Keep right on to the end of the road......(literally)

It is difficult to train for a 17 mile climb of 4,000ft in Bristol, especially in temperatures of 30 degrees! However the Humes are never deterred by minor details like this, so after waving off our new fellow guests (Dutch riders ticking Alpe d'Huez off their bucket list) we set off straight up the back road from the B&B for 17 miles - so no navigation issues. The road is only maintained to about 1,500ft in winter and even before that there was a chunk of road that had broken off and plunged into the valley below. The road was down to single track with a piece of string across the gap, which was unlikely to stop anything. Concentrates the mind........

The worst of the climb was in the first 10 miles, after which it became a steady drag through the most fabulous mountain scenery, with no permanent residents in the last 7 miles to La Berarde, where the road simply stops (although the guide book says there is only a shepherd's hut at La Berarde there were three restaurants and a shop open in the summer to cater for the cyclists!). The 2 big oddities of the day were a field full of donkeys, which looked remarkably like the donkeys wandering through the VoD yesterday - although in the interests of fairness I am not exactly an expert in donkey recognition. The other was the motorcycle which pulled up beside us. Big bloke driving and sour faced woman riding pillion, with a small dog in a fabric shopping bag tucked under her arm!!! She got off and let the dog out for a sniff, the stuffed in back in the bag and they drove off.

This evening we were eating in the town as our hosts were having a night off cooking. We arrived to find an absolutely mahoosive car boot sale under way, 2 ginormous bouncy castles and tat further than the eye could see. Be still my beating heart.........

Photos of a fabulous ride