3 Cols & a Giant Pizza

Firstly, VERY HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY TO MY GORGEOUS SIS!! She sounds to be having a fabulous day, very well deserved :-))

And secondly, WHAT an extraordinary day! And after that giant pizza in the photo, which was very well-earned by the way, I am now extraordinarily full!

The day dawned beautifully. The beauty of camping in the Alps is mad hot temperatures when you go to sleep and then gradually throughout the night, the air gets fresher and cooler and I pull my sleeping bag further and further around me until finally I'm completely buried in it by dawn with not an inch of skin showing. It can feel cold but apparently it hasn't gone below 19 degrees at night yet! This is helping me to sleep incredibly well.

The sun was coming up from behind the mountains as I set off this morning, knowing I was in for a pretty tough day distance-wise and climbing-wise. I was in the right mind-set with my head in full-blown tortoise mode. It worked!

I climbed 3 cols today - Col du Labouret (1240 metres / 4068 feet); Col de Maure (1346 metres/ 4416 feet) and Col St Jean (1332 metres / 4370 feet) all on my fully laden tourer which I'm guessing weighs more than me. The gradients were kind but it helped being in the right head space. And the codeine helped my aching back and was goooooood........!! I don't think I'd pass a Tour de France drugs test though!

The scenery I can only describe as jaw-dropping. I sometimes didn't know in which direction to look. It was incredible. Photos would have done the landscape no justice.

I was really excited about cycling to Barcelonnette today. We'd cycled through this town with Bike Adventures back in 2011. After the climbs this morning, I thought I'd broken the back of today and that the final 20km into Barcelonnette would be quite easy. WRONG!!

These next 20km became quite gruelling on very busy roads, choking on traffic fumes and wondering if cars and lorries were actually attempting to hit my panniers as they screamed past at ridiculous speeds. I was still climbing and couldn't even reach 7mph to get this section over and done with more quickly. It shows how vital being psychologically prepared is. I just thought this last bit would be easy but it was so tough and quite horrible really. My nerves were pretty much shot to pieces.

Barcelonnette was just too busy, heaving with cars, people and fumes. 2 of the campsites now only took motor homes and caravans, not tents (then don't call yourself a b****y campsite!) And in the end I just couldn't wait to leave. I stopped at a fruit and veg stall and scoffed the juiciest watermelon I've ever had whilst contemplating what to do next.

I headed for Jausiers 5 miles away, a village we stayed in with Bike Adventures back in 2011.

Jausiers is a very sweet village and pretty much at the base of Col de la Bonette, my next climb. In 2011, the weather in the Alps was truly atrocious with some of the cols closed due to heavy snow. Yes, it was during the Summer! I burst out laughing therefore as I felt a few spits and spots of rain as entered Jausiers this evening. Luckily it hasn't amounted to anything yet. And, although the temperature is lower at this altitude (1230m - nearly the same height as Ben Nevis), it is still 29 degrees :-)

Jausiers is still very lively but much quieter than Barcelonnette. I'm very happy here and nicely relaxed now. The wine has no doubt helped :-))

This pizzeria I'm blogging from is amazing not just for the giant quantities of food (and by the way, there were 2 fried eggs on my pizza that you can't see in the photo to make it even more filling) but also because they have a plug socket alongside every table! They are clearly used to people coming in needing to charge their phones! So my phone is fully charged once again, hallelujah :-)

It's time for me to waddle out of here. I'm not sure if my stomach will tip me over. I feel like a weeble if anyone remembers those?!

A big thank you as always to all of you for your blog comments, emails and texts - and now tweets, thanks Christine! They make a big and positive difference to me every day - THANK YOU!!

Lots of love
A super-tired, super-happy Andi xxx

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