On the way to Santiago. Day 25, July 2, Morlaás – Bedous, 84 km (total 2190), 978 altimeters, 29 degrees, clear, NW2
High above the terrace of our gite two paragliders hang in the village of Bedous. They cross the valley of the river Gave d’Aspe and then return. You don’t hear them. The only sounds are the rustling of the wind in the trees, the calling of red kites and the singing of the birds in the forest. We are in the Pyrenees!
Venom is in the tail
We are not much more than 400 meters here, but the mountain peaks around reach above the tree line. Saturday afternoon we started the ascent of the Col de Somport, a pass of 1640 meters high. The climb starts in Oloron-Sainte-Marie and is 56 kilometers long – by far the longest of our entire camino. We’ve had the first 25 kilometers, but the next 31 are much harder, and the devil is in the tail. At the highest point, on top of the col, just over the Spanish border, Henk and I say goodbye to Sjon on Sunday, who is going back to the Netherlands. A dizzying descent awaits him, a slightly shorter one for us, to the valley of the Rio Aragon. And all three of us are looking forward to saying goodbye. Because it’s not nothing. For 25 days we have been sharing joys and sorrows, food and drink, and even the bedroom. And don’t forget more than 2000 kilometers by bike.
But we are not there yet. We have to work on Sunday. We find it exciting, this enormous col, which is mainly known among pilgrims, and is rarely if ever included in the Tour de France route. Still, the Somport is higher than Tour classics like the Peyresourde and the Aspin, and only slightly lower than the legendary Aubisque, not far from here.
Giant Peace Dove
From the air, French television will also show the surroundings of the Gave d’Aspe. In two and a half weeks, the Tour caravan will pass through this area. Close by, we saw a slope high on the mountainside on which the grass has already been mowed in the shape of a huge peace dove.
It must have been the farmers. French farmers have a reputation to uphold when it comes to demonstrating, campaigning and attracting attention. Apparently they currently have less reason to be angry than the Dutch. Of course we have little view of it from the bike. But in this area the farms are modest, and the tractors old. It looks pleasant.
However, we also encountered a small roadblock this morning. In the village of Lescar, near the large city of Pau, two farmers close the road so they can cross the road with their cows. Motorists and cyclists were resigned to it. It took a few minutes, then we could continue. The farmers kindly thanked us for our patience.