Barcelona Part 2 (Barcelona to Taunton)

Day 8 - La Floresta to Espot

Wait - whatever happened to days 5, 6 and 7?  Well, this is a (vaguely) motorcycling related blog, and days 5 to 7 were non-riding days, where we played tourists along with our lovely wives, Angela and Sharon.  No complaints, very enjoyable days they were too.  We visited the Bari Gothique, went mad in Mercado De La Boqueria, visited Parc Guell, Casa Vicens, Sagrada Familia and a whole day at the magnificent Monestir de Montserrat.  We also were present when the rioting in central Barcelona started.... watch this if you want to know what that was all about!

So here we are, it's now Tuesday morning.  Jez & I will get underway on the bikes, whilst the signorina's take in more Gaudi and some last-minute shopping before heading for the airport for a late evening departure home.  We unchain the bikes, and carry out inspection. 

• Petrol? Check
• Oil?  Check
• Water?  Yes - in the panniers and not the air-cooled engine!
• Damage?  Non
• Electrics?  Check
• Rubber?  Check  
• Stoppers (brakes)?  Check
• Self?  Check!

Sorry love, no room for your lampshades...

Avoiding major roads, I have plotted a route that takes us through the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac Natural Park, farmland and villages, picking up the N260 again at Ripoll.  As soon as we clear the conurbation of Terrassa, we are climbing into a rural idyl, where deeply forested massif's rise to over 1000 m above sea level.  The woodlands are a mixture of Oak & Pine trees, which seems typical of Catalonia.  

We cross the C25 Autovia - the main arterial road in Catalonia - and push into the Pyrenean foothills, aiming between Berga & Ripoll.  This is lovely countryside, and honestly, I could quite happily ride around aimlessly for days!

Refreshment stop in the Riera de Merlès

We swing onto the VM-4406, a quiet single track road following the river through the Riera de Merlès Protected Natural Area. Climbing gently from south to north, we leave behind farmland at around 550m altitude, progressing through paddocks, homesteads and campsites, before emerging in a wooded valley at around 800m.  A couple of miles on we join the C26, and then swoop down into Ripoll, re-joining the N260.

On to Ribes where we get an excellent lunch at Bar Gussi.  Now we start to climb again, on the Collada de Toses section.  This must surely be one of the best roads in Spain, with beautiful sweepers, twists and turns which make it delightful to ride.  It has a reputation for being very dangerous if bad weather closes in, but in the dry, warm and sunny conditions of a mid-October afternoon, it's close to perfection.  

A quick respite at the top of the pass.

From the top of the pass, we plunge towards the French town of Bourg-Madame, and only a few hundred metres from the border, we turn left to stay in Spain.  We fuel up for the final stage, and as the sun gently starts to descend in the late afternoon, we climb out of La Seu d'Urgell, where the main trunk road to Andorra peels off, and enjoy a majestic hour or so of the most fantastic vistas.  

The view at Merendero Publico

View improved with bikes!

The last 70 miles takes over 2 hours because we kept stopping to lolly-gaggle the scenery!

Passing through the riverside town of Sort - which looks worth a visit in it's own right - we depart the N260 for the final time this trip, picking up the C13 and heading north.  The sun is going down, we are in the shade as the valley is running north-south, and the asphalt is smooth, as are the curves and camber.  We speed up perceptibly, as this road invites us to, and enjoy 15-20 minutes of fast riding.  We turn up the side valley on the LV5004 towards Espot, and start up a series of switchbacks as the road climbs rapidly out of the Noguera Pallaresa Valley and into the Espot Valley, home of the Parc Nacional d'Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, freely translated from Catalan meaning "The winding streams and St. Maurice lake".

Our hostel for the night - Alberg Les Daines - is situated right by the chairlifts at the bottom of a ski resort.  Our hostess Gina apologises, but they are unable to cook an evening meal tonight, and we will have to ride back down into the village of Espot.  She recommends we try Restaurant Juquim, as it's all very local fare, but it doesn't open until 19:30.  We enjoy a typical Catalan supper with boar sausage and batatas bravas, in an incredibly busy and very small restaurant, that is obviously attuned to being busy.  

Back at the Hostel, we go to the communal lounge, and join Gina and her husband, as they are watching news reports of the rioting in Barcelona.  Happily, we learn that the airport stayed open, and after checking in with our wives, we find that they have made it safely to their gate, and are ready for take-off on schedule.  We are given some locally brewed beers to enjoy, and settled down to try to make sense of it for ourselves.

