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  Riding the Pyrenees

  Gary 21:03 on October 8, 2009 | 7 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), France (12), Pyrenees (2)

  Well, we came here to do it and now it’s done, today we set off from Tarbes in the morning and headed towards the Pyrenees, we knew we wanted to duck down, find some nice roads for a bit and then head up again so we could make our way to Andorra, boy did we find some nice roads.

  

  We’ve now ridden the Col du Tourmalet (one of the main routes in the Tour de France, you know the one with all the writing on it) and the Col d’Aspin. It’s hard to describe exactly what these roads are like to ride and I don’t know if pictures would ever do it justice but… wow, I’ve ridden some good roads and I can’t really say anything else but these are now among them, simply amazing.

  

  I feel so much better about this trip now that we’ve ridden these roads, I feel like I’ve achieved a personal goal and as ever with riding these types of roads improved my riding. I also feel so proud of Gen; she has overcome her fears and ridden these roads with me, it’ll give her so much more confidence on the bike now which is fantastic!

  

  It seems we found a hotel just in time tonight, we got here in with sun and blue sky, I just had a shower and now I’m out we’ve got thunder, lightning and heavy rain, perfect timing to end an absolutely perfect day.

  Cumulative Miles: 1,422.3

   

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  A taste of what's to come

  Gary 22:27 on October 7, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), France (12), Pyrenees (2)

  We started off today in the middle of nowhere, we were in a campsite where, last night we had met a Swiss traveler who had done a spot of translating for us, he could only tell us that the shop was closed and we’d be going hungry that night, but it was a translation none-the-less!

  

  We spent the first part of the day riding on some fantastic D roads (namely the D918 and D933) from my best roads motorcycle atlas and then decided that we had gone south too early and that if we were going to get anywhere today it would probably be best to go back up onto an Autoroute to travel east and then we could potentially come back down when we got closer to the Pryenees, so that’s exactly what we did. Riding was fantastic this morning and even the Autoroute wasn’t too bad, I don’t think anything could be when you have the Pyrenees as scenery.

  

  We’re now in a… you can probably guess by now… Premiere Classe just outside of Tarbes which if you look at a map you’ll see is directly above the Pyrenees. Tomorrow the plan is to ride south into the mountains and then make our way east towards Andorra… if we find ourselves making slow progress we’ll jump back up to a faster road again. I’m annoyed that we went too far south yesterday as we could’ve got to Pau and gone to the Pyrenees from there but I’m also happy that we camped, met our Swiss translator and are where we are now, ready to ride south into the mountains I came here to see!

  Cumulative Miles: 1,226.3

   
• 

  Camping sil-vous-plait?

  Gen 18:00 on October 7, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), Camping, France (12)

  Yesterday (Tuesday) was all about the miles, after using our wi-fi “gratuit” and looking at Google maps (we love you Google) we found the closest Carrefour and filled up the bikes, our bellies and also got a few supplies for lunch. We set off happy and full ready for a long ride.

  

  We rode all day only stopping for lunch and petrol until we got to St-Jean-de-Luz, unfortunately a little further than we wanted to go! We continued on our way along a nice little road, some how managed to get into Spain, got a little bit scared and came back out again. The roads we were riding on were amazing, if not a little too hot. We stopped many times to drink, untuck clothing and undo vents, when we came along a wonderful road shaded by trees the temperature dropped and we slowed down to make the most of the cool air, but then up a hill, round a corner and it was boiling again. I’m so glad the weather has been good, can’t help but think that if it were cold and raining this could have been a miserable day.

  

  Eventually after a little panic about where we were going to sleep we found a camp site that was still open, it seems most places down here close in September and after trying several others and even a few Chambres d’hotes (B&Bs) we found one which was nice enough and had a shower block and loos. The owner did not speak English, so we ended up having a great gesturing-lots-conversation, gave her 12 Euros and set up for the night, sleep!

   
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  La Rochelle

  Gary 18:35 on October 5, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), France (12)

  My GPS track log around La Rochelle will be something to look at, a work of modern art with all the loops and double-backs I would imagine, I feel lucky that I’m actually typing this right now, about an hour ago I was losing hope that we’d ever find our way out of the city.

