, 5%, 5%, 8%) then last 4 hard (11%, 9.5%, 13% (M: eeeek!), 12%)... there was roadbiker weaving backwards and forwards across the road... and couldn't see a bloody thing up the top!

Some famous names were painted on the road up the Col de Marie Blanc.
This bastard pipped Cadel Evans to win last year's Tour de France.

Stayed at a dodgy campsite at Laruns... grumpy so went out for dinner (yummy pasta)... that night weather packed it in...

Sunday, 25th of May
Rest day, Laruns.

J:
Next morning weather still unbelievably crappy with much rain and thunder... We packed up with the plan to go and have coffee to see if the weather improved - it didn't - at which point we decided on the fantastic idea of a rest day! So we found a hotel (everything was wet) and had nice long showers and emptied our bags all around the room in an attempt to dry everything!

Then we went out to look for lunch... but French time,.. everyone had closed for their 3 1/2 hour lunch break! So we went back to our hotel and made puppy dog eyes at the hotel lady who extended the lunch hours of the restaurant and brought us a massive bowl of great vegie soup for entree (M: equivalent to 3 bowls each!); main course was an amazing duck dish, and dessert was apple tart and ice cream. Awesome.

The weather was crap until that evening it fined up and we could appreciate the beautiful little mountain village we were in.

M:
Yeah it was a stunning ski-village, with great views of rugged peaks coming through when the clouds decided to part. Very steep foothills, lush and green with some rocky cliff sections, formed a barrier around three sides of the town. A beautiful town square too with a lovely Romanesque church its centrepiece.

View from the centre square in Laruns.

J:
That night we saw the weather report on tv... It was all in french so we couldn't understand much but we didn't think all the dark (M: not grey, but BLACK) clouds with lightning bolts on them, all over France (and especially the Pyrenees) for the next day, and the whole next bloody week, would bode well for us.

Monday, 26th of May
Laruns to St Marie-de Campan. ~80km

J:
This day should have been over the Col d'Aubisque but it was closed (and the weather still wasn't great) so we rode around the foothills through Lourdes... We heard rumours that Col de Tourmalet was closed as well so we rode around to the Eastern side of Tourmalet, and found out (luckily) that the col had just opened on Friday.

M:
I think I was extremely grumpy today. I was sick of the shite weather, and the foothills were flat and not nearly as inspiring as riding through the mountains and conquering the cols. Even a picnic lunch in the drizzle in Lourdes, followed by a second lunch at MacDonalds in Lourdes with a chocolate sundae for dessert, didn't cheer me up. It wasn't till about 15km to go that I finally chirped up, which was just as well because it was right at the time Jen was starting to get grumpy. :) At least the weather was fining up at this stage.

We hit Sainte Marie de Campan at around 5pm and the weather fined up so well that we cooked dinner sitting on the lawn outside in the sun. Life was good.

Tuesday, 27th of May
St Marie-de Campan, Col du Tourmalet and return, ~35km

J:
The weather when we woke was horrid, the sort of weather that does not inspire you to climb up a 2115m pass... so we went back to sleep.

Later we braved our way out of the tent to find lunch and coffee - it was still raining -
though we felt suitably humbled when we saw a number of road bikers going up the Col...

So after the French 3 1/2 hour lunch break was over and we'd stocked up on supplies, we headed up, minus gear (we left all our stuff in our tent) at around 5pm. Marcus gave me a 20 minute head start! It was fairly constant gradient. Famous names all over the road. At La Mongie (about 4km from the top) we hit the snow line, and Marcus caught me. At this point it started snowing and I could no longer feel my feet.

Jen riding in the cold, just above La Mongie, about 3km from the summit.

The top came sooner than we expected... Took some photos, then headed down for the coldest 30 minutes riding I have done in my life! My bare fingers on metal break levers were in pain!

At the top of the Col du Tourmalet... it was zero degrees
according to my bike computer's thermometer!

M: Yeah the Col du Tourmalet was awesome; much easier without gear on I tell you. I managed to scrape an average of 10km/h for the climb; this bumped up to almost 16km/h after the descent. Poor Jen's fingers were so cold; I came up the idea of putting her arm warmers over her hands which seemed to dull the pain a bit. At least it didn't take too long down!

Near the bottom was a small waterfall next to the road, about 3mins walk away uphill. I suggested we hike up it just to loosen our stiff and cold legs up a bit. It worked a bit, and the waterfall was pretty, and we warmed up a little.

We got back at around 8pm (it doesn't get dark here till 10pm) and I shepherded Jen straight into the hot shower while I started cooking some dinner - again, pasta pasta pasta. As it was so cold, I cooked in the laundry area. We chowed it down whilst sitting on the Laundry floor, and it was good.