We learn from our hosts how passionately the Catalan people feel about independence from Spain.  Catalonia has a strong regional identity - after all it has it's own language and culture - and a long tradition of industrial excellence.  Catalonia has low unemployment, and accounts for around 18-20% of Spain's GDP.  Catalonians work hard, and their GDP per capita is significantly higher than the rest of Spain.  So the simple fact that their attempts to get real independence are ignored - or declared illegal by the Madrid government - is a sore point with the Catalan people.  

As a side note, my second daughter spent four months in the city of Vic whilst studying for her degree in 2013, and formed a great deal of sympathy for the Catalan peoples.  She regularly met with and befriended Carles Puigdemont before he became President of Catalonia.  I showed our hosts a photograph of her with him - much kudos accrued right there!!!

(201 miles ridden today)

Day 9 - Espot to Eaux Bonnes

This was in many ways, one of the days we had really been looking forward to.  The plan takes us over the border into France, where we will tackle some of the classic climbs of the Tour-de-France, namely Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Col du Tourmalet & the Col d'Aubisque.  There were a few others that we would also collect up en route, but these were ones we were really looking forward to riding.  But before we get to those climbs, there is still a good hour and a half of riding in Spain.  

Descending the Espot valley, we fuel up the bikes, and re-join the excellent and fast C13 heading north.  After a few km, it becomes the C28, and after a large sweeping switchback which turns the carriageway westward, the road suddenly reduces to single lane for a couple of km, with a surface that undulates rapidly, before normal service resumes and we are climbing a series of about 16 switchbacks as we climb towards the head of the Port de la Bonaigua at 2072 m.  Stopping half way up, the view back down the valley in the morning light makes the road look like a dream Scalextric set.

Did your fantasy Scalextric set look as good as this?

Over the Col / Port and past the inevitable ski resort, the road descends through a set of monolithic roadworks, forcing us to wait for a good ten minutes, whilst earth movers shore up the carriagway.  We are passed by a large group of Barcelona plated sportsbikes, obviously in a hurry to leave Spain!  

We cross over the tiny stream that is the headwaters of the mighty Garonne river, and descend into Vielha, and follow the Val d'Aran towards France for another 15 km before turning up the side of the valley at Bossòst, towards the Col du Portillon.  We stop to admire the view of the valley at the Mirador, before pushing on to the Col, which straddles the Spanish / French border.  

Mirador de Bossòst

A quick refreshment break is in order - it's important to keep fluid intake up, particularly at altitude, as you do not want to get tired riding in potentially demanding and technical areas such as the Pyrenees.  

Another view improved immeasurably by the inclusion of motorbikes

Once over the border, the first thing we notice is the return of raised ironworks on the carriageway, which is very disconcerting considering how steep the initial descent is!  The descent levels out , and at Bagnères-de-Luchon we turn towards the lovely but rather easy Col de Peyresourde.  I'm sure it's hard work on a bicycle, but a GS makes really short work of it.  Onwards to Arreau, and as it's midday, we find a lovely little café serving strong coffee and freshly made crepes with local cheese & ham.  Ironically, the café is called "Le Londres" and is just down the road from Hôtel d'Angleterre!  

Refreshed, we set off, knowing that we are only 20 minutes away from the Col d'Aspin.  My SatNav insists it knows better, and directs us through a series of tight switchbacks around the commune of Aspin-Aure, re-joining the main D918 about half way up the ascent to the Col.  The views are sublime, and the road is lovely.  

View to the east at Col d'Aspin

Col d'Aspin isn't one of the highest passes in the Pyrenees by any stretch, but it is particularly pretty, with views of the heavily forested peaks of the Hautes-Pyrénées to the east.  To the west, the view is dominated by the peak of Pic du Midi de Bigorre some 16 km away as the crow flies.  It is towards this 2,877 m high peak that we must head now, as we head towards the highest mountain pass of the trip, the legendary Col du Tourmalet.  

Very much a Col of two sides: the eastern approach is a steady slog uphill, through the Ski Resort at La Mongie, and then the final handful of switchbacks through the alpine meadows up towards the Col; the Western approach is defined by the incredibly steep final section, where you climb almost 400 metres from the hamlet of Super Bareges, less than 3km from the summit!  The view back down the valley is quite breath-taking. This is not a road for inexperienced or nervous drivers.  

Looking west from the 2115m high summit of Col du Tourmalet

You guessed it - another view improved with the addition of motorbikes...

It's quite disconcerting as you start the western descent.  It is so steep at the top that you can hardly see the road below you as you approach the first hairpin bend, and it is only when you are almost on top of the corner that you can see an exit.  There is a sequence of tight bends with some lengthy and relatively straightforward sections between them over the first 2-3 km, and within 10 minutes, you are through the scree and back down amongst high alpine meadows, following the course of a rushing mountain stream.  

