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.