Wednesday, 28th of May
St Marie- de Campan to Bagneres du Luchon. ~65km

M:
A biggish day today, involving 2 cols; the Col d'Aspin (1489m) and the Col de Peyresourde (1569m). We managed to set off at a good time this morning, and in fine weather for the first time in ages. The Col d'Aspin was probably the most beautiful col we'd climbed so far; there were amazing views of the snow-capped peaks on both sides, with lush green grass and healthy-looking cows chilling out at the top. Actually all the cows we see in France seem remarkably healthy-looking. The climb itself wasn't so bad, with an average gradient of around 7% and lasting about 13-14km.

The descent off the top of Col d'Aspin was brilliant too. From the top of the col you could see it plunging down into the valley below, some very steep straight sections, and some tight switchbacks thrown in here and there. And we had a great time!

We encountered some goats on the way down... they were in the middle of the road, so we stopped to take photos. One got particularly inquisitive and was getting uncomfortably friendly with Jen. I laughed a lot... but perhaps I should have been jealous...(J: ..I think not..the goat was trying to eat my bike...and my bag...and my jacket...and everything apart from me)

The town at the bottom of the descent was Arreau, where we made sandwiches and ate them by the river. Coffee (for Jen) and a coke (for me) cost us a whopping 5 euro (it seems that the way the French make their money is by charging ridiculous amounts for drinks), but we really needed the performance-enhancing properties of caffeine. And believe me, I think I owe a lot of this trip to the good thing that is full-fat Coca-Cola.

From Arreau there was about 12km of slight uphill until the foot of Col de Peyresourde. I can't remember much about the climb, but the last few kms were around 9% methinks. There were some views of some snow-capped peaks I don't know the names of, and lots of cyclists coming up and down. There was a group of roadies that were having a bit of a laugh and taking it pretty easily; I rode with them for a while and then with 1km to go, thought, "let's go" and smashed them up to the top by a couple of minutes. I don't care that they were just joking around and not riding hard... they were on sub 8kg roadies with no gear and I was on my steel Surly with 20kg+ of shite on the back. Well I was happy anyway, and the guys gave me a big cheer at the top.

The best thing about the Col de Peyresourde was the fact that there was a restaurant at the top, run by a cute French lass who had lived in Australia for 6 months and hence spoke great English and could actually understand our Aussie accents, which sold crepes for 40 euro cents! Just what the doctor ordered at the top of the 10km, 8% average climb.

The second best thing about Peyresourde was the descent... not too many switchbacks, but a couple of very long, fast straights that saw me hitting 77km/h and Jen 70+km/h!! It was thrilling to be booting along that fast, tell ya wot.

We landed in Luchon, a pretty little ski-village with a great view of the mountains sitting pretty above it, and stayed in a lovely hotel called Le Chalet, for 38 euros. For dinner, we got a family-sized pizza and chowed it down. It was half'n'half vego and Indian chicken curry flavour. And man was it good. Dessert was a Gateau Basque and lemon and passionfruit sorbet at the local cafe, for 2 euro each. Told you the French make all their money from drinks!

Thursday, 29th of May
Luchon to Castillon, ~75km

M:
Today was to be a big day, with 3 passes to conquer. Unfortunately we slept through our alarm, and didn't leave till about 10am. Our first pass was to be the Col du Portillon, a sizable 10km climb 600m to 1320m. It took about 3-4km to ride to the base of this climb, only to find that the road was closed because of roadworks ("phew!" I secretly thought). After all our farting around, we didn't leave Luchon the 2nd time till 11:30am. Oops.

We had to find the shorter route to St Beat (around 20km) which was much more direct and followed the Pique River downhill. Unfortunately there was a horrendous headwind, making the slight downhill an effort; you had to pedal hard to make it above 20km/h! Ah well. Looking back towards Luchon, the mountain range was breathtaking.

We got to St Beat at around 12:30 and had a quick lunch - a 2.80 quiche and a 3 euro sandwich. Drinks quickly doubled the price. Then we tackled the next challenge - the Col de Mente - 10km of 9.5% in the hot afternoon sun... though we couldn't complain, at least it wasn't raining! It was the best weather we'd had the whole trip and it was nice to be dripping with sweat instead of rain for a change.

It was bloody steep, and bloody hot. I think we took over 2 hours to conquer the thing. There was a ridiculous number of switchbacks, especially towards the top, where the gradient I'm sure was above 11%. This part of the Pyrenees isn't blessed with signs every km telling you how far you've got to go and what the average gradient is over the next km. All they've got here is a sign at the bottom showing you how high you have to climb and the average gradient of the whole climb, and then a sign with 3km to go telling you you still have to suffer for almost 30mins more at our snail's pace.

