10th and 11th of September - Au Revoir France and Hola Spain

Sorry about my lack of posts - we've had a busy few days with not much internet.

10th of September - We had a plan to stay with the lovely Peggy and Mike (friends from St Mawes),  but woke up with a fair amount of distance and mountains inbetween us and them. We left very early and got some Pyrenees under our belts pretty quickly. Although our bikes are very heavy, they've got lovely low gears so it's actually quite nice going uphill. By lunchtime we were well on track to get there. After lunch we decided we'd take the more scenic route up the mountain - on advice of a friend we made in a café who said it was "nothing more than 5%". We set off determinedly up a road which started with a sign, and then the signs trailed off... I questioned Mum who claimed that it was definitely up this road. We started climbing and it was around 20% I reckon.. I was feeling v angry with the man but then my anger was directed towards Mum - this clearly wasn't the right way. At this point it had turned into a gravel track but I had no choice except to follow - she was too far ahead. Finally the track trailed off and we had to admit defeat, and go straight back down. This was made worse by the fact it was the middle of the day and baking hot. Mum was very sorry and agreed to blow up my thermorest for 3 days in a row! This is the kind of currency we deal in these days. Finally we got to Peggy and Mike's lovely house and it was like an oasis in a desert. For me it was the first time sleeping in a bed for over a month (bunks on a boat don't count) and it was heavenly. We had showers and ate delicious food. The company was great as well. It was a real wrench leaving in the morning.

11th of September - We were determined that this would be our last day in France (Ps I absolutely ADORE France and didn't want to leave in any way), and decided to take the "flat" coast raod to Spain. It turns out this was not flat at all! And we kept getting lost and ending up on a slip road to the motorway, and having to turn around. It was stunning though. Towards the end of the day we were both getting very tired, it was getting dark, and we still had one MASSIVE hill to get over before the campsite (no chance of wild camping on essentially cliffs). Then like a mirage there was a tunnel!! We arrived at a lovely campsite and realised neither of us had remembered to learn Spanish. Luckily they all spoke flawless english and we got a lovely pitch, close enough to the beach for a morning swim. Much warmer than Tavern beach at 7:20.