France Spain (Pyrenees)

23May – 24May 2025

Garrabit – Rocamadour – Biarritz

Today we went to the Dordogne valley via the Avergne volcanoes and across the Pas de Payrel where we stopped at the edge of the volcano sipping a coffee and regardons nous the caldera. Hydro also prefers the name Castle-ee for the old towns we pass through rather than ruins.

Best day riding so far, the roads were empty well maintained and all the scenery spectacular with the piece d’resistance our destination at Rockamadour where our bikes had one of the best views in the world.

We went tout suite to the old town. Boxy did the walk under duress because he was worried we would talk about him if he didn’t come but we reassured him we would talk about him if he was there as well so he could have stayed at the hotel.

Amazing town and equally amazing the church totally rebuilt the 11th century town in the 19th century.

Dinner was on the terrace so we could get the sunset money shot!

Spectacular morning in Rocamadour, blue sky, hot air balloons and croissants!

Hydro now calculates time to destination by 1) time in the saddle 2) comfort breaks and 3) time dicking around next to the saddle. Russ doing his hair, Boxy methodically going though his check list, Hydro syncing his 3 go pros, intercom and phone and Mike just doing what Mike does. So today riding time was 5 hours in the saddle 20 mins dicking around next to the saddle and a new category “Panic at the Péage” where the toll gates won’t open despite the best fox effort. That caused a 10 minute delay today even with Boxy trying to reason with the machine.

Trip today is 375kms through the Dordogne, the Landes Forrest and into the Basque Country. Half way through Hydro had a bug attack his ear. All we saw was him banging his helmet and a bizarre scream through the comms. There was an emergency stop and Hydro half hysterical asked Russ to poor water in his ear, and when said water was delivered there was a WTF from our bug man, “I didn’t mean the whole bottle”.

We settled at Biarritz as our home for the night. The ride was cruisy and enjoyable and a fine Basque dinner at Bar du Marche.