April 21, 2014

Well, today was both cold and wet, but despite this we had a good day.  The reason – absolutely no wind, none at all.

The morning was dry, but we needed our big jackets on to keep warm.  To start off we took a small back road which we knew eventually would arrive at the base of a canyon which we would have to climb.  The owner of the accommodation we had stayed at overnight asked us about our route for the day and took a sharp intake of breath when we showed him where we were going on the map.  He seemed to have serious doubts on our ability to scale the side of the canyon on our bikes.  Huh – we’re definitely going that way now, we’re not wimping out on this one.

It certainly is an impressive sight looking from below upwards at the soaring walls of the canyon. We could see far above us people standing against a railing on the top edge looking down.  I hope we don’t have to go that far up.  We set off up a zigzag switch-back of a road climbing upwards, Alpe d’Huez style.  The legs feel really strong and we’re enjoying flexing our muscles.  This is a great cycling climb, lots of curves and a steady gradient upwards.  In no time at all we’re at the top and we are the ones looking over the rail at the view below.  Once on the top, however, the sky is not looking so great – big black clouds looming.

We play cat and mouse with the rain for a while, managing to keep dry by sheltering under pine trees, then later in bus stops along the road for half-an-hour or so at a time, but eventually the rain wins and we get wet – absolutely saturated.  Once you’re wet, you’re wet and so at that point we keep going.  A pretty unpleasant experience with lorries and cars flying by covering us with road spray.  We have about 25 kilometres to cover until we reach the first place where we’ve been told we’ll find accommodation.  For me, there are actually some benefits from the cold and the rain as it is the first day I have not suffered the agonies of the saddle sores that I have been tormented by from about the second day of the trip.  I am at this stage of the tour, as always, a walking encyclopaedia of minor afflictions – chapped lips (despite Vaseline), sweat rash (despite talc), numerous bruises from manoeuvring the bike around and hitting my shins with the pedals, swollen insect bites, a spilt toenail from stubbing it in the shower, as well as the saddle sores (again huge quantities of Vaseline applied).  Hopefully, if the weather stays cool I should rid myself of the saddle sores, although the other stuff will hang around for the whole trip.

Fortunately, the town we are heading for turns out to have several options for places to stay, so we make our choice and stand in a hot shower to warm up.