St. Jean Pied de Port to Cette-Eygun
Into the Pyrenees, big time! Started with a cat 1 climb over the Col de Burdincurucheta and a shorter cat 3 climb over the Col d’Iraty. Note: climbs are rates from cat 4 (easiest) to cat 1 (harder), with the hardest being “hors categorie” (HC, above category, like, way hard). After lunch (a perfect sandwich with ham and cheese on baguette) we did our first HC climb of the trip, the Col de Soudet.
It was a tough day; my knees are not very happy with me at the moment, due to the stupid Ana’s-to-Tahoe ride last week. Kim had it worse when she slid out on a wet downhill and now has a nice collection of road-rash to deal with on the rest of the ride. Never did rain; had some humid, sweaty climbs, and some cool descents. Unfortunately it was often hazy or socked in with clouds, so it was hard for photos, but here are a couple:
Lots of cows, sheep, and horses on the roads, along with lots of their slippery by-products. Nice effect hearing the cowbells, along with sheep-bells and horse-bells! The scenery really is quite stunning; very picturesque. Looking forward to a nice dinner at the hotel, which is in a quiet mountain town in the Parc National des Pyrenees.
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