Cuba Libra............Rum in the Sun

Rum in the sun......

Not a normal Mojito...this is rum infused with mint over ice...lethal but it does wonders for your hair.

The bottles are all rum with different fruit infusing in them......now this looks like a challenge.

Up to "Barry on High" by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Tarascon Su Arisaige by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Another great day on the bike......

Dutch Cycling.... Tarascon Su Arisaige

We moved from Estaing to Tarascon Sur Arisaig a small village intersected by the Arisaig river, which was in flood when we visited.

The campsite was just outside of town and an easy walk to bars and shops. One shop that caught our eye was the home made sangria shop so "when in Tarascon" we bought the 1 bottle (which in a previous life was a Tropicana bottle)  fetchingly wrapped in a sheet of news paper and headed back to the van to sample it.......and very nice it was.....

 

The next day our Dutch neighbors invited Allen out for a cycle up the Col Du Port. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_de_Port which he managed a five place even with his chain falling off.

the Pyrenees High Mountains....

The Pyrenees the main crest forms a massive divider between France and Spain, with the tiny country of Andorra sandwiched in between. We spent 5 nights in Estaing,  a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.  Walking in the valley up to the the lake is mainly on the road  but this was due to several avalanches that had impacted upon the GR10 path way. At the lake there are several opportunities to explore the midi Pyrenees with paths that lead deep into the mountains, we chose the direct route straight up the valley.

The objective was to reach the lake at an altitude of over 2000m, however with the snow it was proving too be more of a challenge than we had anticipated.

At 1600m we called it a day as the next snow fall required ice axes and crampons which we had not packed, plus the unfortunate on looker spoke volumes.

Midi Pyrenees....Estaing

Estaing is a small village of 60 people at the head of a fantastic valley in the Pyrenees. The campsite is small and is ideally situated for mountain walking and cycling. On arriving we decided to take Harley out for a small trot up the GR10 national walking route only to find ourselves and our path obstructed by an avalanche.

Well this was about the third one we came across and having walked over two without really knowing what they were until we spotted the snow within the debris of the third one we decided it probably wasn't the best thing to be doing...we could just see the head lines....stupid brits caught in avalanche.

With the excitement of the first days walking out the way it was cycle time...... so to get my legs, chest and other bodily parts ready for the onslaught I took the bike out for a quick cycle upto the lake at 1100m.

As you can see the weather wasn't great with a lot of snow but hay I cycle the Purbecks in winter.......

The next day the sun came out and so it was off to the Col D'Aubisque at 1700m the highest i've been on a bike ever. Unfortunately the  final 5km to the summit was shut due to snow and Avalanches so I only made it to the col D Soulor at 1474m...not bad for a days work.....

Climb of the Col De Port by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
Roasting hot in the Pyrenees and a great climb, top 3 to 4 km easy zig zags around 5 to 6% some lower sections 10%.
Our Dutch neighbors invited my for a cycle which ended up with about 20 or so Dutch and me. Needless to say it was competitive on the climb and I managed to cross 5th over the top and that was having to stop to put my chain back on too so reckoned i could have podiumed.  

col d'aubisque pyrenees by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
Today's was the first serious day in the pyrenees, col d'aubisque unfortunately due to the snow the col was shut.
So it was just the 1st category climb of the  Soulor just 8km short  of the col d'aubisque, plus two category 2 climbs thrown in for good measure.

Walk to Estaing Lake ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
Our 10km daily walk to the lake.

Estaing Lake Cyle then Col De Borderes by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
 First outing in the Pyrenees.....its not the Purbecks

St Jean de Luz......in the sun..,

So we packed up and headed 8 miles further down the coast nearer to the Spanish boarder and oh what a difference. The feel is so more Espanol and the town/city of st Jean de Luz is fantastic. It's a large half moon shaped bay protected by sea walls with the Pyrenees in the back ground.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jean-de-Luz
The back streets are full of restaurants and bars influenced by the Basque region.

