Day 7

Reaching for the sky, Bollocks and Religious Las Vegas. 

Today we veered from the TET and plotted our own course, we've only got two days left and a lot of travelling to do to get the bike pick up point.  From Jacca the TET runs south and our path lays north to opposite side of the Pyrenees.  There are loads of unpaved roads littering area so we tested our luck. 

We started on some Clark trails (smooth and flat) and made good time, soon the smoothness gave way to mud and ruts, but we pressed on. (as you must)

After a number of miles we reached a river with no bridge.  No problem i thought, we've done this in Wales and i proceeded to walk across, testing for possible bike routes forward.  The picture below does not accurately portray the width nor the difficult rocky nature of the river bed.   Jason suggest it was possible, but not ideal and began to look for another point upstream. 

A few minutes later we arrived here.  Goldilocks! Not too deep, nor wide, nor rocky, just right. 

This is us at the other side after a successful crossing.  The water flowing downstream had poured over our upstream boot, still one wet foot is better than two. 

We followed the track for a little while, but it launched skyward over the hills on an unforgiving trajectory over dreadfully overgrown paths.   We're carrying enough weight with camping kit that we feared for the bikes and our own safety and so turned around and headed back to the river.   We crossed without incident, but now both boots were soaked - not great.

Plotting road routes north over the Pyrenees we passed by beautiful vista's and steady climbed, each of us getting colder and our wet feet slowly freezing as we reached the snow line.

When the climb eventually plateaued it was time to stop and add layers of clothing. At this altitude the air is thin and my bike had lost some power.  With freezing feet we layered up and then pressed on, the conversation over the bike intercom was of warm valleys and Jason blaming me for the river crossing and his wet feet (sorry pal!)

Reaching the valley bottom the air was oxygen rich and warmer, only one more Col separated us from our destination.  Again we began to climb, the temperature dropping, it took about 20 minutes to reach the top where, much to our disappointment, the French authorities had closed the pass!  The weather was closing in rapidly and you could literally reach the sky,  memories of our thunderstorm ride still fresh in our minds.  It was time for a break.

Thankfully, right there at the closed road gate, atop a mountain, is a French Cafe with a fire.

Thirty five mins later warmed by the fire and full of Garlic Lamb we set off retracing our steps down to the valley.  The new route along the valley was longer, but faster and much warmer and the sky was back where it should be, we motored onwards.

Our destination this evening was the northern Pyrenees town of  Lourdes.   Lourdes is a pilgrimage destination famous for apparitions of Virgin Mary appearing over a two week period to Bernadette (who was later canonized) .  The city is the third most import Catholic site in world trailing Rome and the Holy Land respectively.   We got there and looked for an Irish bar.  Whist at the bar  (Munters :) ) and sitting outside we watched a local Kebab house owner chase a pikey gypsy wearing an Adidas tracksuit from his premises with a can of mace. (most entertaining.)

Jason had planted the seed the night before that when we returned to France we should look for excellent French cuisine.  Lourdes is a baron wasteland when it comes to good food.  Six million visitors a year appears to mean that local eateries do not need to live up to French standards. 

 A tip from the landlady at Munters led us to 'au bon accueil' in the nearby village of Bartres, a superb restaurant, (check out the reviews if you don't believe me) where Jason ordered Sweetbread and got to try his bollocks. 

Four course meal plus coffee and wine completed we headed back to Lourdes.   It is not what i expected from a pilgrimage site.  There are some nice parts, but the majority has been turned into the Disney land of Catholicism, a Religious Las Vegas of sorts.  The shops have neon lights and sell every type of religious tourist trinket until midnight.  Its madness, there is even a sandwich shop called 'The Virgin Mary Sandwicherie'

The nicer bits...

Wheres Wally in the picture bellow?

 
it was a long day.  time for bed.