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Bike Europe Blog
Day 15 - Malataverne to Aimargues
By MatthewYes it did rain in the night. Lots. All the stuff we'd left out overnight got soaked, including Daniels book that I'd been borrowing (oops), all the chairs and quite a bit of food. We'd also left the tent doors open, for ventilation purposes... this would have been disasterous if it hadn't been for John and Daniels light sleeping and quick reactions to the sound of rain drops on canvas. They quickly had everything shut and dry.
Alarms went off at 6 and for once everyone was up and walking within 10 minutes or so. The other three went off for quick showers, while I took advantage of the hot porridge. While I was eating, they traipsed back reporting that the showers were cold and that there was no lighting there. Just a quick shower for me then...
We left at a respectable 7:30 and as soon as we left the campsite, we were faced with a mountain. Climbing for long distances at the start of a ride is not an ideal situation. Within a hundred yards, my quads were feeling very tight and by the top, I could barely move the pedals (even in first gear). By this time we all felt the need to stop and stretch.
After our stretch, the long descent down the mountainside provided a good warm up for the ride ahead, and my legs began to feel much more normal. The next few miles were in the middle of a large valley, so it was rolling hills at the worst. The wind had also died down significantly since the previous day, so we were able to fly along at our usual fast pace. Riding though the valley, we passed huge vineyards with strange irrigation gutters on the side of the road.
We headed straight though the town at the bottom of the valley at speed, but we were quickly slowed by the 3 mile climb on the other side. Atop this hill (yes, hill... I'm writing this having riden some of the pyrenees - THOSE are mountains!!!) were some of the more spectacular views of the ride so far. We could see down the valley and trace the route we had taken along the vineyards. The descent down this was similar to the ascent - long and circuitous. Cars struggled around corners that we could easily have taken at speed, so we were unfortunatly slowed down the hill.
The next valley contained the rather charmingly named town of Orange. Riding towards it, we could clearly see some Mont Blanc-esque mountains to the west of us. I was glad we'd chosen to ride through the valley! On the far side of Orange, John caught us up and we found a lay-by to stop in. We ended up next to the local football stadium, which smelt as though it doubled for the local sewage works.
The day continued to heat up and we began to get into sandier, more Spain-like parts of the country. Another huge climb left us feeling completely knackered at the top, but the keen eyed Daniel spotted the mountain that we'd seen in the west earlier, only now the top was the only visible part as the rest was covered in cloud (photos coming soon).
Johns book was again the source of our campsite, so we knew the location before John had arrived. Knowing that John was in a supermarket a few miles back and that Aimargues was less that 30km away, we decided to try and beat John there. It was a close run thing - we were in the main town of Aimargues, looking at a map, while he was still on the motorway, heading south. The map in the town centre showed camp Bellevue, our destination, about 2 miles away on the other side of the main road that John was on. As we approached the roundabout about 100 yards from the site, we recieved the dreaded 'I've reached the campsite' call from John. We'll beat him one day...
We arrived to find John in the reception ordering our pitch for the night. The campsite was a very busy place with a pool, cheap wifi and plently of young ladies for us (Kevin especially) to admire. The site of 4 young men in lycra, stretching on small blue mats became quite a spectacle for the local campers and we got some strange looks from passing families. The showers had hot water (a nice change) and were very clean by camsite standards. This was mainly because we used the womens though (we genuinely didn't know! Well I didn't at least...).
The café provided us with an internet connection, a good viewpoint of the pool (well, the girls to be honest) and free electricity which we took full advantage of - kevin sat writing his blog entry surrounded by thousands of pounds worth of electrical equipment. We would have run up their electricity bill significanly if they hadn't had the sense to organise a very loud evening of bingo right in our way! We moved away fairly quickly.
Dinner was Johns ever-popular Pasta Chorizo dish which, as usual, was devoured instantly. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, chasing the resident chicken and praparing for a long day tomorrow. Some drunken men were shouting in the showers, which we replied to and ended up having a very loud, multi-lingual conversation through the toilet block walls. We have to entertain ourselves somehow...
