To my great surprise the snow began to fall in Aire-sur-l`Adour so as I left I bought a cheap fleece. I had expected a day or two of milder weather, but it wasn’t to be. I had my sights set on Maslacq  but as I arrived in Arzacq-Arrazguet my engine was failing, so I got myself to the Gite. They had a prehistoric PC connected to a HomePlug network, so I borrowed the adapter and network cable and had an excellent couple of “connected days” from my room. From there Navarrenx wasn’t such an arduous day and I felt I had Saint Jean Pied De Port in my grasp,however the weather had other ideas.

I had a good sleep in Navarrenx and got my clothes washed. I left the next morning with the expectation of reaching Saint Jean Pied De Port. The rain wasn’t that heavy the next morning, but it didn’t stop and only gained intensity as the day progressed, so by the time I reached Mauleon-Licharre I felt as though I had been in the shower for two hours.

I met this chick in a small town just before Navarrenx and could  not resist including her.

I really wasn’t prepared for what was ahead of me, Col d`Osquich meant nothing to me, it was only 400m and I basically ignored it. However by the time I had reached Ordinarp I had an idea of what was coming. The wind was gusting from either the south or from the west and thankfully very few people were abroad and there were few cars as the gusts were blowing me all over the road.

Somewhere during my slow ascent to the summit I stopped at a junction for a drink. The trees were practising their complete wind/ tree sound effect repertoire and the sign post beside me was thrumming like a recently struck  over-tight guitar string. As I drank and took a breather, the rain in concert with the wind and trees exercised an effects repertoire that the BBC would be proud of, it was at this point that I decided that even though Id never been in a Monsoon today qualified.

Despite raining heavily, the wind added layers of texture to the rain pattern like animated graphics driven by music, waves or showers of rain would pass across the layer of water already on the road, not  unlike someone passing a shower-head over an already filled bath.

It was pretty late by the time I had reached Larceveau and as there was a Gite there I decided to cycle the last 20km in the morning. There wasn’t any public phone and when I asked in the Pharmacy, the woman let me  use her phone.  I only got the answering machine and her good deed didn’t go unpunished as she then had to spend five minutes mopping up the water that gravity had forced off me and my clothing onto her floor.

Heading out the door I asked a customer if she was from the town and if she knew where the Gite was. “Its my Gite” she said “and its full”. Full I asked, at this time of year? She mumbled something  and I told her in English that I was scunnered with places advertising themselves as open all year. I don’t know if she understood the words, but she looked embarrassed enough by my tone., I know I’m such a lovely boy.

Anyway I went to the Hotel down the road and it too was closed, after explaining my predicament, I was given a staff/ emergency room and was delighted. Not much longer after I was sitting in the seat/ bath thing filed it with cold water, I offset the plug slowly brought my temperature up, after three fills I was on warmish water and ready for a dry chapter to end my very wet day.

The next morning the weather had cleared again, the contrast between the two days quite staggering and I took these shots.

Saint Jean Pied De Port was an easy and quick cycle and I arrived at the Municipal Gite long before lunch. After lunch I headed to the Post Office to collect all my post that had been waiting for me since I had been stuck in the Massif Central.

That done, I spent a couple of nights at the Gite made some minor but significant changes to the bike and caught a cold.

This is the Basque locals doing their thang:

By the third night at the Gite I was quite ill and moved next door, but it was no place to get over the cold and finally ended up staying at Tim`s B&B for two weeks. Tim is quite a character and I enjoyed listening to his stories. We had dinner a couple of times, he did the cooking  and I brought the wine, as I had found a reasonably good Madiran at the supermarket we had that twice.

There is a Basque bar where I would have eaten lunch and dinner every night if I could have afforded it. This is a Mutton stew that’s simply marvelous.

Tim’s place was well above budget but I had a good bed, a warm room and wifi. I did a lot of sleeping and after a week was feeling significantly better, the rest and some medicine the Pharmacist gave me helped.