From 40 to 4 degrees!!!

Well, that's certainly what it felt like this morning! Very cold and very wet.

Luckily, having cycled in the mountains for many years, I was well prepared. On went the long-sleeved thermal, a t-shirt on top, my cycling cardi and Goretex, a buff around my neck, a buff over my ears, a cap, Rainlegs, 2 pairs of socks, waterproof overshoes, liner gloves and my Winter gloves. I resembled an eskimo! But so did everyone else, all of whom just laughed and shrugged "it's the mountains" they kept on saying.

The last thing you need when so cold is to descend. And this morning, that's what I did for 18 miles. Descend, descend, descend. I was re-tracing my steps back to Barcelonnette and Lauzet-Ubaye. No wonder I'd found it a real slog to Jausiers 2 days ago - 18 miles of climbing having already climbed 3 cols earlier in the day!

I'd already decided I'd be having a cuppa in Barcelonnette. I found a Salon de The, perfect! I opened the menu of teas.

Kama Sutra tea. Hmmm. A little unusual. Ok, moving on......

The des Amoureux..... I'm not brilliant at French but that seemed to suggest lovers tea. What sort of cafe was this?!

Slightly unnerved, I tentatively questioned whether they had any "normal" black tea. Ceylon Madame? Yes! Yes please. Normal Ceylon black tea with cold milk. Thank you. Phew!

I had a cuppa in Lauzet-Ubaye as well knowing the climbing started after that and also wanting to escape the rain for a bit. What a lively, buzzing place that cafe was!

The climb was so welcome and I soon started to warm up. You can see the lovely views I had in my photo today!!

Gosh, my back tyre felt a bit squishy. I looked down. Oh no! PUNCTURE!!! Back wheel and in the pouring rain. I laughed! And then thought ooooo, I could use my new mini track pump!

I rarely get to mend my own punctures. Usually the most competent at fixing mechanicals on club runs (i.e. everyone but me) do the work to get the group moving quickly again. This would be interesting!

Actually, I did just fine. There was a big pin lodged in the tyre which I ended up removing with my teeth after various other implements failed. The tyre was sooooo much easier to get back on than my road bike. And my new mini track pump is AWESOME! I could get the tyre back to full pressure again no problem.

Congratulating myself on being utterly brilliant, I then struggled to get the wheel back in. Somewhere along the line I somehow also removed one of the back brake blocks. Weird. When I put that back in, the wheel wouldn't go round at all. Oh.

Sighing and knowing I'd have to take the wheel out again, which is hard work with such a heavy bike, I did what any normal person would do. I sat back and ate my pain aux raisins. I was being somewhat greedy having already scoffed a pain au chocolat earlier. And that was after a nice brekkie. The cold and rain make me hungry.

And then it came to me! A vision of what would happen next! There, right before me, were 2 couples on tandems!! Fab! The guys jumped off, slotted the wheel straight back in (it's easier with 2+ people - honest!) And then we were all back on the road. Hurrah!

For lunch, I managed to find a picnic bench mostly under a tree so that making my cheese and tomato baguette wasn't too soggy an affair. I sat on a plastic bag, I'm not sure why as I was already very wet. My fingers were so wrinkled!

Gradually the weather improved as the afternoon went on and I gradually de-layered to just my t-shirt and gilet again. It's probably back at about 20 degrees although I am at a much lower altitude tonight.

Given a rest day is unlikely, I was vaguely considering staying in a hotel tonight to get everything dried out. I looked at my computer and was really surprised to see I'd already done over 50 miles today. And as I realised that, I saw a great big hotel on my right hand side. STOP!!

Did they have any vacancies? Yes madame. Could they take my bike? Yes madame. That's all I needed to know. Book me in please!

So I'm typing this from my very own bedroom with en-suite and I now feel and smell nice and clean again. I'm surprised they let me in, I was absolutely covered in oil and grime. Bless them.

I cannot wait to sprawl out in my big double bed tonight rather than being confined in my (otherwise very lovely and snuggly) sleeping bag. I have 3 plug sockets to choose from to charge my phone! Such luxuries! No tea and coffee making facilities though, which is normal in France.

And then it's onwards and upwards for the next 2 days towards Bourg d'Arud to meet Ellie and her family and the Howcrofts.

Ade, a big thank you for the lovely photo of everyone at the Cav today. Loved it! I still feel a part of everything :-))

Tony, your text hasn't come through properly - something about eating too many crispy snacks. Did someone have a hangover post-poker last night?! Hope everyone enjoyed it :-))

Happy pedalling tomorrow everyone and happy Sunday for "normal" people who do "normal" things, whatever they may be :-))

Andi xxx

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