Bed was a comparetively quiet affair and we were all off to sleep well before 10.
Matthew
Distance: 82.29 miles
Average Speed: 16.9
Time: 4:50:18
Weather: Hot in the Morning, Hotter in the afternoon
Alarms went off at 6 and for once everyone was up and walking within 10 minutes or so. The other three went off for quick showers, while I took advantage of the hot porridge. While I was eating, they traipsed back reporting that the showers were cold and that there was no lighting there. Just a quick shower for me then...
We left at a respectable 7:30 and as soon as we left the campsite, we were faced with a mountain. Climbing for long distances at the start of a ride is not an ideal situation. Within a hundred yards, my quads were feeling very tight and by the top, I could barely move the pedals (even in first gear). By this time we all felt the need to stop and stretch.
After our stretch, the long descent down the mountainside provided a good warm up for the ride ahead, and my legs began to feel much more normal. The next few miles were in the middle of a large valley, so it was rolling hills at the worst. The wind had also died down significantly since the previous day, so we were able to fly along at our usual fast pace. Riding though the valley, we passed huge vineyards with strange irrigation gutters on the side of the road.
We headed straight though the town at the bottom of the valley at speed, but we were quickly slowed by the 3 mile climb on the other side. Atop this hill (yes, hill... I'm writing this having riden some of the pyrenees - THOSE are mountains!!!) were some of the more spectacular views of the ride so far. We could see down the valley and trace the route we had taken along the vineyards. The descent down this was similar to the ascent - long and circuitous. Cars struggled around corners that we could easily have taken at speed, so we were unfortunatly slowed down the hill.
The next valley contained the rather charmingly named town of Orange. Riding towards it, we could clearly see some Mont Blanc-esque mountains to the west of us. I was glad we'd chosen to ride through the valley! On the far side of Orange, John caught us up and we found a lay-by to stop in. We ended up next to the local football stadium, which smelt as though it doubled for the local sewage works.
The day continued to heat up and we began to get into sandier, more Spain-like parts of the country. Another huge climb left us feeling completely knackered at the top, but the keen eyed Daniel spotted the mountain that we'd seen in the west earlier, only now the top was the only visible part as the rest was covered in cloud (photos coming soon).
Johns book was again the source of our campsite, so we knew the location before John had arrived. Knowing that John was in a supermarket a few miles back and that Aimargues was less that 30km away, we decided to try and beat John there. It was a close run thing - we were in the main town of Aimargues, looking at a map, while he was still on the motorway, heading south. The map in the town centre showed camp Bellevue, our destination, about 2 miles away on the other side of the main road that John was on. As we approached the roundabout about 100 yards from the site, we recieved the dreaded 'I've reached the campsite' call from John. We'll beat him one day...
We arrived to find John in the reception ordering our pitch for the night. The campsite was a very busy place with a pool, cheap wifi and plently of young ladies for us (Kevin especially) to admire. The site of 4 young men in lycra, stretching on small blue mats became quite a spectacle for the local campers and we got some strange looks from passing families. The showers had hot water (a nice change) and were very clean by camsite standards. This was mainly because we used the womens though (we genuinely didn't know! Well I didn't at least...).
The café provided us with an internet connection, a good viewpoint of the pool (well, the girls to be honest) and free electricity which we took full advantage of - kevin sat writing his blog entry surrounded by thousands of pounds worth of electrical equipment. We would have run up their electricity bill significanly if they hadn't had the sense to organise a very loud evening of bingo right in our way! We moved away fairly quickly.
Dinner was Johns ever-popular Pasta Chorizo dish which, as usual, was devoured instantly. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, chasing the resident chicken and praparing for a long day tomorrow. Some drunken men were shouting in the showers, which we replied to and ended up having a very loud, multi-lingual conversation through the toilet block walls. We have to entertain ourselves somehow...
Bed was a comparetively quiet affair and we were all off to sleep well before 10.
Matthew
Distance: 82.29 miles
Average Speed: 16.9
Time: 4:50:18
Weather: Hot in the Morning, Hotter in the afternoon
