.. the sun.
We got up early and went down to Les Sorbiers, for us to help out with the cleaning up. Only to find Rob in full control. So I ended up watching a DVD about Paris - Roubaix cycle race with Dave, well Rob made us, e.g he put it on the player.
While Peli was running around reminiscing...
... me, to call someone something not nice.
We got up with sore legs but very keen on getting going. Peli's really wanted to go take me over to see the Col de Spandelles and the Col de Soulor. We met up with Dave and Rob from Les Sorbiers, and headed down the Tourmalet to Luz.
The local supermar...
... sleeping tonight, part II.
We went to sleep and woke up again around 02:00, because the nature called. It would be pitch black if it was not for the clear sky and the bright stars. We could easy see around us and didn't nee...
... sleeping tonight?
We had a nice sleep in, because of Peli's folks arriving late in the afternoon. And in their car would be the last bits we needed for our hike up to 2400m.
... shit in the forest, like the bears?
We loaded up Rob's (from Les Sorbiers) mini bus, with our bikes plus Richard (a guest at Les Sorbiers), Pingu, Mrs Pingu, Dave, Peli and me, hmm this rings a bell, like I typed this before...
... and back from Hautacam.
We set off at 9:30 with Rob (from Les Sorbiers), Richard (a guest at Les Sorbiers), Pingu, Mrs Pingu, Dave, Peli and me.
We had a great ride down the gorge into the head wind which were nice to...
Time to pack and relax, as we have a early start tomorrow in order to get to the airport and some of us have to be back at work on Saturday. Speak to you all when back in the big smog.
Yawn, it started early. Well, we had to get up before Peli's mum and go for the fresh pain, croissants, tarte aux myrtilles and newspapers. She had been doing that for last nearly 2 weeks and it was her birthday after all. Wink
So, after breakfast in bed for Peli's mum we went to the local Bareges...
Our surprise attack on the Tourmalet failed Sad
Pretty much every day we have headed out on a ride down the Tourmalet (2115m) and disappeared into the hills for a day's riding. But today we were planning to surprise the Tourmalet by going down the mountain and then, about turn, right away up it. S...
We had a sleep in and headed out for a 4 hours walk up Montagne Fleurie right behind Bareges. Though it was hot, very humid and us being tired from yesterday we decided to cut it short. We got to walk down the old road leading up...
We got up fairly early by holiday standards, and started to get ready for a ride. The classic Tour finish of the Hautacam! The route which would take us from Bareges (1250m) down through Luz St Sauveur (696m) and the long gorge descent down to the foot of Hautacam (453m) and then up to Hautacam (152...
Well we got really bitten by the holiday bug. So bad that we stayed up until we were falling asleep into our books. Peli was taken by "Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson and I was finishing off Bill Bryson's "Shakespeare" and then started on "John Deering - A team on the run".
30" gear is dead; long live the 28" gear !!
We decided to go a have a look at Spain, so we rolled down the Tourmalet for 5 miles into Luz St Sauveur (684m) to start our 20 miles steady climb uphill to Port de Boucharo (2270m),...
well after a looong kip, having breakfast at 1pm is the right thing to do on a holiday and after a long ride like yesterdays.
Water: nearly every town have it own little fountain that we can get our bottles refilled, and it is just brilliantly fresh. And the water right up the mountains is even be...
Well since you are reading this I survived the Tourmalet, though I did have to have two goes at it before I managed it, since I had a 54 mile ride in the middle ;)
Why? Because we started half way up the Tourmalet in Bareges an...
We are having a day's rest, I really need it and even Peli is moaning about her legs, but then again she was pegging it up these hills and we are more cyclist than hikers.
Tomorrow it is the Col de Tourmalet, 2115m, so stay tuned ...
We got up bright and early and drove up to La Gaubie, 1550m, for a walk up through the Aygues Cluses valley to the Col de Madamete at 2509m and then over an other Col at around 2550m back down the valley past Lac Noir around 8-9...
We got up to a stunning clear and sunny day and after a bit of faffing around we got out on our bikes. Peli had planned an "easy introduction to the Pyrenees" route which would take us out to Gavarnie, but the road was very busy since the French summer holidays had truly kicked in.
So Peli said wh...
We woke up to the beautiful view of clouds stretching as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't bad at all as that gave us the opportunity to do some serious chattering and relaxing.
However, Peli had antz in her pantz and want...
Packing and running about a bit trying to find the very last bits to bring. Manged to get all done and ready 10min before the taxi we ordered arrived. Taxi and coach out to the airport was painless even though we arrived at 1.15am.
I would rather be there early than risk getting there late especia...