J: With 4km to go I had a personal cheer squad... a couple of guys had stopped they're car and poised at a hairpin bend to take my photo then gave me push for 100m up the road!

M: The top wasn't spectacular, but the people there were. We were overtaken by a number of roadies without luggage, and a group was finishing around the time we were. They had a support crew at the top, who were very friendly and helpful, and gave us bananas and water and took photos for us. What champions! I wish they could be there at the top of every col.

The descent was just as switch-backy for the first 7-8km or so, and provided a great view of Jen descending down in front of me while I took photos from more than 1km away, but almost directly above her. We descended into a heavily forested valley, before we got to the foot of the next killer col, the Col de Portet d'Aspet.

Usually this col is climbed from east to west, as it is far steeper on the western side which was unfortunately the side we were attacking it from. From our side, the climb was a virtual wall; 4.4km at an average gradient of 9.5%. The descent down this side is so steep and dangerous, that in the 1995 Tour de France, Fabio Casartelli, the 1992 Barcelona Olympic champion, fell to his death. Luckily (you could argue) for us we were at no risk of death, crawling up this thing at between 5-7km/h.

Jen's right knee was getting a little sore by this stage, especially up some of the steeper sections where I'm sure it was steeper than the 13% we encountered on the Col de Marie Blanque so many days ago.

After I got to the top, I walked down to meet Jen where she was limping up the road, only using her left leg to pedal upwards. I gave her a push for the last couple hundred metres, running behind her which she appreciated. (J: very much so...by this stage i couldn't really put anything but the slightest force through my right knee so I'd ridden most of the way up only putting force thru my left leg!)

Again there was a restaurant on top. The view wasn't anything flash, as there was a lot of cloud cover, so we went in and had an ice cream and a drink. We were charged 2.50 euro for each of our 200mL of Orangina soft drinks... there are those Frenchies charging ludicrous amounts for drinks again. We'll stop complaining someday.

The descent of the eastern side wasn't as steep as the ascent on the west, but it was still fun, as all descents are. Even the last 12km, marked on the LP guide as almost flat, followed a river downhill and we got to freewheel most of that too which was good news for Jen's knee.

We arrived in Castillon at around 7pm and cooked up another tonne of pasta.

Friday, 30th of May
Castillon - Rest day.

M:
Jen's knee was still a bit sore today, so we thought it best to rest for a day to get on top of it. We'd already half packed up our stuff, and it was a beautiful sunny day, so it was a tough call. I think it was worth it though. We managed to do two big loads of washing, using the cheapest laundry we've found in Europe. At 2.60 euro a load and sunshine to dry, we were laughing. Previous attempts at finding washing machines yielded anything between 6-20 euros a load, and that's not including drying. Suffice to say we've been doing a lot of hand-washing in hotel sinks.

We also had a good long chat to Peter and Annette (Jen's folks) and found out that Paul Lennon had resigned... that made the day even better.

So that's where we are, sitting here in Castillon, spending the afternoon on the laptop looking at photos and typing this stuff for the blog. Jen's just been to the shops to pick up some food for another pasta-fest tonight. Can't wait.

Saturday, 31st of May
Castillon to Seix, ~35km

M:
We set off from Castillon at around 11am after farting around all morning like we usually do. Our first leg was up the Col de la Core, at 1395m. It was a 17km climb starting from Castillon, with the last 10km or so at around 7-7.5% but the earlier kms at 4-5%. Unfortuntately Jen's knee was still quite sore, and we had to crawl up the steeper sections at around 5km/h which was frustrating for both of us.

We finally got to the top, and got some lovely views of the village below and to some the mountains in Spain only a few kms away. Met a dude from San Francisco in the USA who had just finished hiking in the mountains and was looking for a lift back to the farm he was WOOFing at. Unfortunately we couldn't help him out!

The downhill was fun, as always, and dropped us right into the town of Seix. We went to research buses as Jen's knee was so sore, but there weren't any more for today and no services were available on Sunday. So we just camped in Seix, at a nice campground right next to the river. We spent the evening wandering around the neighbouring town called Oust.

Sunday, 1st of June
Seix to Foix via St Girons, 65km.

We awoke to a grey day with the plan of riding to St Girons, around 18km away and all slightly downhill following a river. Heading to St Girons was off the Raid Pyrenean route in our cycling guide, but it would give Jen's knee a lighter workout than the cols, and if it was painful on the downhills then we could catch a bus from St Girons to Foix where we will be meeting Rosie Jones on the 3rd. If Jen's knee was feeling good, we'd ride to Foix.

