Packed one again a quick read of the trip notes indicated a fairly quiet days ride on a very good bitumen surface !
It may have eventually become that but for the first 20 kms at least the road surface cycling line was terrible and the traffic included b- double semi trailers with at least one roaring past us every 30 seconds !
Its not often that you see your next potential plane flight sitting in a car park lot but that is exactly what we saw when rounding a corner early in the ride.
There in all its disassembled glory were most of the chief components of an Airbus 380 (fuselage, wings, tail plane) waiting on various semi trailers in a secured parking lot (dedicated layover point) on their way to the Airbus assembly plant in Toulouse !
Being oversized components they are moved at night on designated routes and secured during the day. Seeing the size of the components on a not so large Country road was pretty amazing !
The gawking over we kept cycling on our less than favorite road into increasingly strong head winds that were really beginning to sap Kevs strength !
Coming into Nogaro Kev`s hullicinations obviously took over as I beckoned him over on the corner of a road to look at a stadium ! `Must be their local footy stadium said Henley ` - well could be said I if they play little league over here in front of packed crowds !
It was of course a bull fighting stadium and I guess the closer we get to Spain the more influential Spanish culture becomes.
It was weird going inside the stadium with both of us having pretty much an intense dislike for the ritual / sport ? With that thought in mind we had already checked to ensure that we aren't in Pamplona for their Bull running festival and thankfully miss it by one week ! I'm not sure anyway if they would have given us approval to ride our bikes through the middle of it !
With rain threatening, little accommodation ahead, many more hills to be faced and Kev fading fast with some form a bug we made a decision to quit the day early at Aire sur L`Adour. Henley tried to put his condition down to the 1/2 litre of Rose he had drunk on the Pilgrims meal menu the night before but this was not going to wash as I'd had a litre of Red wine and was feeling fine !
Teeing up a hotel in town we came across two fellow Melbournians from Collingwood who have walked the 550 + kms to here from Le Puy en Velay over the course of 3 + weeks.
They indicated crossing the Aubracs in snow and walking on trails covered in quicksand like mud making the trek incredibly tough - and this is Summer !
With Kev tucked up in bed, I had a quick look around town. With all the rain of late the local river is pretty close to bursting its banks !
As for our patient , only tomorrow will tell but hopefully its just a 24 hourer - `shit happens` says Henley !
I'll bet Kev was impressed with meeting a few of Eddie's mob or did he think they were just another load of bullstuff?
ReplyDeleteMike you should remember that Kev is getting on in years and so you will need to make allowances for his fragile state.
Regards Bobbert.