Louis the XIV house

 Having walked 8km in flip flops we headed back to our beach for some R&R and the first open water sea swim of the year. (See earlier post)
Once the sun started to set the beach bar was far too tempting so we stopped for a few sun downers.

  

 Local Basque beer

 Mmmmmm Mojitos........

Yes this is all part of the training program for Embrun.........

First open water swim in the Bay of Biscay by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by ironmanAllen at Garmin Connect - Details
60% swim stroke efficiency from the garmin which im kind of proud about.

Post Hurricane Surf.....

The sun has eventually returned though the beaches are a sorry state..post apocalyptic scenes of washed up trees and all manner of shrubbery. Walking through the dross you can clearly see olives, walnuts, figs...a veritable feast, we even found a dead porpoise among the rubbish.

yesterdays beach shots

We headed to the beach to be greeted by 7 Massey Ferguson's trying to mop up the aftermath and a nice 3, 4 ft beach brake. Now having caught a nasty lurgy last time I surfed a post hurricane swell you would have thought I should have learnt my lesson...na....so like  fool I headed out into the surf to be greeted by all manner of flotsam  and jetsam. For example complete pallets, fishing nets, fishing lines, trees, shrubs, plastic boxes for freezing fish that trawlers use, plastic barrels, rubber cloves, bamboo, oil drums you name it and it was there.......I've never experienced this level of rubbish in the sea in my life I guess its a culmination of the large storm and the bay of Biscay circulating its pollution. Having ducked dived through large lumps of tumbling wood and having caught a hand full of waves I called it day. 

We move onto to St Jean du Luz tomorrow, another beach break so if I,m not struck down with stomach issues Ill let you now what the water conditions are like 20km further up the coast.

Hossegor Hurricane..... Death on a stick

After the beautiful sun and scenery of Pyla Sur Mer we headed down the coast to Moliets Plage - a small surf town and our site was right on the beach. On arrival, we parked up and headed straight down for a look, passing so many Brits on the way with their boards under their arms that we thought we might have landed in Croyde! Although the surf didn't amount to much while we were there, we did a fair amount of walking through pine and cork (??) trees and enjoyed the local bars and restaurants where everyone was really friendly and wanted to keep Harley. We had a great lunch in the rustic, family-run Cave de Moules.

We left Moliets in the rain and ran into a hurricane smashing itself into the SW coast of France. No chance of a surf here as it was definitely "death on a stick out there" (did you get the film ref???)

We are now in Bidart next to Biarritz with the same hurricane...

So what else could we do but find the best bar in Biarritz that serves over 25 different beers and sample a few. This one was a firm favourite, La Trappe a wheat beer. Now I'm not a great fan of wheat beers but this one was far too drinkable, cold, smooth and even Philippa liked it.

 Friday night in Bidart, we stumbled across the local sport of Basque Pelota

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_pelota

It's a mix of Tennis, Squash and involves a raffia basket attached to one hand that is used to catch and throw the hard wooden ball against a wall at just below sub sonic speed.....its quite addictive to watch as the ball bounces off the wall some 60m and has to be caught in your raffia basket on your hand then its thrown from where you have caught it and it must hit the wall. Have a look at the wiki page for the rules.

Saturday is market day in Bidart and this time we had a military plan in place that would prevent us from buying our own body weight in cheese. However we were nearly foiled when the first stall we came across was the cheese stall.........but we managed to walk by without being tempted...result. Instead it was the sausages and chorizo, tinned picante duck and the gateau Basque that got us this time. Now gateau Basque is like a cheese cake without the cheese, it has a base and top like crushed digestive biscuits, slightly moist or maybe like Maids of Honour with a jam substance in the middle. Fillings can either be cream, cherry jam or chocolate. The cherry jam one tastes very sweet with no hint of cherry thankfully.

After the market and a cafe we walked into Biarritz for a Tapas lunch...however no photos exist as it was too nice. After a few Trappes we headed to the Newquay bar to watch the first Lions game...good result and dominated by the Welsh players.

Tonight (Sunday) its a Soiree Basque....food, drink and music of the region...photos to follow.