Tourma-Tourmalet

Darling followers,

Still alive. We found without doubt the worst mountain top restaurant today. Imagine, if you will, spending two and a half hours climbing at 4mph up a slope with an average gradient of 1:12, reaching 7500ft only to find that the restaurant at the top takes decades to take your order, serves you minescule portions, only has a female toilet (no soap or hand drier) and point blank refuses to fill your water bottles. That was Col du Tourmalet.

That said, the way up was stunning beyond description (the ski lifts started half way up), and in beautiful sunshine. The way down was marred slightly by thick fog, cold air and consequent shivering. After that, another col - this time Col d'Aspin, up to 4885ft.

Clearly some locals decided to challenge the Tourmalet restaurant for worst hospitality of the region, for having arrived at our destination, Arreau (after 50 of the toughest miles we have ever done), we found that there were three hotels. One was closed, though saw fit to keep the reception open, one doesn't seem to exist, leaving the Hôtel d'Angleterre, which is somewhat unfriendly, completely unhelpful and vastly overpriced for what it offers.

As a sign-off note, we wondered round the town for a fair while trying to find a restaurant that was actually open (bearing in mind that this is the weekend). We had an enormous meal, and Max now informs me that he's hungry again. Bring on breakfast...!

More tomorrow.

L+M