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I think this is looking east, just before Estagel.  It's a really pretty area, I must come back to explore.

Unfortunately, once I got to Estagel, I found there was no campsite after all and the closest was in Latour de France.  I had had a vague plan to continue south from Estagel to Corneilla-la-Rivière and then Thuir and miss out Ille-sur-Têt but I was told the road was poor and very hilly.  So, I decided to go the way I'd done two years ago and besides, Latour de France wasn't too far away, 5km at most.

3.40pm and I'm there.  Just need to get checked in, get the tent up and do my washing.  I'm looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the sun.

The guardian was very friendly, also called Robert it turned out.  Once I'd done my chores I went and had a beer and chatted to him for a while.  Actually I made a brief aquaintance with someone else too, mouse over this photo to see who.

Sun, 24th July. Latour to Maureillas las Illas, 61km, avg 12.7km/hr, max 49.8km/hr

It was very windy in the night and a bit cool when I started, though it was a very pretty start.  Pretty but also steepish for about 10km which, with the wind too, meant just settling in to a steady rhythm and not expecting to go very quickly.  Most of the time I was only climbing at 6 or 7km/hr, fast for me in fact.

It was good though, early morning light, flowers, the smell of thyme, swallows and swifts swooping around me.  They alway's remind me of dolphin following boats.

In fact, if you're interested, here's a video I took whist on the bike doing this climb.  Visually it's not that interesting and you'll need sound to hear me talking, and I'm just talking about cycling and the pleasure of going slowly, which the climb is forcing me to do.  By the way the video can take a time to load, so don't be surprised by the blank black square you'll see at first.