Homage to Catalonia!

In his book Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell said "I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards." Obviously he wasn't riding a motorbike through the Pyrenees, because both were great!

An early start, well for us, left about 9.30, but got up about 7, the sun wasn't over the mountains yet and no sign of the swifts of yesterday.

We headed into Spain, narrowly avoiding an international incident when we missed the Stop sign at the Spanish customs - "Don't you have those in England?" The cheeky policeman asked... A €50 note and everyone was happy - NOT.

It's Donna's birthday today, so on a fag stop we made her an impromptu card :)

Riding through the Pyrenees was fascinating - views at every turn, and there were lots of those - and a lot cooler than in the valleys, for which we were grateful. Still very arid though.

Lunch in Seira, nice people, it seems

they have concerts and dances here sometimes - maybe we should come back! Good ham and cheese rolls too.

Made it into the French side, after some exhilarating and occasionally butt-clenching moments (log truck anyone? Would you like Land Rover with that head-on, sir?!), where things were a lot greener, possibly because it was already raining and coming on for more, with dark clouds and a huge temperature drop. The contrast with Spain was very striking, including even more farm animals wandering in the road... Reached the Hotel L'Aygualade as it started to thunder, so missed the monster storm - hurray. Excellent gaff with huge garage and biker owner, who pissed James off by dissing his bike in favour of Pip's - no pleasing some people! Food was pretty nice though.

Goodnight, sleep tight, here again tomorrow night, so local adventure to be had!