It takes 45 minutes to get to our next major town, Argelès-Gazost, where once again we stop to rehydrate, before climbing the Col du Solour, and then onwards to the Col d'Aubisque, another frequent climb on the Tour de France.  The road crosses the Cirque du Litor, in the upper part of the Ouzom valley, over which it gives a stunning view of.  Avalanche risk is very high, so the road, is generally closed from December to June.  

Col d'Aubisque, looking back towards the Col du Solour

No snow in sight today, but there was a light drizzle in the air, and a very blustery breeze, making the descent towards the ski resort of Gourette a bit of a nerve-jangling affair.  

Late afternoon, we pull into Eaux-Bonnes (good waters), our overnight home.  It's a natural spa town, with a vast selection of elegant looking apartments, but most look empty, and there are few signs of life in the village centre.  We locate the apartment, and discover that our host had upgraded us to a bigger one because there was building work going on at the back of the five storey block.  We had even more room to unpack and look like slobs.... we changed, and went in search of somewhere to eat.  There was only one restaurant open, the Hôtel Richelieu.  Despite proudly displaying a sign stating a welcome to motorcyclists, the logic didn't extend to non-residents; they would feed us if we stayed at the hotel, but otherwise - Allez!

So we kitted up and rode the 10 minutes down the road to Laruns, which showed significant signs of life!  We had a lovely couple of pizzas at the Brasserie of the Hôtel d'Ossau, before returning to our digs, for a pre-bedtime beer.

(150 miles ridden today)

Day 10 - Eaux Bonnes to Puymiclan

The plan this morning was to ride back up the Col d'Aubisque on the D918, have breakfast at the Snack Bar du Solour, and then drop down the D126 towards Pau.  However, the Météo-France mountain forecast warned us off attempting the exposed route, as high winds and rain were forcast, and after waiting an extra hour to see if it would clear up, we settled on riding down the Ossau valley towards Pau instead.  At Pau we skirted the city centre, and headed on our way north.  After an hour and a half, stopped in a town called Aire-sur-l'Adour, to look for lunch.  

We could see that one restaurant in particular had the crowds, so we joined in the scrum, and ordered "Menu Jour" at €13.50 per head.  Le Comptoir de l'Adour (The Adour Counter) was decorated like an Irish sports bar, with sporting memorabilia from all over the world - football, baseball, cycling, motorsports, skiing - including a set of what I had to assume were replica leather footballs from the 1923 "Her Majesty the Queen Trophy" matches.  The bar was characterful, buzzing, and the food was excellent.

Le Comptoir de l'Adour interior

Our main course:  Escalope of Pork in a cream sauce, frites & a green salad

Le Comptoir de l'Adour is added to the list of places that I would definitely visit again.  

We progressed at speed over the rolling countryside, avoiding trunk roads, and heading towards Clairac, where I had booked our accommodation right alongside the river Lot.  For a change, I had booked us a safari tent tonight at Camping La Plage, rather than the usual Airbnb's that have made up the majority of our stays so far.  

I had seen this campsite on one of Andy B Cole's excellent Youtube trip videos (here) a couple of years back, and thought that the location looked worth a visit.  Despite having booked the site in August, and having been re-assured by the staff that we could pay the whole fee when we arrived, you can imagine our disappointment when it became very apparent that the site had closed for the season.  I knew we had drawn a duffer, when stood outside the site office, the mobile number I had been given for arrival had very obviously been forwarded to the office answerphone, which we could clearly hear being rung!

Happily, we had arrived on the Lot relatively early, so we had time to hunt for another stopover, and found a little cabin about 15 miles north in a tiny commune called Puymiclan.  It took us quite a while to actually locate the cabin, as the supplied map was almost no use whatsoever, but we finally got "picked up" by one of the girls who worked at the site, who had a little English!  

Our home for the night

The cabin was small, but extremely well equipped.  Our hostess and her husband were very helpful, and made sure we knew where everything was located, before we rode off to procure a hot meal and some wine for the evening.  

Sozzled - who me?

We settled down to eat and drink on the deck outside the cabin, and watched the sun come down, reflecting on what turned out to be a very relaxed day of riding through a very different landscape to the Pyrenees.  

(146 miles ridden today)

Day 11 - Puymiclan to Angers

Big miles today - and a significant part of it through areas I am quite familiar with, from holidaying in the Dordogne, Poitou-Charentes & Pays De La Loire.  Knowing we are looking to knock out decent mileage, and stick with our aim to avoid Autoroutes wherever practical, we set out on a route that crosses the Dordogne between Bordeaux & Bergerac, and head towards Angouleme.  We will join RN10 for a short while to Poitiers, and then take cross country roads towards Angers.  

The forecast for most of the route is cool, overcast with potential for rain, so we'd best just get on with it!