The road to St Girons followed a river downstream, as I mentioned before, which made for nice easy riding on Jen's knee. No complaints were voiced for the 18km stretch, so it was all good. The section was made interesting by having 2 options: the normal road on river left, or tackling the tunnels on river right. The tunnels were there as a result of an abandoned railway line that was meant to link France with Spain under the Pyrenees... now it's just a cool section of one-way road you can ride or drive.

We thought it'd be interesting to tackle the tunnels, as we had lots of little flashing lights for cars to see us and head torches to see with. It was funny because as we set off, we were warned from doing the route by about 5 motorists, who all pulled up and told us we shouldn't go down there if we didn't have lights. Were they blind? Or couldn't they see we looked like Christmas trees?

That just hardened our resolve to have a crack, as the road signs said that bicycles without lights were prohibited... we didn't see any "no bikes allowed" signs at all.

One of the guys warned us that there was a 1.5km stretch of tunnel... so we made sure we had our head torches on, as they were meant to be unlit and pitch black. So off we went down the little one way road, with motorists honking their horns and shaking their fists and heads at us, pointing at the signs and not seeing our lights. The first tunnel was perhaps 20m long. You could see the end very easily and it was well lit. "Phew!" we thought, "that was ok, let's prepare ourselves for the big one".

We were getting a little nervous due to all the motorists' warnings, but we went on regardless. The second tunnel was maybe 100m long with a corner in the middle of it, so it was maybe hard to see for about 10 or 20m, but our headtorches lit up the reflectors on the walls, and Jen in front of me really did look like a Christmas tree, and we got through unscathed.

We were wondering where this big long stretch was. So we kept going, and more motorists beeped us, and the next few tunnels were very short and sweet, and then we joined back up to the main road. Hmmm. So I think the guy meant that the stretch of road with the tunnels in it was 1.5km long, and not that there was an actual 1.5km long tunnel.

So it was a bit of an anticlimax really, and we really couldn't believe what all the fuss was about. It was cool though.

We went to the bakery and got a big loaf of bread and bought some ham, cheese and tomato from the supermarket (along with chips and a soft drink and yoghurt for dessert) and made sandwiches next to the local homeless druggies and their dogs next to the river. The problem with going shopping when you're hungry is that you often buy a lot more than you can eat... which is what I did. The bread itself was huge and I had trouble just finishing the sandwich we made on its own, let alone the chips and yoghurt. But like the champs we are, we didn't let the challenge defeat us and all of it was eventually forced into our bellies.

Jen's knee was feeling good, so we legged it along the flat(ish) road to Foix.

This stretch was bloody boring, about 45km long, and I was suffering from my usual post-lunch shittiness. After stopping for a coffee and coke I suddenly got the worst bout of hay-fever I'd ever had, with my eyes itching like absolutely crazy, and having to run to the loo twice to wash out my eyes. This was to no avail, and both my eyes, but especially my left, were swollen up like crazy. For those medics out there, I had oedema of the temporal aspect of my left cornea. Corneal oedema! Who would've thought that possible with just hay fever?

Anyway I didn't really notice this until afterwards, my eyes just felt weird and swollen and itchy and gunky with discharge so I just sat behind Jen for the remaining 17km, with my tunnel vision focusing only on Jen's back wheel and nothing else.

Got to Foix, which has an impressive looking castle on top of a hill in the middle of the town, and I really couldn't see much so Jen went and got me some anti-histamines and it fixed me up good and proper. We stayed in a hotel to avoid any more pollen in the air!

Monday, 2nd of June
Rest day, Foix.

So we're in Foix, waiting for Rosie's arrival tomorrow. She's got a bit less than a week off work after nights, and she's flying down from York in England to Toulouse tomorrow morning and then catching a train to Foix to hang out with us for a few days! Yay!

Not much seems to happen in Foix. We spent the day trying to look up stuff to do like walks and hikes and things, but it just seems pretty boring. There's not even a place to hire a bike for Rosie when she gets here. We were hoping it'd be a bit more like Laruns, where a dozen walking tracks left from the city and you could be in the mountains for weeks if you wanted to. But not so.

After a great deal of angst and discussion, we decided perhaps Foix is not the best place to meet Rosie, as there'd be nothing to do, so we thought tomorrow we'd ride to Ax-les-Thermes tomorrow morning and Rosie can catch a train to there instead; it's just a few stops further on the same line and further into the heart of the Pyrenees (we hope!).

So that's the plan.

Cooked a stir-fry for dinner on the choofer stove in our hotel room... got the window open to try and get rid of the petrol smell! It's gone now, I think.

Internet is expensive here... the internet cafe was 3 euro and hour, and this WiFi in the hotel I'm using is 10 euro for 3 hours. Ah well, the price one pays for one's addiction to technology.

That's all for now!