Oh God. Never in the field of human endeavour have two people gone so far on so little. Two days since we last posted, we find ourselves in a little outpost called L'Hospitalet pres l'Andorre. Having climbed 1000 metres more than we descended today (to 1429m) we arrived in a place which is neither hospitable nor near to anything else. Unusually, 100% of the restaurants were open, though given that this hamlet consists of little more than three cottages and two B&Bs, this may not be remarkable.
The place we're staying in is like Fawlty Towers crossed with Last of the Summer Wine. It's run by a chap in his late forties, with three old women in aprons in tow. While he does everything from greeting the guests, cooking the food, pouring the drinks manning reception and clearing plates, they waddle round being distinctly unhelpful. Clearly one is his dotty old mother, and the other two are stray guests who never quite left. The long and short of which to say is that we have had a minescule meal which hasn't even touched the sides. Needless to say, more wine was ordered to compensate and we both spent the meal in stitches thinking of Basil, Sybil and Mrs Tibbs.
Yesterday was great fun - we had wheels rolling at 8:20 and conquered Col du Peyresourde (sp?) and Col de Portet d'Aspet. 75 miles down the track we stopped at the charming town of St Girons twinned with Chernobyl (and about as lively). We managed to find an epic meal despite this, and had our best breakfast so far (though still missing bacon, eggs, sausages etc) this morning.
Again with wheels rolling at 8:20, today we climbed Col de Port, descended into the charming town of Tarascon (nothing like ascending 2400ft just to end up 400ft higher at the bottom than when you started), before spending the afternoon travelling 30miles uphill and climbing to 4700ft, where we encountered this ludicrous hostelry.
As a side issue, having made it here to a hamlet so small, we were so tired and desperate for accommodation that we wondered in to the first place we saw, which happened to be the one out of the two which we hadn't booked... But that's 65 miles of cycling and sore buttocks for you.
Another enormous Col to go tomorrow (Puynorens) then gradually down, back to sea level. Though if the breakfast is anything like the dinner, we may have to stay here another day just to take in enough calories.
As the Reverend Mother once encouraged us to do in song, Climb Every Mountain - so far we have... more soon.
L+M
No comments:
Post a Comment