April 19, 2011

Adios amigos, Bonjour mes amis!

We’ve got ourselves all mentally prepared to tackle the might of the Pyrenees.  The road starts out with a few gentle climbs – just right to warm up those leg muscles.  We then find ourselves on a longer and steeper one, but we quickly reach the top and run down the other side.  We see the signs for the ‘Puerto de Ibañeta’, the highest pass, but to be honest we do harder climbs at home in Colmenar.  After talking to a young Belgium cycle tourist at the top, that had climbed up from the other side, we realise that we have come up the easy side of the mountain.  He warns us that our descent will be steep and winding for 16 km.

We expected that we would have a photo opportunity when we reached the border between Spain and France – but no – we freewheel into France without even realising we were there.

The biggest problem of the day turns out to be finding a campsite.  The French are great camping enthusiasts and nearly every village has a municipal campsite, however, it seems that  these do not open until 30 April.  We eventually find one (after visiting three others that are closed) where the office/shop/bar are all shuttered up but the gates are open.  A notice on the door says ‘Installez-vous’ which I interpret as – find a spot, pitch your tent and sort it out later.  It all turns out OK when a nice ‘monsieur’ turns up at 9pm and knocks on our tent door (figuratively speaking) and asks for €17.