Cahors

292 miles today but it feels as though I travelled much further. I left Cadaqués in glorious sunshine and by 09:30 when I got onto the autoroute headed for Narbonne, the temperature was 25 degrees. The ride to Narbonne was a tremendous battle with an extremely strong sidewind blowing west to east that had me using most of a lane as I was battered back and forth across it as gusts hit me. I was very glad then to leave the autorute and head into the hills which protected me somewhat from the blast which also diminished in strength as I rode north west. Unfortunately, a few miles from Narbonne and the sunny weather had completely disappeared to be replaced by low cloud.

I soon found myself in thick cloud/mist, navigating greasy hairpin bends and with my visor constantly being covered inside and out by the wretched mist, it was not easy riding. All the splendid views that the route should have provided were completely invisible.  I was heading for a little town called Ambialet which I had seen in photographs and it had looked very picturesque as it is located in a hairpin bend of the Tarn river which when seen from above is a tremendous sight. Unfortunately, I could hardly make out the sign for the viewpoint, let alone the view but I descended the gorge into the village for a bite to eat and a hot drink.

I stopped at a little café where they were busy mopping the terrace where rain had left huge puddles.  They seemed surprised to see a customer and were somewhat taken aback when I requested food but they provided me with a nice quiche and a salad willingly enough. The half dozen people or so were the owner, his wife and a few friends and when, inevitably, I mentioned that I was disappointed not to have seen the view, they looked very glum and  told me they had only had a couple of days of sun in the last 6 weeks. It was hurting business, the crops and they were understandably very fed up. Still they were quite charming to me and offered all sorts of suggestions of places where I might go to find the sun. Unfortunately, they were all around the coast of the Mediterranean,  so not really a lot of use to me on the way to England.

I dropped out of the hills as soon as I was able and after humming and haa-ing, I headed for Cahors in weather that improved considerably, to the extent of offering a couple of sunny periods. I found a pretty decent hotel called the Terminus and appropriately, near the railway station. The hotel is not much to look at but the room is clean and comfortable enough, I was able put the bike in a lock up garage and it turned out that the restaurant is truly excellent.

I got some reasonable headcam footage leaving Cadaqués, my last sight of the Pyrenees (sob..) but that will have to wait for a faster wifi link than I have here; so just one photo today, of a little place called Lisle sur Tarn.

Delhi belly,three countries, and my last day in Spain

I was awakened this morning at about 05:00 by fierce stomach cramps and an urgent need to visit the bathroom, a journey repeated umpteen times until the Immodium had kicked in. When I checked out the girl at the desk asked how I had liked the stay at this Parador. I said it was OK apart from the dinner which had done something nasty to my insides. She didn't seem overly concerned and didn't take up my suggestion to discount the meal which made me feel easier about having stolen a toilet roll in case of emergencies!

Before making this trip, I had read unflattering descriptions of Andorra together with the advice that it wasn't worth visiting. I should have taken that advice, it is a real dump and that is being polite. Approaching from the south as I did, you pass through customs almost immediately upon leaving La Seu D'Urgell and then into a conurbation of flats, shops and streets that seems to go on for miles - it does in fact! I don't know why but Andorra has an enormous number of petrol stations, it seems that every half mile or so, there is another and not just one, they seem to build them four at a time, all selling different brands. I reckon that in terms of petrol stations per capita Andorra must come first in the world easily. They also score highly in the ski lifts per capita rankings. Anywhere there is a hillside there is a ski lift. some seem to be built in back yards and can't be much more than a 100 yards long. The "development" of the hills to install all these lifts and to make runs has destroyed the natural beauty of what would be a lovely area. The picture below is the very best bit of Andorra about a kilometre from the border with France. That is a large ski resort in the valley below.

I passed into France in a somewhat confused state, I had thought I was going back into Spain ( I blame the funny tummy) and couldn't understand why the road signs were suddenly in French and why there were notices about the Tour de France here and there. Once I realised what was going on, I quite enjoyed the descent from the 2408 metre/7900 feet pass as the countryside immediately looked much nicer.