  I’ve not got a huge update for you today, we’ve basically been riding all day on D and N roads stuck behind various “Convy Exceptionale”… big-ass lorries with big-ass loads. So A roads are straight and boring, but D roads are full of obstacles, our trip at the moment seems to be a lot of ride all day, get lost in several cities and then find a cheap hotel to stay in. I can’t wait till we get to the Pyrenees, I’m hoping it will break this cycle! We did have some rain at one point today but it didn’t last long, the wind however is still with us. Lunch was taken at a service station and after riding into and back out of La Rochelle we’re now sat in our second Premier Classe hotel of the trip. Gen is moaning at me that she’s hungry so I’d better go…

  Cumulative Miles: 788.9

   
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  Mont Saint Michel

  Gen 18:07 on October 5, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), France (12)

  Great day today! We slept in which felt awesome after the bad day we had on Saturday. Got going around 11 setting off along the autoroutes to get some miles behind us. We stopped for petrol not far in to the ride and a biker ran over to us with his bike at the petrol station gesturing for help in an unknown language (Spanish) and eventually we actually managed to help get his bike started, well done Gary! We carried on until stopping in Caen for lunch, we had Escargots (snails) for starters, Gary had Steak Tartare for main and I just had a proper medium steak because I’m a chicken! Snails were a big thumbs up yum yum!

  

  Got to Le Mont Saint Michel around 16:00 and found to our delight that not only was the ride in lovely but there was an abundance of hotels for us to choose from, we found one about a 30 min walk from the Mont.

  

  Walked down about 20:30 to see the town, great walk, all the walls lit up by spotlights, it looked like a fairytale castle! Got to walk around the town at night which was a little frightening but looked amazing. Hopefully be able to add some photos when we get back!

  Cumulative Miles: 541

   
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  Hello, France.

  Gary 21:02 on October 3, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), Ferry (2), France (12)

  We eventually managed to get to Dover yesterday, it was beginning to get dark by the time we got there and we feared that we had almost entered into Norfolk trip territory only this time we wouldn’t have a car of friends to help navigate for us. It may have been luck (we were due some at this point) but once we got to Dover it was actually very easy to find our B&B, we got settled in and found a Wetherspoons for food. We woke up at 05:40 to what I hoped would be a fairly straight forward pack-up, eat and catch a ferry but turned out to be more of a Gen felt ill so Gary ate breakfast in between fueling both bikes kinda deal, eventually leaving with only 5 minutes to find and catch our ferry, nothing like a good bit of prep work…

  The ferry was a new experience to both of us that somehow felt… normal, I guess I’ve seen pictures, heard  stories and read articles about what it’s like so I knew what to expect. The crossing itself was very choppy, I was quite proud of my old sea legs, they kept me the right colour for once, pity I can’t say the same for some of the other passengers! As we left the ferry I started getting a bit nervous about the road rules over here so decided to stay close to a car in front so I could copy what they were doing which seemed to work well until I realised we missed the roundabout exit for the D940; a road I had previously researched to use to get us going. Unfortunately this was to be the first of many mistakes our Garynav system would make today…

  

  After riding through rain, more rain, some wind and a lot more wind (that bloody wind, grr), I’m currently using Wi-Fi from our hotel room. We’re in a 38 Euro Premiere Classe hotel room in St Etienne du Rouvray (just outside Rouen) and we’ve just got back from eating our first French meal. I’m not sure I’m a fan of the language barrier style of communication anymore; ordering was an interesting experience which ended up with a pretty forced selection of the house specialty! We met a nice British couple in the restaurant who had just sold their French home and were taking all their furniture back to the UK. The man we were talking to used to get drunk with a guy who worked on the BBC Micro and another guy who worked with Sinclair (Alan Sinclair I think he said?) so nerdy chat ensued!

  Cumulative Miles: 389.3

   
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  Poor top box...

  Gen 17:48 on October 3, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: Adventure, BT2009 (24), Damage (5), Luggage (4)

  After some master detective work (phoning the hospital) I managed to find out how Gary’s mum was and that his dad had recently left. Finally we managed to contact him and it turned out that he was actually at Gary’s house so we could get in! We rushed off to go and get Gary’s V5 but on the way my top box decided to jump off its fixing plate on to the road, luckily there were no cars behind me and my top box (and a potentially expensive insurance bill) were spared, however it is now covered in scratches, poor top box.