Anyway what an experience today was. I really need to plan these things better.
Yesterday I said something like ' uphill "bits" (can't believe I said "bits") was around 350 meters. I forgot that I stopped before the 200 meter hill. Today's stage was already going to be 400m uphill so whatever the actual measurements were, todays climb was 4 times yesterday's, and 26km long. It took me 7.5 hours. I'm in a really nice mid-sized town called Arudy. Tomorrow I'm off to Oloron Ste. Marie which is downhill from here.
I think that picture of the bridge is pretty cool - the way the reflection makes it look like an "O".
I was pretty cranky when I finally arrived, and was ready to declare it a horrible day but after lying down for an hour and taking a shower, I think it might be one of the top five stages I've ever done. The scenery in the second picture is a good representation of what I had to look at all day.
This stage really had it all. Forests, farms, meadows, mountains and I think less than 5km was on pavement.
It reminded me of the first route I ever did - from LePuy en Velais in that it felt even more authentic than the main Spanish caminos in that there were chapels galore which certainly makes it feel like there's been very little re-routing over the years.
The other thing I loved about it is that no single part of it seemed to be more than a couple hundred yards long: up a nasty muddy footpath, cross the road, onto a farm track, onto another footpath where you enter a pasture (making sure to close the gate behind you on the way in and out so the livestock doesn't escape), into the pavement as you enter a village ...
Anyway dinner just came. Bye for now.
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