I am writing this on Sunday, Day Nine of our adventure so let me tell you about Day 8 (yesterday first…..once we have finished the largely pointless exercise of hanging up the washing (pointless because the sun has been replaced by clouds and it’s cold) we wander into the village and find somewhere to eat. 

Over dinner we agree that rather than take the full rest day it is better that we take an extra hour or so in the morning to relax, recover a bit, dry the washing and then do whatever we need to do to get over the Pyrenees. As much as possible we want to get back on track and not have lost too much time or distance from our plan because the Porte Larrau pass is closed . We have plenty of food and water with us and we have found a refuge at the top on Google Maps that is open so if the climb up to La Pierre Saint Martin turns out to be really too much for us we at least have somewhere safe to be. We have also found a new campsite further on into Spain that would be ideal if we can make it….. not quite as far south as our planned Day Nine site but overall we feel pretty happy that this is “good” plan. 

We leave around 930 with dry clean clothes. We know that what lies ahead will be tough but OMG it turns out to be the toughest climb we have ever, ever done….and don’t forget we have already done quite a few big climbs on previous trips. It takes us nearly four hours to make the 18 mile and 5000 foot climb to the top of Col La Pierre St Martin. It is absolutely brutal!! 

We climb through the clouds and eventually arrive at the summit where we are rewarded with some pretty amazing views.

We brew up and discuss what we want to do about the rest of the day. We both agree that the campsite we had found on Google is just too far and too much climbing after what we have just endured. Instead we settle on heading for the town of Segues which is about 35 miles away and should be mostly down…..and so we head off. 

The “down” is unsurprisingly pretty spectacular but also absolutely freezing and so we drop down as fast as we possibly can seeking out some warmth. 

When we get to about 2000 feet (still pretty high) the road levels out and we are now about 40 miles into what we think is a 50 mile day to the town out of Sigues. I do a quick check of the map for the first time in a while and have that horrible sick feeling when I realise I have been following the Garmin which is still set to take us to the campsite we agreed wasn’t doable today. When I say to Marc, matter of factly, “so we are going to that campsite after all” there is a brief look of horror on his face followed very quickly, in typical Marc style, “ok well that’s what we are doing then”. 

Given it’s already after 5pm the prospect of another 30 miles and, more awfully, another 2000 feet of climbing is hard to contemplate …but he is right, we have no choice…it needs to get done.

Because we hadn’t banked on such a long day our water is getting low so we drop into a small village but find absolutely “nada” that looks like a shop of any kind. We spot a elderly lady with a walking stick (that is relevant, stick (haha!) with it!) watering her garden. Rather rudely with hindsight, we wave our empty water bottles at her and in our best (ie non existent!) Spanish say “agua per favor?” (and yes we do have the decency to make it sound a bit like a question). Bless her the answer is of course “si” and she toddles off with my water bottle (and her stick in the other hand) the 10 or so yards into her house and then returns having clearly been unable to open it. She heads back again (once I have unscrewed it) and returns and then makes a third and final trip with Marc’s bottle. Its clear this constitutes a “gran dia” physio wise so we do feel quite guilty but we do at least have more water now. 

A difficult day gets a fair bit more challenging when with 25 miles still to go my gear cable for the rear derailleur snaps (basically the thing that gives me any chance of getting up hills). I had both cables changed before I came away so it’s an unexpected failure and one I don’t have spares for. What’s possibly even worse is that Dan isn’t here this time so I can’t blame him and ickle Dan feels like too easy a target. We manage to lock it into a single gear mid way in the range which, because I have two chain rings, means I have just two gears available instead of the usual 22 and we carry on. It’s best I don’t talk here about the last 25 miles. All you need to know that is that we made it the campsite, we ate we showered and we slept. I am not ashamed to admit I also wept….a lot! 

We are here safe, we are in Spain, we are ever so slightly ahead of schedule although we have a broken bike which needs to be fixed before we can go anywhere. 

If you are still reading this and think we are having a lovely holiday….this is the hardest, most intense, most demanding thing both physically and mentally  I have ever, ever done and it’s not getting easier. Please, please donate! 

I am literally asleep before my head hits the pillow (I say “pillow” obviously what I mean is a piled up bag of my now clean clothes)….tonight is all about sleeping …tomorrow is about agreeing a new plan.