Day 8 : A day of rest… or maybe not 😉
So I was with my aunt and cousins in Fouras in France. They wanted to visit the island d’aix with their little friends. So it was kind of a babysitting day. Playing football on the beach, a little picknick, cycled the tour of the island… Yes, I cycled again… But at a very low speed with the little guys J
Day 9: Beautiful ( Fouras-Hourtin :176 km)
I cycled from Fouras to Royan to take the boat to the other side of the canal. This piece of the day was quit boring and was much longer than expected (100km!). Yet, at the other side of the river, it was beautiful. It was magnificent. Beautiful long cycling roads. Magnificent nature, it was something whole different than the days before. The weather was nice, as well as someone I met. I don’t know what his name was, nor I know his nationality. He had cycling-clothes with a lot of German on it, and he was wearing socks with a Swiss flag on it. I saw someone cycling like 300 meters in front of me, so I started a little hunt to get him. I had to drive above 40 km/hour to finally take him. But when I arrived next to him, he took the lead so that I didn’t have to drive in the wind. We drove at a speed of 37 and after an hour our ways split. So I thanked him with a “danke schön” and then he explained that he wanted to help me because I had to “suffer” with those heavy bags on the back of my bike. When I arrived in Hourtin, I went to the house of ‘tata Annie’ to pass the night.
Day 10: Powerrrrrr (Hourtin-Dax 210km)
I started a little late (10 ‘o clock), and had to go back after some kilometers because I forgot my water. But then I started again and went into sixth gear. I could go straight on the whole time, so the kilometers flew by, one by one. Again there were some beautiful cycling ways, yet I had to ride a lot on some big roads as well today. In the end, my average speed was 28,54 kilometers/hour after a lot of wind during the day and a lot of hills in the end (short hills).
Day 11: Nice to see you again! (Dax- Pamplona (190 km))
I started this day by calling my parents to know where I would meet them. We would meet in Saint-Jean de pied-port. I crossed a motor cycle gang. What a noise! All those Harleys, all those men with beards and tattoo’s, and then there was me, myself and I on my little bike… A little after noon, I met mom and dad a little bit before Saint-Jean de pied-port. After eating a little pancake over there, I started the second half of the day with my dad on his bike as well. He did well. We crossed the border of Spain! My dad may not be the best one to climb a hill on his bicycle, yet he is an excellent downhiller, and on the flat, he can ride a good speed as well! Like the last 10 kilometers of that day. I wanted to do a little test. Would he break when I went above 40? No he didn’t. We did those last 10 kilometers at an average speed around 44 kilometers an hour… So my dad should be proud of what he did there.
Day 12: Pamplona- Sto. Domingo de la Calzada (175 km)
My dad did the whole ride as well! My tire (the inside) exploded at the beginning of a 4 kilometer climb… That was quit a wake-up call… My dad first thought at first it was a gun fire to scare away the beards. Yet it was my tire which was tired (get it 😉 ) of the voyage after more than 1300 kilometers… After repairing this, we moved on. In that heat and with all those climbs, we stopped after those 175 kilometers and went to a Pilgrimage sleeping place.
hkoindia 