Monday, June 20th – Viscos to Bielle
Had a good breakfast at the hotel – included or not included, no idea. No one around to ask about price. When checking out later the clerk didn’t even want my credit card – “all good, OK, bye bye”. Checking my account later revealed the dessert and breakfast added $20 to my bill. Can’t complain too much since the room was only $80.
All the old roadsters were getting ready to leave as well so we hung around a bit to check them out. One guy commented he just had a new V8 put in his TR6, and it sounded fantastic. They must have been doing some kind of rally as each car had some timing electronics in it. Looking very much the part, I think each driver and passenger was wearing a long scarf.
Our hostess last night had wanted us to thread the bikes between these four cars to an open spot in the back of the garage. Not possible.
This Austin Healey 3000 was very tasty
Construction break
On our way to the first attractions of the day, a pair of high-altitude hiking hubs, we got stuck for about 15 minutes while they poured some new pavement. Once clear we made our way south on D921 to Gavarnie and rode up to the top where hikers depart in every direction. After snapping some photos we headed back down, and waited at the roundabout while Peter rode away to figure out where to go. When he didn’t come back I went after him, and found myself in a very busy hiking tourist town with one road in and out. Found Peter, and eventually we all got back together and headed out to find D922, a toll road up to another hiker heaven.
D921 to Gavarnie
The view up top was worth it
Like a product ad - “Peter is sporting the new Tourmaster jacket in gray…”
Peter and Dave
Camera phones ahoy! Actually Peter had a lot of problems with his Windows phone – it ended up losing all the pictures on his SD card. You could see the file listing, but the photos wouldn’t open up.
Trail to the top
Road we came up
Assuming this is similar to branding your cattle to identify ownership
Heading down
Dave is way down there
Really? Film?
2 euro each was the price of admission, and it was a pretty challenging ride up to the small restaurant where we stopped for some snacks and got stared down by the cows. In the distance we could see what looked like a road, and indeed some cars heading up and down, but surely it couldn’t go far. Could it?
Toll road
View was worth 2 euro
Cyclists heading down. They had a support truck with speakers blaring out the back.
We found out after lunch when I was the first to head up and explore. This would become a routine of sort during the trip – often we were riding together, but if we were on some sort of obvious pass where we couldn’t get we would ride individually, at our own pace, stopping for photos whenever we wished. Hairpin after hairpin, some very tight with big drop-offs, eventually opened up to a high cirque that was just gorgeous! Saw the first Can-Am Spyder of the trip up there, that’s got to be very different to ride in this region. Eventually Dave and Peter made their way up and we walked around snapping photos for a while. Was surprised to see hiking trails marked by time instead of length (Destination X, 1h30m).
Nice spot for a snack (photo by Dave)
Lots of entertainment (photo by Dave)
Could that road really go up higher? Where does it go?
I’m finding out
Looking back down
Here comes Dave
The view at the top. Wow.
Dave
“Does my butt look big?”
I wish I could remember what was going on here
Again I was the first to head down, and stopped at a few places to get pics of the guys coming by. Riding behind Peter on the way down to the entrance gate I watched as a goat jumped off a hill in front of him and right onto the road in his path. Close call as Peter braked and the goat jumped again out of his way. More were coming down so we slowed to a crawl and watched.
Peter heading down
The way down
After that we doubled back to the town where we stayed last night and continued north on D13 to D918 and up over the Col du Soulor. The ride up Soulor was great, and the late-afternoon light was just stunning. At the top we did a short out-and-back on the northern descent towards Arbeost, but then gathered at the top of Soulor again for the ride on Col d'Aubisque.
Col d'Aubisque. Wow. Easily one of the most intense roads I’ve been on. Hugging the mountainside with sheer cliffs on one side and a huge dropoff on the other, it’s one of the French “balcony roads”. Really no margin for error, and barely enough room for a car and a half. Several places I wanted to stop and get a photo but there just weren’t any places. Best part (depending on how you look at it) was the unlighted curvy tunnel in the middle of it, complete with water dripping down from the roof. I found the ride thrilling, Dave was happy to have it over with.
We hung out at the top for a while among the giant bicycle sculpture, then enjoyed the relatively boring ride down the pass and to our hotel for the next 2 nights.
Some random notes:
- At some point we passed a group of guys in what appeared to be wetsuits wearing climbing harnesses. Confused.
- A matching pair of green and yellow Lotus Elises passed by – we’d see them a few times on this trip
- Got behind a sheparding operation at one point, and at the almost-back of it was a station wagon with the tailgate open and a dog intently watching the stragglers of the sheep, ready to leap out if needed
- Dave’s bathroom appeared to have a stripper pole
- Warmer today, saw high of 76