Back in Spain, I took the N152 from Puigcerdà over the Collada de Toses and on to Ripoll. It is a fabulous road with stunning scenery and superb bends for the biker. At Ripoll, I again joined the N260 and followed it all the way (with one short detour to a more scenic area), to Cadaqués on the Mediterranean which is where I am spending my last night in Spain. 

The knowledge that this was my last day in this wonderful country, on this trip, has been in the back of my mind all day and I have felt quite sad about it. However, needless to say I 'll be back!

I'll continue this blog until I get home and then there will be (after some delay), some video to add to it and perhaps some postscripts once I have had time to digest the experience.

Now to figure out a way home - made more complicated than need be as my Garmin seems to be on its last legs. It keeps losing satellite signal, especially in towns, switches itself off sporadically and has no idea of the one way systems in use in any of the towns I have been through for the last week or so. Back to paper maps and a compass I think!

La Seu D'Urgell

I had a great ride along the N260 from Sabiñánigo in perfect weather. I was again following the German motorcycle club (ADAC) suggested route.  The N260 is a long road and passes through a wide variety of terrain in terms of the views from the road and also the variety of curves and straight sections it offers. There is also a good deal of variation in the condition of the road which varies from brand new, where sections have been renewed, to pretty awful in places where the recent bad weather has taken its toll. At points there are big gaps in the armco which has been bent and ruptured where rockfalls must have carried it away at some time (either that or damn great big trucks!).

There were plenty of road crews out and at one point I was held up for a good half hour waiting to pass one section under repair. Of course the work has to be done but to a motorcyclist an unwelcome side effect is the horrible tarry bits that get picked up and flung onto the bike, clothes etc, as well as making the tyres slippery for a mile or two.

After crossing the collado de Espina, I turned north on the N230 towards Vielha and the Val d'Aran. I wasn't sure I would get through here as the Val d'Aran was hit very hard a week or so ago when the snow melted and flooded the villages with mud etc. However, I was able to pass through the 5 km long tunnel and then turn south again on the C28 towards Sort. This is a magnificent stretch of road and one highlight was passing over the Port de la Bonaigua at 2072 metres/6800 feet at which point I had snow below me as well as above. At Sort, I turned east to La Seu d'Urgell where I am yet again keeping the paradores in business.

The last couple of days have seen many more tourists around than I have seen all month up to now. I guess the combination of good weather and the popular region explain it. Among them have been a lot of bikers too. Again, until now, I have seen very few but there are plenty around now, although I have seen only one UK group judging by the plates.

At Port de la Bonaigua

Llavorsi

I take childish delight in revving the engine in tunnels...

I was glad to see this type of road protection - much better for the biker than armco!

Torla

Torla

A very friendly spanish biker who pointed out various places he recommended I visit. Of course I had no time to fit them in, unfortunately.

Sabiñánigo

Leaving Burgos I headed for the Sierra de la Demanda which I thought I had read was an area used for spaghetti westerns. If so, I missed the spot for I encountered lush green hillsides. I hadn't realised Burgos was so high (860 metres) until the cold forced me to stop after only riding a short distance up into the sierra. My bike told me it was 8 degrees and with a very stiff breeze blowing it felt positively icy. Fortunately the hills sheltered me most of the time so I was able to look around with interest rather than simply shivering and hoping for shelter.

Trees were a mixture of pines and deciduous trees the latter covering entire hills in some cases. They must look marvellous in the autumn when the leaves turn. As I climbed higher ( I passed 1400 metres/ 4600 feet at some point), I encountered a small plateau and which with its thin grass and trees, reminded me of the area between Bettws Coed and Bala in Wales. In general, the hills are not that much higher than the road so the scenery was not as dramatic as that I had seen in Galicia.

