Lourdes

Shortly after I pitched my tent last night an almighty thunders storm rolled in. The rain pounded noisily against the fabric of the tent, but fortunately this irritating sound was largely drowned out by the thunder claps.

Giving due consideration to my dwindling supply of dry clothing I had no recourse but to remain in my tent until the worst of it had passed, which took until late morning. By the time I had broken camp and completed various bits of pre-col maintainance it was early afternoon before I left the camp site, in a nasty drizzle. I completed the remaining 10Km to Lourdes fairly quickly, although I was still plagued by my slow puncture.

During the rain, a huge number of slugs crawled into my tent, my kit and places I thought impenetrable.

Spent a few hours looking about Lourdes; it was very beautiful (despite the rain), but it bustled with Tourists in a quite unnatural fashion. Also bikes are not permitted in the grounds of the church there, so I was unable to complete Mark's directive to sprinkle holy-water on it.

I chatted with an Irish family (possibly an Irish traveller family?) for a while whilst I changed the inner tube in an effort to rid my self of the slow leak in my front tyre. Their seven year-old was very precocious, and asked many insightful questions about my trip so far, gear and plans.Read more