Big grey skies over the vineyards of Bergerac

We soon find ourselves amongst the vineyards of the Sud Ouest and Bergerac.  I hadn't seen such large vineyards before, covering hectare upon hectare of rolling open countryside - it's similar to some of the huge fields you see on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

We stopped briefly for a stretch after an hour and a half, and then pushed on to Angouleme, one of my favourite cities to visit, as it's quite small, but very characterful, full of artistic graffiti.  We joined the Route National to get to Poitiers as quickly as possible.  

Lunchtime hunger dictated us popping off the main RN into the village of Mansle on the banks of the River Charente.  We lunched at "Chez Riffaud", a Zero Waste grocery store with a lovely café attached.  Everything is as local as possible, and they offered a fantastic looking tapas board, which was a properly delicious selection of local charcuterie, cheeses, fruit & vegetables.  

Tapas board at Chez Riffaud

Suitably refreshed, we re-joined the N10 for an hour until we reached Poitiers.  We seemed to be making pretty reasonable time, but unfortunately Friday afternoon traffic became a serious reality as we tried to escape the orbit of Poitiers' enormous industrial estates, as did rain!  As we started to head across country towards Angers we hit traffic jam after traffic jam, and it takes us nearly an hour to get 25 km away from Poitiers.  

Once we pass the small town of Mirebeau, things seem to pick up and we can now travel at 90 kmh.  The roads are arrow straight - probably roman in origin - and this part of the ride becomes quite wearisome.  I think a round of silly songs over the intercom might have been brought in to play at this point!

As the clock approaches 18:00, we cross the Loire, and a mere 20 minutes later, we are pulling into our final overnight stop of the trip, in the north-west district of Avrillé.  Our host has no English, but his wife has a little, so with our broken French, we make the right connection.  The apartment is built over a large garage on a quiet residential street corner, with access via a galvanised external staircase.  

Our host Arnaud is also a biker!  He has a BMW K1200 LT in his garage, and is more than happy to let us park our bikes in the garage for the night, which turns out to be a blessing, as it rains again in the early hours.  

Arnaud's characterful apartment.

Once unpacked, we ride into the city to find a supermarché and stock up with last minute foods we want to take home tomorrow, as well as sorting ourselves out a decent warming meal for the evening.  

(261 miles ridden today)

Day 12 - Angers to Taunton

A relaxed ride to Cherbourg, to catch our return ferry at 18:30 is the order of the day today.  A late morning departure will allow us a good 7 hours to make the 300 km journey at a relaxed pace.

We say our farewells to Arnaud, and set off across country around 11:00 doing our utmost - once again - to avoid any form of autoroutes.  And for the most part, we do avoid dual carriageways and trunk roads.  The countryside here is pleasant, but frankly, nothing about it at this time of year (mid October) to write home about.  

We stop early afternoon for fuel - both kinds - at a Super U et Drive in Saint-James, and then start towards the Normandy coast.  We are now in "La Manche", the department that contains the whole of the Cotentin peninsula, and is chock full of villages, towns & beach names which are familiar the to the whole world because of the Normandy landings.  Avranches, Cherbourg-Octeville, Granville, Utah Beach, Coutances, Carentan marshes, and of course Sainte-Mère-Église which was the first town to be liberated on 6th June 1944 by the 82nd Airborne Division.  

We pass through some of these towns, and see many signposts for these familiar sounding names, before we arrive on the outskirts of modern day Cherbourg.  Realising we have time to spare, we stop at the world famous "Les Arches d'Or" restaurant, and get a mid-afternoon meal to tide us over until we are on the ferry.  

Adieu la belle France. Jusqu'à l'année prochaine....

Without a fuss, the ferry pulls out on schedule, and we enjoy watching the boat negotiate the harbour and clearing the 19th century granite fortifications protecting the bay of Cherbourg.  It's not a particularly busy sailing tonight, the  channel is smooth and unruffled, and the crossing is without incident.  We while away the 4 hours or so reading magazines, eating snacks & keeping hydrated with fruit juice.  

Poole Harbour Ferry Terminal

We arrive in Poole Harbour, and stay on top deck until we are docked, knowing that it will take no time at all to disembark and clear the harbour.  Both of us need to get some additional layers on, so we stop in Poole outside a shopping complex, to layer up for a night ride home.  Heated grips set to nuclear blast please!

After an incident free ride from Dorset, I bid Jez farewell on the outskirts of Taunton where he lives, and clatter safely home 10 minutes later on the stroke of midnight.  I know we will both sleep well tonight.

(276 miles ridden today, 68 on a Ferry)

Distances

Total mileage is 1034 miles ridden, 68 on a ferry, giving a total of 1102 miles from Barcelona.  

The round-trip total mileage is 2,787 of which 1562 were ridden, and 1,225 were on ferries.