events

9.48am and this was the start of the descent down to Illes sur Tet. I met a couple of racing types on the way down and decided to brake so as not to flash past them since, a) I knew they'd punish me on the inevitable uphill afterwards and b) because the curves were making it a bit tricky to pass comfortably.

10.02am I probably should have stopped and explored, it looked a nice town, next to a river with bridges and old buildings, but I flashed on through. Nice flower display though, don't you think?

15.02am and this was my first glimpse of the sea, in spite of having been so close to it a few day's earlier. I'd passed a camp site at one point with views out to the sea but it would have meant a longer run in before the start of the climb over the Pyrenees and I wanted to begin tomorrow a bit closer to them.I thought I'd stop at Thuirs but there were no hotels and no campsites so I pressed on. I'd spent some time riding about trying to find somewhere to stay but in the end only found a nice place for lunch.Riding out of town, which was much larger than I'd thought, took ages, past suberbs with expensive looking villas and no shade from the afternoon sun. Eventually I came to a group of trees with a bench and two cyclists already resting there.They turned out to be a dutch couple who had already cycled from Malaga and where now following the same Benjaminse route I was doing but the other way around. They had nice bikes with Rohloff hubs - they let me have a try but it was too precarious up so high with four panniers so I got off without even changing gear! I let them sit on my bike which they thought more than comfy. Another set of converts perhaps.It was very hot and I ran out of water but spotted two little lads playing in their back yard and they dashed off to fill my water bidon for me. Then the smaller one reappeared, not saying a word, and gave me a nectarine! Bless.