Three big ‘Cols’ today! I’m sure that Guy thinks he’s doing the Tour de France even though his bike has been sulking in the boot for the last two weeks. 😂
The sun was shining as we came up to the Col de Peyresourde at 1563 metres. The roads are generally good and not too hair- raising …or it may be that I’ve become numb to it!
More zigzagging, and then we were up on the Aspin where there was good parking for lunch. I noticed a track at the back of us and looked it up on the AllTrails app .. it was a two hour easy hike to the Plo del Naou, so we did it. Panoramic is definitely the word – at times the stunning views were 360 degrees all around us. The Pic du Midi stood high above the others but as we walked along the ridge (nice wide path 😉) it felt like you could see every single snow capped mountain in the Pyrenees.
Late afternoon, we started our ascent of the Tourmalet…can’t believe Callum and Guy cycled up and down here a few years ago. As we got towards the ugly La Mongie ski resort there was suddenly more and more snow. The road was half barriered with a sign saying it was blocked further up. I asked a lady walking past and she said ‘there had been a huge fall of snow further on but you could still go to the top and it’s very pretty.’ We carried on towards the car park when I heard a boom in the distance and an official looking man came to tell us to go back down as they were blowing up the snow with TNT!!!!
A quick U turn and back down the road faster than we came up! Parked safely at the bottom now in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan. My head is still spinning 😵💫