Uk, Santander, Picos, Andorra , France Run 2010 Early June

[amarko5]

<b>Day 5 </b>

the trip to Tautavel another massive milage run approx 380 (on these roads thats a lot in one day)

Begins with a look at the maps as with half of the col du tourmalet closed we have to re route to get to la Mongie for the cablecar up the Pic Du Midi (more on this later)

this is the route we chose and boy did it turn out to be something special.



first up was a detour round to La Mongie and the climb up one of the highest passes (1/2 closed by half a metre of snow)



Arrive at the Pic Du Midi



its getting a tad misty



so i wander into the tourist information to have a look on the TV of pictures at the top (ie is it worth the 20 odd euro's ) after a little broken english / french with the young lady i find out it is indeed closed today as the workers are on strike about trying to increase their retirement age from 55 to 60,

Now i don't mind admitting at this point i was totally gutted (this was to be one of the highlights of my tour, but ces't la vie now i have a reason to return (as if i really needed one).



whilst there we noticed some really strict health and safety practices :-)



dont look to bad until you zoom out



So slightly deflated we went back down the tourmalet to a mid point for a coffee



here we perused over the maps again and finalised a route (wow did it turn out great) so the col du tourmalet was first in a sequence of four col's on the trot.

next up my favourite the col du aspin the road up and the road down were fantastic and stunning if you find it on a map and zoom in you will see this.



and its a peachy surface and zero traffic up and down, heres some views from the top.




and part of the road down





next up was the col du mente where Stuart, mick, me and gordon did just that went mental. this culminated in rather hot and bothered no stopping power back brake's. (don't forget this is our third pass in quick succession and we were not hanging about)




so it was decided to take a break with a local artisan at the bottom of the mente




turns out the guy in yellow was a retired gendarme bike cop , so the fluent french speakers had a good old chat about politics and the state of france, while i just sat there.

on we travelled over another col (cannot remember its name but we took it a bit more sensibly, like about 2mph slower lol) then we were in need of food



spotted this modified fireblade single swinger and homemade underseat exhaust



it was a pretty place by the river



anyway on we travel covering lots and lots of miles on more and more fantastic roads.

another pitstop for a view down to quillan (you will guess how the road twists and turns down to there)





not many miles to go from there to tautavel (mick's place) where we spend the next 5 days ( A really BIG THANK YOU TO Mick at this point )



then we had a lovely meal in tautavel watching the local wildlife doing the same



and of course there was CAKE



off to bed again for more ZZZZ's Day's 6 to 10 to come yet