The road surfaces within the national park area were a mixture - some clearly designed by the biking highway engineers but in need of repair, some which had been repaired by folk who seemed to have got the concept of camber back to front and some which tested the limits of my suspension by providing about 40 km of pure washboard. the speed at which this would have smoothed out was faster than I could ride with all the twisties so I was forced to stand on the pegs for about 20 km to take the strain off my back. Then, before I left the park there was a stretch of biker's delight as if to make up for all that had gone before.

My destination now was the Pyrenees and I took the autovia to Pamplona to join a route that I wanted to follow, which is one of several recommended by the German motorcycling organisation. I rode it for a good distance in steadily increasing temperatures and it is indeed a lovely route providing entertaining roads and great views. My plan was to follow it to Jaca from where I want to ride the famous N260 road. At some point I got too tired ( and rather hot - the temperature had by now reach 27 degrees) to consider riding the remainder of the route (which had many big loops in it and I tried to take a more direct route, cutting off a loop. However, I encountered a big rockfall completely blocking the road, so had to retrace my steps. I did manage to cut out a later loop and staggered into a hotel in Sabiñánigo a few miles east of Jaca which is very close to the N260 which is my planned ride for tomorrow.

I have seen very little graffiti in Spain so was slightly taken aback to find this sign defaced.

There's snow in them thar hills..

Near Jaca, this little hill looks almost man made.

Burgos

I left Ribadeo this morning with bright sunshine on the estuary and the neighbouring villages of Figueras and Castropol gleaming in the sun. I headed south into the mountains to explore the roads there. I found a wonderful road that ran high on the side of a valley carved out by the Rio Navia (the AS12). Both the  road and the scenery were magnificent. The landscape looked quite alpine to my eyes. Early on, when I glanced behind me, I caught sight of the valley opening to the sea which was a wonderful sight.

Salí de Ribadeo esta mañana con un sol brillante en el estuario y los pueblos vecinos de Figueras y Castropol resplandecientes bajo el sol. Me dirigí al sur en las montañas para explorar los caminos allí. He encontrado un camino maravilloso que corría a alto en el lado de un valle labrado por el río Navia (AS12). La carretera y el paisaje ambos fueron muy impresionantes. El paisaje parecía bastante alpino a mis ojos. Desde el principio del viaje, cuando miré detrás, cogí vi el valle que se abren al mar que era un espectáculo maravilloso.

The area through which the road passes is clearly more geared towards tourism than some areas I have seen in the mountains although there were no tourists to be seen. The road also passes through numerous little hamlets - often just a couple of houses so there were no annoying holdups for traffic at all. As ever it seems, I saw very little traffic. The occasional farmer working his steeply sloping pasture could be seen.

By the time I reached Grandas and having been thinking about where I should head next, I decided that it was time to cover some distance towards the Pyrenees. I was very tempted to make my way into the Picos de Europa but I reckoned that if I spent time there, there was no way that I would be able to get a proper look at the Pyrenees in the time remaining to me on this trip. So rather reluctantly, I set the GPS to lead me to Burgos. This it did by taking me first south west - still on a magnificent biking road, for a good many miles until it intersected the A6 (Autovia del Noroeste). This section of road coincided with the Camino de Santiago and I saw a number of walkers and cylista obviously making the pilgrimage.

The part of the A6 autovia in Galicia passes through incredibly beautiful scenery which sadly disappears and becomes less interesting as the road drops into Castilla y León. However, there was enough interest and the day didn't get too hot (25 degrees) to allow me to remain reasonably fresh as I travelled East towards Burgos. I ducked off the autovia a couple of times for a bit of variety but came back to it so as not to lose too much time.

I saw mountains both to the north and initially to the south that had snow here and there on the peaks. The mountains in the north certainly included the Picos de Europa but I couldn't pick out the areas I knew with any certainty. I picked my hotel in Burgos almost at random and fortuitously, it proved to be very close to the autovia, so I didn't have to fight any evening rush hour traffic for which I was grateful after the 330 miles covered today.